“And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Mark 14:26).

Here is a verse which surpasses all understanding, for it tells how our Savior joined in singing a psalm with His disciples just before going out into the darkest night of the soul which anyone would ever experience. There He would meet the fierce blasts of the wicked one trying to slay Him before He could even reach the cross. “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53) He would soon be saying to the arresting party accompanying Satan-possessed Judas, bestowing his kiss of death on Him.

But before that, He must struggle with Satan and the powers of evil, and even with His own human soul, as He began to taste that terrible cup. “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red . . . but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them” (Psalm 75:8). This is the cup which He must drink if He would bear God’s holy wrath on the sin of the whole world, as He had come to do.

No wonder in the garden He “began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy.” Soon He would say: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death” (Mark 14:33,34). The words speak of stunned astonishment and intense mental distress; sorrow so great as to kill Him even in the garden, had not an angel come to strengthen Him (Luke 22:43).

Three times He prayed earnestly that He might somehow be spared the terrible cup that He was beginning to drink. Yet He could pray, “Thy will be done” (Matthew 26:42). “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). And He could even sing on the way to shame and spitting, scourging and suffering like no one else would ever know, and then He would die for our sins on the cross. HMM