One of my favorite hymns I first sang 60 years ago at Deerfoot Lodge, a Bible camp for boys in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. It opens with the lines “When morning gilds the skies/ my heart awaking cries/ “May Jesus Christ be praised.” These sweet words were written anonymously and first appeared in the German Katholisches Gesangbuch in 1744. Catholic priest Edward Caswall translated them into English 100 years later. Doubtless, he knew Psalm 113:3: “From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
But what of those mornings when the skies are not gilded–as is often the case here in my neighborhood of suburban Seattle? Especially during late spring and summer, cool, moist air moves inland from Puget Sound creating low clouds and early morning fog. Must cloudy skies silence my song of praise? Certainly not! If God gives songs in the night (Job 35:10), He can surely enable me to sing His praise when the sun does not gild the skies.
Commenting on this text from Job, Spurgeon suggested that in the night (of pain or trial) we can sing of the blessings of the day that is over; we can be thankful that the stars are there even if we cannot see them; and we can sing of the day that is to come-especially the day of Christ’s return when the hand full of cares now shall grasp a harp full of music.
Similarly, on those mornings when the sky is not golden, the believer can remind himself that one day he shall walk on streets that are paved with gold–that blessed day when the Sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings…and there shall be no more night.
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