“A dark night of the soul”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, March 5, 2022
Psalm 30 (Forward, p. 35) CEV p. 571
Our psalmist alludes to something that is all too prevalent in the lives of God’s people. In fact, it is remarkedly present in the lives of God’s great saints, especially those that are referred to as mystics. It is something called the ‘dark night of the soul.’ It is that period of time when God seems to be absent and not at all at work in our lives or in our world. It is that experience that our psalmist recounts:
“I was carefree and thought, ‘I’ll never be shaken!’ You, Lord, were my friend, and you made me strong as a mighty mountain. But when you hid your face, I was crushed” (verses 6-7).
The psalmist, David, then does the only sensible thing to do, and that is, to pray. Yes, he prays even when God seems to be hiding Himself. And so, it is, above all, a prayer of faith, a prayer when there doesn’t seem to be any grounds either for prayer or for ‘results’:
I prayed to you, Lord, and in my prayer I said, ‘What good will it do you if I am in the grave? Once I have turned to dust, how can I praise you or tell how loyal you are? Have pity, Lord! Help!” (verses 8-10)
In the next few verses (verses 11-12) David records the answer to this prayer, and what an answer this is:
“You have turned my sorrow into joyous dancing. No longer am I sad and wearing sackcloth. I thank you from my heart, and I will never stop singing your praises, my Lord and my God.”
Now, what our psalmist never says is just how long this ‘dark night of the soul’ lasted. I know that for many of the great saints, especially the mystics, this lasted for a long time, sometimes for months, even years. I know that for myself it lasted years, years of feeling numb and empty inside, years when I didn’t see God at work anymore than simply sporadically. It was like a desert with only a very infrequent oasis here and there. Eventually God ‘came through’, but it sure took a while.
As hard as this ‘dark night of the soul’ seemed at the time, in retrospect I realized that it was extremely beneficial. In my early adult life as a Christian I had been blessed with many signs and wonders, and a great and lasting sense of God’s presence and power. So much so, that I had come to expect this, and rely upon it. So what my ‘dark night of the soul’ forced upon me was to rely on God even when I did not see His hand or feel His presence. Even when there were no ‘results’ and no ‘good feelings’, I was still to trust Him. It was a hard lesson, but a good one, and one that I have greatly profited from. And what seems rather interesting is that Jesus Himself went through something like this in His forty days in the Wilderness. So, it means that He understands and stands with us in this trial and can help us through it. What wonderful news! Amen.
Forward notes: “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning” (verse 6).
“Years ago, my sister died suddenly. Nine months later, my brother died after a ten-year battle with cancer. The grief was beyond words, especially for my parents. At night, when we had gone to bed, I could hear my mother crying in her bedroom. The next morning, she would get up and move through the day. Then night would come, and in the quiet of the house, I could hear her weeping.
“Remember, ‘joy comes in the morning,’ I heard my mother’s friend tell her. I know she meant well. In the first stages of grief, though, it feels like there is only night.
“The psalmist assures us that morning will come, and it will bring joy. We are not told, however, to get through the night hurriedly just to arrive at the morning. Sometimes, we need to linger in the night. Weeping will stay for the night as it did with my mother. The dark night will come. So too will morning and with it the promise of joy. But there is no morning without the night.”
Moving Forward: “Are you (or someone you love) in a time of weeping? Be assured that God is with you always. And morning will, eventually, come.”
