As we grow older in the days of our lives, we experience more interruptions to our nightly sleeps. For one reason or another, we are up and down throughout the night.

It is then that we can put on a dim light (or no light at all) and begin to pray about so many needful things from our hearts.

The special times like this are so sweet, as we have communed throughout the hours of darkness outside and yet there is joyfulness in our hearts.

Asaph writes in Psalm 77:4,5 that God “holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the yearsof ancient times.” Perhaps we each think about our lives in years past and are thankful that we are forgiven for our sin and saved from Hell by Jesus Christ!

During our sleepless nights where we have gotten awakened, we might read or remember Psalm 77, that: “I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search” (verse six).

We gladly hear from God again in prayer that speaks to our answers we need again. We find God speaking to us that in Christ we are given the faith, truth and life we so greatly need.

In the very first Psalm, we can remember again how glad we are to have run away from the sinful life “not in the counsel of the ungodly,” and then, “nor standing in the way of sinners,” and finally “nor sitting in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1).

The place we want to have in our lives is in verse two: “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”

These early hours that we often may be communing with God instead of anything else could have the title “Be Still, My Soul.”

The words are written by Catharina A. von Schlegel, which she begins:

“Be still, my soul;
the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide.
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; Thy best, Thy heavenly Friend
Thro’ thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”

It is so important that we commune with our God who has made all things in our existence. Each day, it is so needed that we stop and remind ourselves “whose we are” and “where we are headed.”

God is not willing that any person would end up being in Hell, but who would in Christ be headed one day to arrive in Heaven!

How much we need to remember in Psalm 4:1 what God gave David: “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.” This is a wonderful thing to read in the darkness of night when we have awakened, to hear from God as we listen.

Verse two from our song “Be Still, My Soul” is:

“Be still, my soul; Thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, Thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

We need to hear again and again the word of God. Psalm 5:11-12 says:

“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt thou compass him (or her) as with a shield.”

Our last verse tells us:

“Be still, my soul! The hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone.
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed – we shall meet at last.”

No matter what problems and sorrows we meet every day, we need time with Christ in our lives each step along the way.

Isaiah 30:29-30 says: “Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel, and the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard.”

The “songs in the night” are needed, like we hear them say in Psalm 42:8: “Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.”

Amen!

Try it the next night you cannot sleep. Rise up to enjoy having God’s Song with you as He meets with you.

R.D. “Bob” Hottle is a retired schoolteacher, farmer and pastor of the Anchor Baptist Church.