FRIDAY 11th
Psalm 119: 62 ‘At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.’
A couple of devotions earlier, I mentioned that the psalmist remembered the statutes of the LORD in the night, and he didn’t need to disturb anyone, he just needed to meditate upon them in his heart. In our verse today, he says that ‘at midnight I rise to praise you’ I wonder if it led to him singing his praise not just expressing it as words, I hope he had a decent voice, for the rest of the house was surely going to be disturbed this time – unless of course he sung in his heart! But I think not, he gets up, he made the decision to rise (from the bed, from sleep) to praise. Maybe this was an ongoing action from his previous action of meditating! He had meditated on the Word and got so excited about it, he just felt he had to get up and praise and sing!
We have already seen that singing the Word of God is powerful, it encourages us and lifts our spirit, it brings us closer to the presence of God, praise is powerful, remember another time when some singing and praising took place at midnight, it was in a prison, two of God’s servants had been faithful in their preaching of the good news of the gospel, but the authorities were not happy and so they took hold of Paul and Silas and threw them into the prison, saying that the next day they would decide what to do with them, but it says that ‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.’ (Acts 16) Wow, it was certainly worth the effort for Paul and Silas to pray and sing hymns at midnight!
As we read the rest of the account, we see the evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of the jailor and his family being saved and in the decision of the authorities to say, ‘Let these men go’.
There is another verse where we see victory for God’s people as a result of praise and song, it is in 2 Chronicles 20:17-22, ‘. . .You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.” Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever.” And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.’
May we always remember that when things are tough, circumstances not as we planned, that there is victory that can arise out of our praise and song, as we honour the Lord with our lives and with our lips.
There will be a break from the devotions for a week, recommencing on Monday February 21st.