Songs in the Shadow of Affliction
It is a curious fact that while some birds refuse to sing when the cage is darkened, others have softer and sweeter notes of song. And so it is in human existence. When a soul comes under the "shadow of a great affliction," it has no longer the voice of melody. The resources and the heart of joy are gone. But another sits in shadow and sends up to God the purest tones of music, and loftiest strains of praise from a chastened spirit. It was thus with David, whose harpings are never so heavenly as when they rise from the "depths" of his sorrow. It is not strange that those are dumb when "the days of darkness come" whose songs of delight lived only in the glare of earth's fitful transient splendor.