Study guide
Songs of the Dark Night: Study Guide
Overview
- Christian ethics case study, bridging our Psalms Study and Christian Ethics at the Edge
- Main point: don't run. Herd together and sing the songs of the dark night.
Cattle and Bison
Cattle scatter in the storm and die; bison face it together, the younger leaning on the older.
Causes of Suffering
- Consequential. Rob a bank, go to jail.
- Disciplinary. Secret sins. Calamity from a Father, not a courtroom.
- Persecutory. The unjust wrath of man for Christ. Stephen stoned.
- Purgative. The other three are traceable. This one is not.
Three Stages, Two Transitions
- Purgative. Comforts are taken away from you.
- Dark night of the sense. God feels absent. Nothing delights, in Him or on earth.
- Illuminative. You experience greater truth in God.
- Dark night of the spirit. The core issues of sin that remain.
- Unitive. Closer to God than you have ever been.
The Endurance of Job
James 5:10–11; Job 7; Job 23
Not consequential, disciplinary, or persecution, so by elimination Job's night is purgative.
1. Lean on Heman
Psalm 88:1–8, 14
Sing the darkest Psalm in hope, because Job's night ended in blessing and union with God.
2. Lean on Jesus
Matthew 26:36–39; Psalm 22:1–8
He endured the dark night not for Himself but for us, and knows a darkness deeper than yours.
3. Lean on Solomon
Song of Songs 5:6–8; 6:2–3
Lovesick with no earthly substitute, and afterward closer to God than ever before.
Questions for Reflection
- Why is purgative suffering the hardest of the four to recognize from inside it?
- Where have you seen outward reformation and inward corruption coexist?
- What does it mean, practically, to be Elihu to a friend in the dark night?