Singing in the Rain

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. 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 42:5-8 ESV). This week we have had rain forecast everyday in Middle Tennessee. While it has not rained every hour of each day so far, it has rained some each of those days. I always feel a little worse when it is raining. Some have suggested there is a physical correlation between the falling barometric pressure that accompanies a rainstorm and the increased joint pain I experience. Perhaps that is true; however, whatever the cause, I do know it does make me feel worse. I have also found that when it is an emotionally “rainy day,” it is harder to feel good. It’s always more difficult to maintain emotional balance when we are experienced difficult circumstances. Singing in the rain of life is no easy task. Anyone can sing when things are going well. But when the bottom drops out, when hardship hits and we keep singing, that is something unique to the Christian. In Acts 16, we read that Paul and Silas were arrested and taken to prison for preaching the gospel. But at midnight, they began to sing praises to God. Instead of complaining or calling on God to judge the people who had done this to them, they were worshipping. The other prisoners listened, because they were having a real encounter with God. And when the Philippian jailer saw it for himself, it opened his heart to the truth of the gospel. This is the background of our reading today. Although the writer of this psalm is not named, some believe David to be its author. If so, David probably penned this psalm during the period of Absalom's rebellion. During that time, he endured the oppression of his enemies and rumors that God had forsaken him and that there was no deliverance for him in God. This psalm depicts the struggle that many people experience when they are in the midst of adversity. In it we see the psalmist vacillate between doubt and faith, despair and hope, pessimism and optimism, and looking at his circumstances and looking at God. When you are in pain, the midnight hour is not an easy time to have a worship service. C. H. Spurgeon said, "Any fool can sing in the day. It's easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight. But the skillful singer is the one who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by. Songs in the night come only from God. They are not in the power of man."