Psalm 30:1-5
Joy Comes in the Morning

A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David.

I will exalt you, O LORD,
      for you lifted me out of the depths
      and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

O LORD my God, I called to you for help
      and you healed me.

O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
      you spared me from going down into the pit.

Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
      praise his holy name.

For his anger lasts only a moment,
      but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
      but rejoicing comes in the morning.

New International Version

King David lived a "roller coaster" life--the kind of life with breath-taking heights, bitter plunges, and heart-stopping speeds racing between the two. It was the kind of life that makes us ask many times why this would be happening to us. Sometimes we would ask that question in joy, but at other times, we would ask the question in despair.

Think of the personal history of King David. He was "discovered" when the prophet Samuel anointed the youngest son of the most insignificant man in the most insignificant tribe of Israel to be the next king. God lifted David from that low status to King Saul's court, fought with David against Goliath, protected David when King Saul tried to kill him, and elevated David to king. Most of the time King David followed God obediently and enthusiastically, but at other times, David sinned. One such failing was his adultery with Bathsheba and his arranged murder of her husband, Uriah, which led to the confrontation with the prophet Nathan and the death of David and Bathsheba's first-born child. The seeds of David's sins blossomed in his children, as his son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar, and Tamar's brother, Absalom, killed Amnon in revenge. Absalom, indignant and angry over David's lack of response to Amnon's crime, rebelled against David and was killed in battle, and David mourned for all his lost children. David wrote from these painful experiences when crafting this passage about weeping through the night.

David opened his soul to God as he wrote psalms, clinging to God in the low points and rejoicing in God at the high points. The occasion of this psalm is one of those high points, the celebration of the completion of a temple to God (although some translate the event as the completion of a house.) Even in that joyous occasion, the older, wiser David remembered that he was still frail and in need of God, and that God was always there and always quick to save.

That life lesson from David is a key lesson for us in this psalm. Our greatest thrills are evidence of God's love for us, and our most troublesome times are opportunities for God's love to carry us. We can be certain that there will be "weeping for a night," for we live in an imperfect, sinful world and we are sinners. We can be just as certain that "joy comes in the morning," for God is always with us.