Even At Night (Joy in the Journey)

Everything is worse at night - or so it seems. But there are good reasons, both psychological and physiological, for believing it’s true. The influence of the body’s circadian rhythm on the immune system and its relation to inflammation; the quieter hours, when fewer distractions can mean an inflated awareness of symptoms; a mind that refuses to be quiet; or simply the different posture involved in sleeping - all can contribute to a sense of dread as night approaches.

In Psalm 16, verse 7, David says that “Even at night my heart instructs me” - even when things are stacked against him, when anxieties rise and the body is seemingly at its weakest, even then David’s heart teaches him. He is helped by the truth about God that has been embedded in his soul during long years of discipleship and fellowship with the living God.

He has just described in verse 5 something of the truth to which he clings and in which he rejoices. That the LORD, alone, is his allotted portion - everything that David has, and everything he will ever need, finds its central reality in God. The LORD has chosen to give himself to David - and to every believer in Jesus Christ. He is our portion - by his own choice, not by any external compulsion, nor by anything meritorious in us. He chooses to be our God, our Father, our Friend and Saviour. He is our cup - the celebratory symbol of joyous fellowship and intimate communion.

And this lot - the appointed fullness of salvation - is completely secure. Nothing can damage or destroy it. Nothing will cause the Lord to revoke his love; it was set upon us before the foundation of the world and is not open to revision. The cross of Jesus and his complete victory over all the forces of sin and chaos makes every blessing that we have in him immovably fixed and settled - “not for the years of time alone but for eternity”. What David has - in common with all Christians - is “a delightful inheritance”. Life itself may be tough and decidedly not a bed of roses, but what is given in Jesus, what is gifted in the down-payment of the Spirit, is delightful beyond all hope and expectation: ‘the life of God in the soul of man’.

But it isn’t all David’s doing. This isn’t self-generated wishful thinking on his part. His heart is able to instruct him, in the depths of night, only because “the LORD…counsels me”. This is not homespun wisdom that David is purveying; he is testifying to the sheer goodness of God in making himself known to us, consoling and counselling our hearts, that we might make much of that, applying its wisdom and power to our needs in the darkest of nights.

In the long hours of the night, when distress and anxiety attempt to do their worst, David puts the playlist of truth on repeat and offer his praise to God. He keeps his eyes always on the LORD (v.8), even during the night. With such a God at his right hand, David is assured that he will not be shaken. We’re invited to share that same solace.

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O Lord, Thy touch hath stirred my soul
And caused my heart to love;
My quickened mind hath been made whole
To seek those things above.

There is a path of thought so true
That brings me to Thy throne,
And there my heart may mercy sue
And claim Thy grace my own.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard
Those things that thou hast there:
For every promise of Thy Word
Awaits my soul to dare.

O why should I let sorrow reign,
When such a God is mine,
Who gives to me and gives again,
And tells me, ‘Mine is thine’?

The riches He hath stored for me
No measurement can tell;
For in the love of Calvary
All with my God is well.

Thy Holy Spirit now hath taught
My being to adore;
The blessings Jesus Christ hath wrought
Shall cause my soul to soar.

(William Vernon Higham, 1926-2016)