For all those who sing in the dark

Some days the words aren’t there. Days when it’s a struggle to mesh thoughts with truth. Days when the light shines dimly.

Fear can clutch at the heart and disappointment can rise and it becomes hard to push back the sadness. Our dusty frame is tired. Oh, the trembling weariness of our frame some days.

But we are held by the One who remembers.

A friend is recovering from brain surgery and his speech and movement have been slow to come back. When I wake in the night I pray for the frustrating ache of this weakness, for the fear and the dread that I know can sometimes come in the night. I pray for his inner man to be strong and to remember.

His wife told a beautiful story of a time after surgery when the words wouldn’t come. The therapist explained that sometimes you can sing before you can speak. So they sang “Amazing Grace” and the music brought his words along with flowing tears.

That song was full of grace, amazing grace, and the sound was sweet. Grace helped him find lost words. Grace taught him his night song.

A friend shared with me a lesson about birds. About how when a bird is in captive darkness, he sings his own song. The ability to sing is inside him and he must sing, but he sings uniquely. He sings differently than he would if he were in the light. He sings differently than the birds safe at home.

Our song in the night is not the same as the one we sing when all is well. It is different than the one we sing when we gather with our brothers and sisters for praise. Our darkness song is ours alone. It is unique and it is given by a faithful God and it is beautiful. It tells of a strong fortress, and it is full of truth.

Only we can sing this song. Only we can praise in this way. My song is different than yours. Marissa’s is different than each of ours.

We can sing when the darkness comes and the words won’t. We remember that the heart knows praise before it can speak of it. We remember that God is near and that He is doing a new thing. He is giving a beautiful praise song.

We are worshipping with this song. We are praising the God of darkness and light, the One who gives us breath. We are singing the beautiful night song that is ours alone to sing.

We are singing even before the words will come.

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.  Psalm 42:8

I will remember my song in the night. Psalm 77:6

But I will sing of your strength. I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. Psalm 59:16