[Songs in the Night - February 3]
Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Psalm 119:54
IT IS written, "He giveth songs in the night," and
"He hath put a new song into my mouth."
It causes
us no surprise to know that the saints will "be joyful
in glory," and sing aloud with the high praises of God
in their mouths when it shall be given to them to execute
the judgments written, but it may strike some as
peculiar that the present conditions of imperfection and
frailty, in which we groan and are burdened, should
be a condition in which songs and thanksgiving and joy
should prevail with us.
Nevertheless, this is the divine
will, as it is the divine statement respecting all who are
truly overcomers: they are all to be joyful in the house
of their pilgrimage.
Respecting this joy our Lord declares,
"Your joy no man taketh from you."...So then,
while there is a measure of groaning because of some
burdens on the part of those who have attained to the
new life, there are also blessed joys which the world
cannot give, neither take away; and these are the
source and cause of the unceasing joy and "songs in
the night" before the glorious dawn of the new millennial
day.
These songs are inspired by the joys
granted us in the house of our pilgrimage—while we
are actually absent from our "home." Z'97-305 R2231:6 (Hymn 179)