Tag: night prayer

Now as the evening shadows fall

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Now as the evening shadows fall”.  The words are a paraphrase by the 20th century composer Michael Forster of an ancient text, the medieval Compline hymn usually rendered in English as “Before the ending of the day”.  Compline was the last of the monastic prayer times and so the psalms, prayers and hymns that are regularly used in the service are intended to help us put ourselves right with God and relax into his presence as we go to bed.  Forster’s paraphrase is a comforting one, asking God to help us to trust his grace, and to find “in sleep’s release, bodily rest and inner peace”.

What it is missing is the edginess of the older translations where the darkness of night is seen as the domain of the evil one, from whom we need protection: the words of verse two “Help us to find in sleep’s release, bodily rest and inner peace; may the darkness of the night refresh our eyes for morning light” is a far cry from the traditional rendering “From evil dreams defend our sight, from fears and terrors of the night; tread under foot our ghostly foe, that no pollution we may know”.  The Latin originals (there is more than one version) are even starker, one of them referring to ‘phantasms’ and asking ‘ne polluantur corpora’ – let not my body be polluted.

Funfair on Blackheath, 2012

The tune is called Blackheath, which is an area of London close to where I used to live.  I have happy memories of evenings on the heath, whether sitting on the grass in summer with a pint of beer in a plastic tumbler from one of the pubs along the edge of the heath, watching fireworks, or during the 2012 London Olympics, with hundreds of other people sitting on deckchairs watching the action on a big screen.  But I’ve chosen this image of Blackheath in the evening with a funfair.  People go on funfair rides to scare themselves, or at least work up excitement  (these rides of a travelling fair aren’t as scary as those in a permanent attraction such as Alton Towers).  But the fun is perhaps more about coming off the rides at the end of the evening, celebrating having survived the scary experience (maybe with that drink from the bar) and going home happy. 

Perhaps that is what Compline is about: we bring to God our excitement, the emotional rollercoaster of the day and sometimes maybe even fear of what the night or the next day might bring, and ask him to take those from us so that we can relax into him and into sleep.  At the end of this translation are the lines “Grant us the faith that sets us free to praise you for eternity”.  Amen.

The Bible in a Year – 22 July

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this, and the introduction to the Psalms for this book of the Bible in particular.

22 July. Psalms 120-132

The fifteen psalms numbers 120 to 134 are known as the “songs of ascent”. They are presumed to have been said or sung by pilgrims travelling up to Jerusalem (famously a city on a large hill).

Even today many popular pilgrimages involve difficult walking, whether to a mountain shrine such as Sinai or Montserrat, or across hills such as St Cuthbert’s Way in northern England.  The physical challenge is intended to aid spiritual reflection, to “lift up” the pilgrim’s mind and heart to God.

These psalms use Jerusalem as a symbol of peace and security, and also of God’s presence. Ps. 121 in particular urges us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, a prayer that is still much needed for a divided and disputed holy place. Ps. 120 complains of the problems of being a peace-living person among those who prefer conflict.

In order to ascend, you need to start off from a lower place. Physically, anyone starting their pilgrimage to Jerusalem from Jericho would be below sea level – truly “from the depths” (130:1). But the psalm more likely refers to the depths of depression, guilt or pain. Sometimes it is necessary to sink below what one might term psychological sea level in order to recognise that one is in need of help.  The psalmist here calls on God for forgiveness (130:3-4); in other psalms in the set he calls for mercy (123:2-3),or for joy to replace tears (126:5-6).

 

A couple of these psalms are particularly associated in Christian tradition with prayer at night. Psalm 121 tells of God who “never slumbers or sleeps” and who will protect us so that “the sun shall not harm you by day, nor the moon by night”.  Clearly sunburn or sunstroke is a risk in a hot country, but I have yet to work out what danger is posed by the moon – unless it is the association in some cultures between the full moon and madness.  But the point is, that God will protect us even when we are not awake to ask for his protection or sense it.  Ps. 132:3-5 is a vow not to go to sleep “until I find a place for the Lord”. Many people find it helpful to pray before going to bed, to release to God any bad experiences, guilt or frustrations of the day past, and to commit any worries about the following day to his care.