十月十九日 [mp3_embed playlst=”/downloading/audio/evening/10/1019.mp3″]
经文: 造我的上帝……使人夜间歌唱。（约伯记三十五：10）
任何人都会在日间歌唱。当财富滚滚而来，任何人都会赞美上帝，因祂使人丰收，使人满载而归。微风吹来，铃铛就能轻而易举地发出美妙的乐音，但是一旦风停止就难发出声响了。白昼我们能看清乐谱所以容易发出歌声；但是有技巧的人是从心中发出歌唱。无人会在他心灵幽黯之时歌唱。他可能会试看看，但是他将会发现夜晚若能歌唱，必定是上帝所赐的灵感。人处于顺境时，无论往何处去，都能唱出美丽的歌声，在所行经的路途中为花香常漫而欢欣。但是在没有绿色的沙漠中，我还能向上帝高唱赞美的诗歌吗？我的声音若嘹亮，身体若健康，我定会高歌称颂上帝。但是当我的舌头无力，当我躺卧在病塌上时，除非祂赐我诗歌，否则我如何能发出颂扬祂的旋律呢？不，当人处于逆境时，除非从天而来的音乐充满他的心灵，否则是不可能有力量歌唱的。哈巴谷所唱的是一首从上帝而来的歌，他唱：“虽然无花果树不发旺、葡萄树不结果、橄榄树也不效力，田地不出粮食，圈中绝了羊，棚内也没有牛，然而我要因耶和华欢欣，因救我的上帝喜乐。”（哈三：17～18）是造我们的主能使人夜间歌唱，所以让我们静候祂的音乐吧！音乐之主啊，不要教我们因环境而沉默，调整我们的嘴唇，让我们发出感恩的旋律吧！
Evening, October 19
Scripture: “God, my maker, who giveth songs in the night.”(Job 35:10)
Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow－the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by－who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God’s praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God’s high praises, unless he himself give me the song? No, it is not in man’s power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, “Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.