DEVOTION//Sing while suffering

When King Saul sent men to capture and kill David, the poet's thoughts turned to song.

A prayer and a song

15 Days of Prayer

316NOW’s 15 Days of Prayer effort begins on January 25 and runs through February 8. Tap here for prayer suggestions for each of those 15 days.

He pleads in the opening verse of Psalm 59, "Deliver me from my enemies, my God…. Save me from bloodthirsty men" (1,2). Over the next stanzas, he speaks about his plight and asks for the LORD's protection.

However, by the end of the psalm, David announces he will not give in to fear. "I will sing about your strength. In the morning I will shout about your mercy, because you are a high fortress for me, a refuge in the day of my distress. O my Strength, to you I make music, because God is my high fortress, my merciful God" (16,17).

The song of the persecuted

Throughout history, a remarkable refrain in the accounts of martyrs is their songs of praise. Consider Paul and Silas when they spent a night in Philippi's jail (Acts 16:16-34).

Or consider Richard Wurmbrand. Wurmbrand (1909 – 2001) said of his fourteen years in a Romanian Communist prison between 1940-1960,

We didn’t know we were in prison. Sometimes when we were beaten and tortured, we were like St. Stephen, who while they threw stones at him, did not see his murderers, did not see the stones, but saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. In the same way, we didn’t see the Communist torturers. We didn’t see that we were in prison. We were surrounded by angels; we were with God….

Without fear we sang in prisons 30 feet beneath the earth. We were terribly hungry, beaten, and tortured. The Communists were good at torturing us. We would say to each other, “The Communists beat us very well—let us do our work well. Let us sing well.”

Singing in the midst of challenge

Dear reader, you are not locked away in a hellish prison because of your faith. But there are painful challenges in your life because Jesus is your Savior. Faithfulness to his Word and will have probably cost you relationships with family, employment opportunities, friendships, respect.

Rather than mourning those losses, "sing and make music to the LORD." The Savior he gave us in Jesus guarantees that he will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). That Savior guarantees that we have blessing in life's joys and sorrow (Romans 8:28). He guarantees we are empowered to "rejoice in the Lord always" (Philippians 4:4).

Yes, pray for God to deliver you. Then sing your heart out in praise over whatever way your loving Father will decide to answer that prayer.

For a short biography of Richard Wurmbrand tap here.