But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
Elihu is speaking to a man who has said hard things about God. Here he turns from Job to everyone: the world is full of people crying out under oppression, yet nobody asks where their Maker is — the God who gives songs in the dark.
The cry that goes to the wrong address
The verse before this describes crowds crying out for help. Elihu's point is not that they are silent. They cry to the wrong place.
Leslie M. GrantElihu knew there were multitudes who cried out for help (v.9), and we know it is the same today. People do not find help because they cry out to governments or institutions instead of God. More often, they cry out against the government. But God can give songs in the night of man's distress, yet man does not consider this. Elihu is speaking of people generally, not only of Job. Even though God is their Maker, they seem blind to the truth that only He can relieve them.
What the sufferer wants, and what he does not want
There is a difference between wanting relief and wanting God. Pain by itself does not turn a person to his Maker.
Samuel RidoutThe reason is that they are taken up with their own misery. They seek relief only for their own sake, so they have no thought of God's will or of His glory. They do not ask, Where is God my Maker? What can I learn of Him in these things? Where do we find men turning to God in their affliction? The hungry want bread, but they do not want God. Give them bread, and they are quite content to go on in perfect ignorance of Him.
"My Maker" — the capacity no animal has
Man alone can look up and ask for his Maker. The verses around this one press that contrast with the animals.
William KellyIs it that God does not hear or feel? Not so, but that even human anguish fails to lead to God. As the prophet, long after, complained of the pride and silliness of stricken Israel: "They have not cried to me with their heart, when they wailed on their beds." (Hosea 7:14.) So Elihu declares of men in general that none said, Where is God my Maker? He is the One who can change everything and rescue at the worst extremity. He gives songs in the night. He teaches us more than the beasts of the field, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens. Now it is this very God-consciousness which distinguishes man from every other animal of earth or air.
The songs He gives
The verse does not promise that the night ends. It promises that God puts a song into it. Writers point to Paul and Silas in prison as the clearest case.
Edward DennettPaul and Silas were cast into prison, their backs still sore from the beating their persecutors gave them. They rejoiced that God counted them worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. At midnight they prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. It was a new thing for such a sound in that prison. God had given them songs in the night. Those songs rose like sweet incense before His throne, and a testimony went with them — one that bore fruit for eternity, for by His sovereign grace God saved the jailer and his household.
That giving has not stopped, and one writer points to the songbook in the reader's own hands as evidence.
H. J. VineLook at this hymn-book. Some of the hymns were written in dark times. Who gave these songs in the night? The Lord. He has cared for His own all along and will care for them.
Why some cries get no answer
Elihu also names what blocks the answer to a cry.
F. B. HoleThe God who gives the songs in the night teaches man whom He made. Verse 10 mentions the songs and verse 12 the cries. And why do men cry and yet receive no answer? The answer is pride. In verse 13, Elihu traces the root cause of it all to vanity, which God detests and completely disregards. Do we not see here an explanation of many an unanswered cry and prayer?
Where Elihu is driving Job
The tone matters. This is not an accusation thrown at a broken man but an appeal meant to move him.
Samuel RidoutWe notice again the gracious tone of Elihu. He is appealing to Job's reason and conscience. He wants to win him from his hard and sinful thoughts of God to simple trust. God may hide Himself in the darkness, but He must be good in all He does.
Summary
- The night. Elihu is not describing a quiet world. It is full of people crying under oppression, and his complaint is about the direction of the cry, not its volume.
- The missing question. Sufferers want relief, not God. The hungry want bread. Give them bread, and they stay content to know nothing of Him.
- The Maker. The title Elihu uses answers the question nobody asks. The God who made us can change everything and rescue at the worst extremity. That awareness of God is what separates man from every animal.
- The gift. He gives songs in the night, not an escape from it. Paul and Silas sang at midnight in prison, and through that song God saved the jailer's household.
- The block. Where a cry gets no answer, pride and vanity are the cause. Elihu's aim is to win Job to trust the God who hides Himself in the dark but is good in all He does.