Daily Devotional | Job: Dark Night of the Soul

In August 1932, Thomas Dorsey lost both his wife and son during childbirth. Out of his great loss came a beautiful song that expressed his great need for God. “Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.”

In Job 23, we read Job’s response to Eliphaz—Job, too, expresses his great need for God (v. 3). This chapter contains one of the most beautiful passages in the book of Job. He recalls the type of sweet fellowship he had before this ordeal. Since then, he had pursued God in every direction. Above everything else, he desires to be in God’s presence again.

He stated, “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him” (23:8–9). Job was experiencing what some describe as “the dark night of the soul.” This phrase was coined by John of the Cross to describe times in our spiritual life when God seems distant. Theologian R. C. Sproul described it as “a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time...This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him.”

Psalm 34:18 reminds us that God is present, even when He feels so absent to us: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”