Shepherds used to make sweet music with reeds, but they were useless when broken because the air could not go through, and when one became too bruised the shepherd would just throw it away. Are you a broken reed? Are you no longer able to make sweet music in the service of the Lord? If your life has been so bruised, your mind, your heart, or body, and you feel, “Oh, I am no longer any good to anybody,” perhaps the Lord Jesus is saying to you, “Come to Me; bring Me the bruised heart, mind, or body, and I will use it. I will never break a bruised reed.”

The Lord Jesus wants us to be the music for this broken world! Paul and Silas, beaten and bruised, cast into prison, and feet in the stocks, prayed and sang praises to God at midnight and the prisoners heard them (Acts 16:25). They were imprisoned because of their faithfulness to the Living God, but He put a song in their hearts. Suppose they had not sung that midnight. We would not have Acts 16:31. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” If you will sing at midnight, through the darkness of your heartbreak and trial, through disappointment and misunderstanding, there will always be those bound by sin, fears, worries, or doubts who will hear, and the Lord will be able to set them free because of the song in your heart. Psalm 147:1 reminds us, “Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.” Another psalm declares, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Ps. 34:1).

Does the fire of suffering and trial bring such a sweet song from your heart? If you are in the middle of a trial or are suffering, remember, He will not break a bruised reed! He allows fires that we might sing and glorify Him in the midst of them.