Ministering by Night

Are you more productive during the daylight hours or after the sun goes down? Someone joked, “I could be a morning person if morning started around noon.” 

I am a morning person married to a night owl. But for all of us, nights can be tough at times. Do you ever toss and turn in bed as the hours drag by while you wait for morning to arrive? Do you ever wake up fretting in the middle of the night, filled with anxious thoughts? (Worries intensify at 3:00 a.m.)  

Working the Night Shift 

Certain jobs require working at night. School teachers grade papers late into the evening. Nurses work the night shift taking care of patients. Police officers and firefighters respond to late-night emergency calls. Moms and dads sit up rocking sick children. Cross-country truck drivers cover many miles while most of us are in bed.  

In ancient Israel, some of the priests had to work the night shift in the temple. They kept the fire going on the altar, cleaned up the ashes from the previous day’s sacrifices, and made sure things were ready for tomorrow. What was it like for those who served long after the temple’s crowds went home, the rabbis’ voices fell silent, the singing faded into quietness, and the merchants and moneychangers stopped hawking their wares? The psalmist wrote, “Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord” (Psalm 134:1, New International Version). ****  

At times, we all must “minister by night.” We are called “out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9), but we must keep serving the Lord during dark nights of the soul when suffering proves unavoidable.  

Have you endured dark nights of loneliness? **** Elijah crawled into a cave and spent the night there, complaining he was the only faithful servant of God left. Daniel spent the night in a lions’ den because he refused to pray to anyone but God. On another dark night, Jesus prayed with his face to the ground in the Garden of Gethsemane.  

Have you faced the darkness of disappointment? Moses spent 40 years leading the Israelites to the promised land, then upon their arrival, he himself wasn’t allowed to enter.  

Will you serve the Lord when burdens seem unbearable, problems appear unsolvable, and the critics’ voices grow loud? David loved God, but at one point he confessed, “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold . . . . I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God” (Psalm 69:2-3).  

Night Lights 

Here are three ways to brighten things up.  

Listen for God’s voice. Even when it’s hard to see what God is doing, we can hear what he says in his Word.  

Help others find their way. Our job is to “minister by night,” not just curse the darkness. Despite their bruises and chains, Paul and Silas prayed, sang, and preached during a long night in prison, and before the night was over, they baptized the jailer and his family into Christ. Your own days will be sunnier if you brighten up a friend’s dark moments. 

Remember, the darkness won’t last forever. “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). Keep serving till the sun comes up. 

This is the seventh and last in a series of articles based on selected verses from the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134).