Job 35:10

Anyone can sing in the day. When the cup is full, one draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, anyone can praise the God who gives a plentiful harvest or sends home a loaded ship. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow—the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring.

It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the one who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by—who sings from his heart—is skilful. No one can create a song in the night by themselves; they may attempt it, but they will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired.

If all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them from the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and with what shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How can a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where there are no jewels?

If this voice is clear and this body full of health, I can sing God’s praise. But silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of suffering, and how can I then chant God’s high praises, unless He Himself gives me the song? No, it is not in a person’s power to sing when all circumstances are adverse, unless a coal from the altar touches their lip.

It was a divine song which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait for Him for the music. O Chief Musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.