Songs in the Night

Do you ever sing when you’re stressed or nervous or afraid? Jesus did.

Imagine the scene. Christ has just celebrated the Passover Meal with His disciples, and Judas has already slunk into the night. Jesus is only hours from the cross.

The fear and dread and stress must have been beyond the experience of any man before or since. He knew, had always known, the horrific ordeal that awaited Him. Not just the physical torture or emotional devastation, but the spiritual torment He would endure. His Father would see Him covered in the filth of our sins, would recoil from Him and forsake Him.

This “dark night of the soul” began for Jesus when He left the Upper Room, walked down into the Kidron Valley, and then up the slope of the Mount of Olives to the Garden of Gethsemane. There He would pray in anguish, the stress so severe that He bled through the pores of His skin. And there His own disciple would betray Him with a kiss, leading to His arrest, humiliation, torture, and execution.

So what happened in the moments just before all this began? He sang. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Matthew 26:30. We even know the song our Savior led His disciples to sing.

Singing in the Morning

When I was a little boy, my mother used to sing in the morning while she was making breakfast. It’s one of my happiest memories of Mom. Waking up to her pleasant soprano started the day on a bright note.

Being around joyful people tends to raise your spirits. Which makes me think about our Savior. It hit me the other night that He is full of joy, and that spending time with Him helps me find joy, too.

We’re used to thinking of Jesus as the “Man of Sorrows,” and certainly He was. But remember what Hebrews 12 says: looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (v. 2).

His redemptive mission must have cast a shadow over every day of His earthly life. No wonder Isaiah says He was “acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). But what was the “joy set before Him?”

Joy in returning to a place of fellowship and love within the Trinity?

Joy at having completed His mission, completely purchasing the salvation of His people?

Joy at the adulation of heaven, the glory that He alone deserves?

Yes, certainly His joy includes these things, and probably a thousand more.

I’m glad my Savior is full of joy. This life is full of heartaches and hurts, but the One who loves us has overcome them all. “The joy of the Lord is your strength” is what Nehemiah told his grieving people (Nehemiah 8:10). I want to learn that, too.

I find joy in knowing that that my mom is not the only one who sings in the morning:

    The LORD your God is in your midst,
       a mighty one who will save;
   he will rejoice over you with gladness;
       he will quiet you by his love;
   he will exult over you with loud singing.
(Zephaniah 3:17 ESV)