00:00:00.000 - 00:01:01.000

[ Music ] I've had many tears and sorrows. I've had questions for tomorrow. There's been times I didn't know right from wrong. But in every situation, God gave blessed consolation

00:01:01.000 - 00:01:33.000

That my trials come to only make me strong ♪ Through it all ♪ ♪ Through it all ♪ ♪ I'm going to trust in Jesus ♪

00:01:33.000 - 00:01:59.180

♪ I'm going to trust in Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, we are all ♪ ♪ Oh, we are all ♪ ♪ A burden to live in ♪

00:01:59.180 - 00:02:48.920

♪ The heart is where ♪ I've been to lots of places, and I've seen a lot of faces. There have been times I felt so all alone. But in my lonely hours, yes, those precious lonely hours,

00:02:48.920 - 00:03:32.300

Jesus let me know that I was his own. I thank God for the mountains, and I thank him for the valleys. I thank him for the storms he brought me through. ♪ Or if I never had a problem ♪

00:03:32.300 - 00:04:08.100

♪ I would know that he could solve them ♪ ♪ I'd never know what faith in God could do ♪ ♪ Through it all ♪ Through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus.

00:04:08.100 - 00:05:10.080

I've learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to truly bend upon His Word. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to trust in Jesus. I've learned to trust in God through it all, through it all.

00:05:10.080 - 00:05:45.720

I've learned to give in the moment's hurt. Amen. We have been considering a sermon series based on the book of Psalms now for many months. We considered the 75th Psalm, and those of you who are following us by reading the 76th

00:05:45.720 - 00:06:10.920

Psalm may also be taken with the 75th Psalm, the two together, or the continuation of the same theme. So today, I invite your attention to the 77th Psalm, the sixth verse.

00:06:10.920 - 00:06:43.340

I call to remembrance my song in the night. I commune with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search. The subject of the message, a song in the night. called to remembrance my song in the night.

00:06:43.340 - 00:07:13.820

One of the things my mother taught me was not to be afraid of the night. A child is prone to be fearful of the darkness. The night seems to provide cover for hidden horrors. It's a haven for the anxieties

00:07:13.820 - 00:07:35.780

of that trouble and torment the human family. But I'm glad Mother taught me not to be afraid of the night. not to be afraid of the night of opposition,

00:07:35.780 - 00:08:03.260

for opposition builds strength, character. And she taught me not to be afraid of the night of failure, because it is through failure that one often achieves success.

00:08:03.260 - 00:08:25.820

In Psalm 77, there is a cry of distress in the night. It is associated with life's uncertainties, with the ambiguities

00:08:27.800 - 00:08:49.240

and the absurdities of human existence. Night is a sign of trouble. Infants cry easily when they feel left alone in the night. They want the assurance of companionship.

00:08:49.240 - 00:09:19.220

Besieged by problems on the national scene, The psalmist gives poetic expression to a distressful cry in the night. A mother knows when her child is just crying for the sake of attention. She also knows when the child is crying because there is something wrong, when there is a

00:09:19.220 - 00:09:39.540

significant need that should be addressed. A mother knows the difference. National calamities occur in every period of human history. This is true in Israel's history.

00:09:39.540 - 00:09:59.800

It is also true in our own. We make our cry in the night. We are troubled by inflation and unemployment. We are baffled by world hunger.

00:09:59.800 - 00:10:18.800

We are confused by the prevalence of terrorism. We wonder about the future. We cry in the night. Listen to the Psalmist's complaint.

00:10:18.800 - 00:11:03.320

When I lift up my voice to God and I cry, my voice will reach God and I will be heard. In the day of my trouble, I have sought my master, but my hand melted away in the night without ceasing, therefore my soul refuses to be comforted. Nighttime is when we normally expect to sleep, but the psalmist is troubled by sleepless nights.

00:11:03.320 - 00:11:30.320

He goes to bed but cannot rest. Strength is sapped by the suffering which surrounds him. This is a sickness of the soul. When there is a sickness, the nights seem longer.

00:11:30.320 - 00:12:01.600

and one wonders will the night ever end. The victim tosses and turns about on his bed of affliction, unable to sleep, unable to get relief from pain. The cry is to make it through the night.

00:12:01.600 - 00:12:29.520

And we resort to sleeping pills, aspirins, Jack Daniels, whatever promises to help us through the night. And what the Psalmist describes here is the dark night of the soul.

00:12:29.520 - 00:12:52.240

It is when we can't see our way. We don't know what road to take. This cry of distress in the night is born out of doubt. We lose faith in existing structures,

00:12:52.240 - 00:13:15.220

that which we thought was nailed down comes loose. Not only is there doubt, but doubt gives rise to despair. There is the level when there is loss of hope. And that's why the Psalmist says,

00:13:15.220 - 00:13:43.440

my soul refuses to be comforted. Those around me say don't cry, everything's going to be alright. But the more they try to comfort me, the louder is the sound of my voice. A cry of distress in the night.

00:13:43.440 - 00:14:21.560

What do you do when you can't sleep? You toss, you turn, you think and fake, some say count sheep. But the psalmist says on such a gloomy night, "I recall I joyously played my harp. I remembered how the awareness of God's presence was awakened in my bliss in days gone by.

00:14:21.560 - 00:14:46.840

I recalled a melody from yesterday, a melody from yesterday, a song in the night. William Ernest Henley gives us a melody from yesterday. He was not afraid of the dark. Listen to his song in the night.

00:14:46.840 - 00:15:18.040

Out of the night that covers me, black as a pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced or cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody but unbowed.

00:15:18.040 - 00:15:46.720

Beyond this veil of wrath and tears looms but the horror of the shade, and yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate.

00:15:46.720 - 00:15:59.840

I am the captain of my soul." He was not afraid of the night. It matters not how dark the night may be, he says. He has courage, he has faith.

00:15:59.840 - 00:16:12.560

And so he has a song in the night, the melody from yesterday. Here it is, the experience of a sufferer, because Henley was one whose body was ravaged

00:16:12.560 - 00:16:26.760

by the dreadful melody of tuberculosis. He had his dark night of suffering, his dark night of pain, his night of loneliness. But in the midst of it all, he has a song in the night

00:16:26.760 - 00:16:52.100

and he has given to us a melody from yesterday. Well, as we celebrate the festival of the Christian home, all of us can somehow be comforted in this night, this night in which we find ourselves in our national life,

00:16:52.100 - 00:17:09.940

in the night of our personal crises, that we can be comforted by a melody from yesterday, a melody of home, of mother as the queen of the home. Dark periods, most of us came up being poor.

00:17:09.940 - 00:17:24.140

We all know what it's like to be poor. And yet somehow in the midst of the night of poverty, We can see that love, we can see that comfort, we can see that patience, we can see that sacrifice

00:17:24.140 - 00:17:37.020

in that home for all of the children. It's a melody from yesterday. No, I don't quite understand some people say, you know, Reverend, I don't like to go to church

00:17:37.020 - 00:17:46.660

on Mother's Day, it makes me sad. It ought to make you glad that you had a good mother in your past. Maybe she has gone on and crossed over the river.

00:17:46.660 - 00:18:02.440

Some have mothers who are on the other side, some on this side, but wherever they are, we ought to thank God that we have a melody from yesterday. The psalmist said, "When I call to remembrance

00:18:02.440 - 00:18:19.940

"that melody from yesterday, that song in the night, "that in the midst of all that was happening to me, "my, I received strength." A melody from yesterday, a song in the night.

00:18:19.940 - 00:18:46.540

Well you see, though the song has ended, the melody lingers on. It just lingers on. And the fact that the melody lingers on is a source of strength. that wherever you are that melody lingers on you can remember teachings

00:18:46.540 - 00:19:15.300

that you received at her feet. Words that were spoken that somehow when you find yourself in a crisis that those words come right back and they somehow give you new courage and strength to go on. That's a melody from yesterday. It's a song in the night, song in the night. Langston Hughes talks about it when he

00:19:15.300 - 00:19:46.380

describes that black mother in that poem, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stare. It's been hard, it's had tucks in it, boy, but you go on, you keep on climbing." that's a melody from yesterday. Melody from yesterday. And the psalmist says in the midst of his sleepless nights when he refused to be comforted that he called

00:19:46.380 - 00:20:09.020

to remembrance a song in the night when he played his harp that melody from yesterday somehow that melody from yesterday comes into our today and is with us in the here and now and that melody from yesterday not only goes with us today, it will be with us tomorrow and every day.

00:20:09.020 - 00:20:51.740

Comfort and strengthen us along life's way. Melody from yesterday. Saul Herrick, that concert impresario, was with Billy Rose, and he told him that he was present when that great contralto Marian Anderson was asked by reporters what was

00:20:51.740 - 00:21:28.660

the greatest moment in her life. Well Sol Heurich knew that there had been many outstanding moments in Miss Anderson's life. There was the time when she was told by Anturo Toscanini that only a voice like hers was heard once in 100 years.

00:21:28.660 - 00:22:04.700

in a hundred years. That was a great night. That was a time also when she gave a private concert for the Roosevelt's and the King and Queen of England. That was a great moment. That was also the time when she sang before 75,000 people in the shadows of Lincoln's statue in Washington and there were cabinet

00:22:04.700 - 00:22:37.520

members, Supreme Court justices, and most of the members of Congress present. That was a great moment. There was a time when also she received the Bok Award of $10,000 for being the citizen that had brought the most outstanding renown or made the most outstanding contribution to her hometown of Philadelphia. That too

00:22:37.520 - 00:23:04.740

was a great moment. But Miss Anderson didn't mention any of these. When asked by the reporters what was the greatest moment in her life she said it was a a time when I said to my mother that you don't have to take in washing anymore. That was the greatest moment. It's the greatest moment in our life when somehow

00:23:04.740 - 00:23:31.060

we can respond to the sacrifice and the blessings that have come to us by our family that we can somehow return those blessings by what we do in our relationship to the family and in our relationship to other people that's the blessing. Somehow that's a song in the night and you see the night comes my

00:23:31.060 - 00:24:10.040

brothers and sisters the night comes but oh how wonderful it is when you have a a song that you can sing in the light of your life. When you have a faith, a song of faith that you can sing even in the midst of the darkness. As we say, why, why, why, why, why, why should I feel this courage? And why should the shadows come when I somehow have Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of my faith? he somehow enables me to sing a song in the night, can sing a song of courage in

00:24:10.040 - 00:24:35.240

the midst of fear. You can sing a song of guilt and somehow receive his forgiveness. You can sing in the night of guilt a song of forgiveness because you have received his forgiveness. But in the midst of, in the night of defeat, you can sing a song of victory because you've held on to his unchanging hand. In the

00:24:35.240 - 00:25:02.240

night of sickness you can sing a song of healing health. In the night of bondage a song of freedom. In the night of despair a song of hope. In the night of hate a song of love. And in the night of death a song of eternal life. A song in the night. That's what we need. We're facing night times in our nation's history, night time in our world,

00:25:02.240 - 00:25:37.940

and we fail. We face night times in our personal lives, but the psalmist says, "I will lift up my voice unto God. I'll lift it up to God, and somehow I'll have faith and sing a song of triumph in the midst of the tragedies of human existence. That's good news. That's good news. The psalmist did it long ago and those of us who trust in

00:25:37.940 - 00:26:04.840

God do it in the here and now because we know that God is there. And if the night comes, God who permits the cover of darkness to come, that same God who permits the cover of darkness to overshadow us that same God pushes back the curtain of the darkness and ushers in the dawn. So the light comes and also

00:26:04.840 - 00:26:30.520

the day. If you would inquire come back and ask again. For weeping may endure during the night but joy comes in the morning. We invite you to come now. This is the invitation to Christian discipleship. We invite you to come.

00:26:30.520 - 00:26:48.520

He extends it to all. This is a good time to unite with the church. Accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. It could be the best moment in your life.

00:26:48.520 - 00:27:38.520

[ Music ] We invite you to come. In shady green pastures so rich and so sweet, God leaves his dear children alone. Where the waters cool flow, days the weary ones feed,

00:27:38.520 - 00:28:36.640

God leads his dear children alone. Some through the waters, some through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrows, but God gives a song

00:28:36.640 - 00:29:28.000

in the night season and all the day long. Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose, God leads his dear children along. Through grace, we can conquer, defeat all our foes.

00:29:28.000 - 00:30:16.200

God leads his dear children alone. Some through the waters, some through the flood, Some through the fire, but all through the blood. Some through great sorrows, but God gives a song.

00:30:19.660 - 00:30:39.760

♪ In the night season ♪ ♪ And all the day long ♪ Would you sing that chorus with me? ♪ Someday ♪

00:30:39.760 - 00:31:06.220

♪ Someday ♪ ♪ The truth, the life ♪ ♪ The hope, the love ♪ ♪ Some truth is the hope ♪

00:31:06.220 - 00:31:29.620

♪ Of the living God's love ♪ ♪ Lift the pipes, we go ♪ ♪ One more, one more day ♪ [Music]

00:31:29.620 - 00:31:39.620

[BLANK_AUDIO]