mention of Job, we immediately
think of suffering. But if you think about it, he's
not alone. We could speak of Abraham, Jacob,
Joseph, Moses, David, who was hunted like a dog, running for
his life. We could think of the apostle
Paul persecuted, beaten, Rejected. We could think of the son of
God himself, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And
so it is with all God's children in every generation. Satan this
morning would single you out and say that you've got it worse
than anybody's ever had it. And there's no hope for you. But the Apostle Paul said in
Corinthians that there hath nothing come your way but such as is
common to man. Somebody's been there before.
And they felt just as low as you do about it. But hey, God's
God. This book of Job has so much
to say to our generation, a generation living in a time that's Marked
by, name it and claim it, religion. Back God in a corner, if you
will, and get what you want. A theology prevalent and the
all too often preaching of a prosperity gospel. God wants everybody to
be healthy and wealthy and wise, yeah. Well, strange and deep as this
book of Job is, I think it's safe to say from the beginning,
God really knew Job, but it's not till the end that Job really
knew God. And that's kind of the way it
is with us, isn't it? We delight in the fact that our God is sovereign. And from the beginning, he knows
all, sees all, rules over all and in all. He's our God, but
oh, to know him, to know him. I want to read three verses in
this chapter, Job 35, beginning with verse nine. By reason of
the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry.
They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. But none say
it. Where is God my maker? Who give
it songs in the night. Who teacheth us more than the
beast of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. The title of our message is Songs
in the Night. songs in the night. And we have
those four words in the question that's asked in verse 10. But
none sayeth, where is God my maker who giveth songs in the
night? These three verses address the
depravity of man in a definite way. Verse nine talks about the
vanity of complaining to everybody except the Lord. And verse 10, well, just stay with verse 9,
talks about the vanity of complaining to everybody except the Lord.
Are we guilty of that? Yeah. We all whine and moan and
complain, if not out loud, at least in our spirit. And if we do muster up a smile,
it's hypocritical a lot of times. This verse says we do this by
reason of the multitude of oppressions. Trouble on top of trouble continues
to mount up and beat us down. Notice he said, not a few, but
multitude of oppressions, one thing after another. And we often
say, I don't know how much more of this I can take. What else
can possibly go wrong? And we cry and complain about
it. Now, verse 10 charges us with the sin of doing our crying
and complaining to everyone except the one we should be crying to. Yeah, I just use the word sin,
the sin of crying to everyone, except who we should be crying
to. We fail to realize that our complaining to each other is
really complaining against the Lord who rules in everything. Verse 10, he's the only one can
do anything about it. No one. None sayeth, where is
God? He's the only one. Verse 11 magnifies this sin in
that we're not like the beast of the earth. We were created
in God's image and likeness. And this verse says that God
teaches us more than the beast of the earth. and maketh us wiser
than the fowls of heaven. Man has no excuse for not crying
to and pleading for the mercy of God in everything. And yet
in these verses, we have a clear declaration of depravity. Men don't do it. And the man
speaking in these verses is Job's fourth friend in this book. by
the name of Elihu, E-L-I-H-U, he's speaking. Job has heard
already from the first three, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar,
and now a younger man named Elihu, who would have kept silent, he
told us, had he heard anything worth hearing beforehand. But
in light of what he'd heard, it's on him now to speak. to speak up the truth. Everybody's crying about something,
but he said, none say it. Nobody is crying to the Lord. And in this central verse of
the three, we've read verse 10. He reminds us that in spite of
whatever we might be going through. If you've got more problems than
you can number and you do. If you've got more problems than
you can explain. And you have. If you've got problems that would
embarrass you to discuss and you probably do. He reminds us in spite of all
that. That God. giveth songs in the
night. I want to just give us four things
about this and I'll be brief. Before I would say that, before
I give you these four things, you that think you've got the
bull by the horns and think you've got it pretty well figured out
how you're going to get along in life. It's not going to work that way.
I can promise you that. So stay with me for just a few
minutes about these four things. Number one, I would note the
setting that's made mention of here in the night. God give it songs in the night. How very expressive that phrase
is even in our lives in the night. He's not referring to a. Joyful
time of jubilation and a joyful environment. Like being at a
party with bright lights and bright colors surrounded by friends,
music, and laughter. He's talking about in the night, in the stillness of the night,
in the darkness of the night, in the loneliness of the night. When it seems you don't have
a friend in the world. And you don't think you'll ever
have another. That's what he's talking about. Now, of course,
this symbol or thought of in the night, it's, it's not limited
to after sundown and before sunrise, not that night, but even in the
middle of the day, sometimes. Your heart, your spirit. can
be darker than midnight over the burdens you're carrying and
the heartaches you have. And this idea of having a song
and singing in the night, night of sorrow is not, it don't come
easy. Don't come easy. One writer said
it's about all we can do in our trouble to muster up a heartless
whistle, let alone a song. in the night, not just when it's
dark outside, but in the darkness
of our experience and our lack of vision because of the darkness. It is then that fears seem to
arise so abundantly and so real. You wake up. with a bad dream,
it so grips you. It is then in the night, our
adversary and his demons, the rulers of darkness of this world. He stirs up fear and unrest in
your heart in the night. That is when you can't see. And he would carry our minds
away from any thought. of a God who cares. So this is the setting that's
referred to here in the night. The second thing, this text is
not silent about the source of the songs. Nothing is said about
you and I trying to muster up a song. I won't tell you when
you get low, there's no mustering yet. It's just a matter of, I think
I'll lay here and die. And it's not just some ignoramus
saying to you, well, look on the bright side. So often there
is no bright side. Or somebody saying, well, it
could be worse. Who wants to hear that when it's already bad? It could be worse. No, the message
here is that the source of the songs this man is talking about
are not human, but divine. It is God himself who give us
songs in the night. He alone can in any situation. I promise you there will be situations
when he alone does maybe even when he alone cares. But he is
the caring and the able giver of songs. I'd remind us that
our God is omnipresent. That is, he's everywhere all
the time. He has not left you. When you
make a fool of yourself or when something bad happens to you,
the first thing the devil says is, well, I guess God's left
you and it's good enough for you. It's just what you deserve. And you agree with him, said,
yeah, I know it. But I promise you, God has not left you. He is present wherever you are
all the time. God is omniscient. He knows it all. Those details that you wouldn't
dare have anybody else to know, he knows it all. He hadn't missed anything. He
feels every pain you feel. He has seen all that's been done
to you. He's heard all that's been said
about you. He knows it all. Be it ever so
ugly, he knows all the truth. And then our God is omnipotent.
That means all powerful. Nothing is too big for him. He
can tear what He wants torn and then He can mend it again as
if it had never been torn. I'm simply saying He's God. He
really is. He really is. And He's the source of songs in your sorrow, a song
in your suffering, a song in your shame. He's the source of
a song in the night. And then the third thing I'm
hearing along the subject of God's songs. What are they about? His songs are given in order
for you and I to reflect on His goodness and His grace and His
mercy and His faithfulness. to encourage our feeble hearts. Christ is the subject, the one
who's been where you are, the one who's with you now, and the
one who won't leave you. We have the reminders of God's
goodness in the past. Did you know this morning Satan
would have you forget that God has ever done you good. He'll run you plumb into that
ditch. The song of God's past blessing
reminds us. I think about a King in the Old
Testament named Asa, King of Judah. He looked back on one
occasion and he prayed, Lord, It is nothing with Thee to help. You've done it before. You can
do it again, Lord, whether with many or with few. It don't matter
how many of the ears of us, how many of the ears of them. It
don't matter how weak I am and how many problems I have. It
is nothing with Thee to help. You can do it, Lord. And then
I think about a godly king, Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chronicles 20. He reminded God of past blessing. He said, O Lord God of our fathers,
art not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of the heathen? Are you not a lot bigger than
we act like you are, Lord? And in thine hand is there not
power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art
not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham
thy friend forever? He's given every spiritual blessing
to the spiritual seat of Abraham forever. Paul said he's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He's God. He's God. Surely, surely,
surely not one of us this morning could look back and say, God's
not been so good to me because he has. He has. The Word of God is full of past
mercies that we've all experienced. Our lives are full of past mercies
and present mercies. Then what about the future promises
of God? That's certainly a fit subject
for us all. I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee. He gives these songs to his people. in the night. I tell you, it
just don't come any more beautiful than this, Isaiah 43. But now
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by my name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. The Lord says, I'm going to take
care of you. Devil says, what if I cut your
head off? He can't cut my head off. My head's in heaven. Christ
is my head. We're the body. See? So we're
fixed as the people of God. Thou art mine. God says, I've
got this. Calm down and trust me. Some of you wonder this morning,
would God stick his neck out for a character like me? He does
it all the time. 24 seven. He's the subject of the songs
he gives. There's no point in him giving
you a song about you and how wonderful you are. You already
wrote that in any way and copyrighted it. Nobody's buying it, but it's
your song. His songs are about him. And
the old song is the same as the new song. Worthy is the lamb. Christ who died shed his blood. to wash away our sin. God's songs are about who He
is and what He's done. Think about a story in the book
of 2 Kings chapter 6. The prophet Elisha and his servant. And the Syrian army had come
in the night and they had encamped all around to capture Elisha. That's in the night, see. The
Bible's full of this in the night stuff. Your life is full of this
in the night stuff. And Elisha's servant got up early
in the morning, and he went outside and looked
around, and the Bible said, Behold, on every side he saw the enemy
encamped. and just waiting to pounce on
him. He saw with these eyes, physical
eyes, and that's our problem. That's about all we see is with
these eyes. We need some eyes right in here. And he went running in and he
woke up Elisha the prophet. He went all to pieces. And he used that unique word
of alarm. Alas! Alas, it's like throwing up your
hands, it's over. Alas, what shall we do? We've had it now. But Elisha, the prophet of God,
was not alarmed. And his calm statement to his
servant was this, there's more of us than there
is of them. How dumb was that? This servant
looks around and says, say what? There's just me and you. And there's many, many multitudes
of them. And Elisha prays and said, Lord,
open his eyes. Let him see what's really going
on. And the Lord opened his eyes
and he saw Heavenly hosts, armies between
them and the enemy. Looking at the unseen, God protecting, God providing. He gave Elisha rest. He gave his servant rest and
he'll give you rest. You say, but you don't know what
I'm facing. You don't know what I'm facing. Wouldn't do you no good
to know what I'm facing. Wouldn't do me no good to know
what you're facing. We can pray one for another, but neither
one of us big enough to do anything about our problem. If we were,
we would already got rid of them, right? But there's rest. There's peace
in the time of trouble. And then the fourth thing, the
satisfaction of the songs God gives. Now. By nature, these songs are not
requested. Turn on a radio, they say, we're
going to play this next song by request. No, these songs Elihu's
talking about is not requested. Matter of fact, he says here,
nobody's asking for it. None say it. Where's God to give
us a song? But God gives it. God giveth songs and it satisfies. He won't sell you a song. You
can't earn it. He won't loan you a song. He
don't loan them, but he giveth songs in the night. The book of Acts chapter 16,
Paul and Silas were in jail at Philippi. And they were given a song at
midnight. You ought to go read that story. Could they sing because they
didn't have any problems? No, they had problems. They sang because God, our maker,
giveth songs in the night. That's how I sing. That's how
you sing. And by the way, then this verse here, God, our maker, none sayeth Where is God our
maker? The word Hebrew word for maker
is not creator. People say, well, you're going
to meet your maker. That's your creator. It's not what he's talking about
here, but he's really rather talking about what God has made
out of his creation. Where is God our maker? Where
is God who brought us to this situation? He can give you a song in the
night. And instead of frantically crying, when am I getting out
of this? His song will cause you to cry,
Lord, what am I getting out of this? What is this school about? What is it you're doing? Teach
me, Lord. Guide me, Lord. Help me, Lord. The apostle Peter had a song
in the night. Acts chapter 12, he's locked up in prison. By
the way, all these fellows were doing was preaching the gospel
and they got locked up. That's very convicting for a
preacher. I think, well, you know, if I
was really doing anything much, maybe I'd get locked Here's Peter preaching the gospel
now, and he's locked up. Herod's gonna kill him. He's
gonna execute him. And Peter is not actually singing.
He's snoring. I mean, he's out of it. He's
sacked out. And if you read that story, Acts 12, the angel has
a hard time waking him up. He's sleeping like a log. He's facing Herod's sword. But
he's sleeping like a log. Reckon I could do that? Reckon
you could do that? God's given him, given Peter
a song in the night. And that song God has given him has taught him that Herod don't
really have a sword. It's God's sword. And he determines
who will use it and when they'll use it. See, we forget that our adversary,
the devil is God's devil. He works for God. And the load Christ's people,
God's people are carrying today. Christ our Lord says to us, let
it be my load. I'll carry it. I'll carry it
and let you rest. Peter said it. Casting all your
care upon him, for he careth for you. Christ said it, come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. He wasn't talking
about you laboring, punching the time clock somewhere. No.
All you that labor under the load of your sin and guilt and
unworthiness and corruption and wretchedness. All you that labor
and you're heavy laden, you're burdened down with it. Christ
said, come unto me, I can handle that. I can take the load and
give you rest. If I carry it, you won't have
to. How satisfying his song. It gives
peace that passeth understanding. You that have walked to the graveside
know what he's talking about. He gave grace, He gave peace,
He gave calmness to face what you thought you never could. And so it is in all your life
with relationships, with finances, with physical problems, His song
satisfies and He gives peace in the midst of the storm. I'd give you this in closing,
a little story I've told you before. A bunch of artists went
to an art convention somewhere. Nobody was there, but famous
artists throughout the world. And they had some little teaching
sessions and some little assignments. And one of the things was that
all these famous artists were instructed to paint a picture of peace. Now, how would you do that? How would
you paint a picture of peace? Well, some of them drew beautiful
mountains, lovely scenes. Some of them drew
grassy fields and a beautiful meadow. Some drew the valley,
all kind of beautiful pictures. And this one artist drew a picture
of the sea in the middle of a storm, and the waves were beating against
a rocky cliff, and the sky's dark, and the rain's pouring,
and it's really a fearful scene. And the instructor said to him,
You must have misunderstood the assignment. It was to draw a
picture of peace. This, this is not peaceful at
all. This is scary. Did you misunderstand the assignment? And the man said, I didn't misunderstand.
And he pointed the instructor to a little crevice up in the
rocks. And there was a tiny bird sitting
there on the nest. peaceful in the midst of the
storm. That was the picture of peace. If you but knew this morning
that we are hidden in the rock, the rock of ages, whose side
was riven on the cross. And guess what? All the storm,
all the waves, All the winds cannot move the rock, cannot
hurt the rock, and cannot hurt anybody in the rock. That's me. That's you. Peace. Elihu in this long discourse
in the book of Job. He said, boy, I've heard some
profound things out of you guys. But he said, there ain't none
of you asking where is God who giveth songs in the night. We can't change the night. How many times you had something
to do in the morning you were so very excited about and you
couldn't sleep a wink. You're up all night anticipating
what you're going to get to do come daylight. Can't change the night. You just
got to wait it out. Just wait it out. But I'm so
glad we have a God who give us songs in the night, in my night
and in your night. I may not be there. He'll be
there. Your closest friend may not be
there. He'll be there. He'll be there.