SINGING IN THE SHADOWS
“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.”~Mk. 14:26
I’ve read of certain birds singing in the night, the nightingale for one. Someone has said, “Anyone can sing in the sunshine, but to sing in the shadows is a rare accomplishment." Our blessed Lord sang in the shadow of the Cross, the darkest time in the history of the world. Lying ahead of Him was the sorrows of Gethsemane, the shame and suffering at the hands of the soldiers, and the indescribable agony of Golgotha, His Father turning His back on Him.
What serenity of soul, what inward triumph is found in our brief text above. He goes to the Cross with a song on His lips! This is the peace that passeth all understanding, to be sure. He knew what was awaiting Him, and one is awestruck by His statement to His followers: “With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer,” Lk. 22:15. It seems He eagerly anticipated this time with them. Tomorrow He suffers, but tonight He sings. Truly, “[God] giveth songs in the night!”
Wouldn’t you have loved to have heard this all-male chorus sing, led by our Saviour? John tells us in Revelation His voice is as “the sound of many waters.” Is not this the greatest voice that ever came from a human throat? How robustly He must have sung the Psalm. Those times I am in church with my son Andrew and singing the old stately hymns of the Church, he sings them with such robust. It thrills my soul to hear him. But how much more the Son of God?
“We can turn our sorrow into song. Sorrow and singing are not incompatible.”~ Oswald Sanders
by an Ages Saint