Joy Comes With The Morning - The One Year Book of Psalms

Psalm 30:1-7

A psalm of David, sung at the dedication of the Temple.

1I will praise you, LORD, for you have rescued me.

You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.

2O LORD my God, I cried out to you for help,

and you restored my health.

3You brought me up from the grave, O LORD.

You kept me from falling into the pit of death.

4Sing to the LORD, all you godly ones!

Praise his holy name.

5His anger lasts for a moment,

but his favor lasts a lifetime!

Weeping may go on all night,

but joy comes with the morning.

6When I was prosperous I said,

“Nothing can stop me now!”

7Your favor, O LORD, made me as secure as a mountain.

Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

This psalm may have been written shortly after David made the mistake of ordering a census. God had blessed him greatly. Perhaps it was that prosperity that caused him to say, “Nothing can stop me now!” (verse 6).

We all have times like that. Then comes a shattered marriage, a tragic death in the family, a severe illness, a financial disaster, a church split, or the loss of a job. Often the catastrophe hits us in the area we felt the strongest. Then we feel cut off from God and fall into depression and grief.

That’s the way David felt, as the story is told in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. David counted his troops, as if to say that with enough manpower he no longer needed to depend on God for help. But God sent a plague that killed seventy thousand of David’s people. David prayed to God: “I am the one who has sinned. . . . These people are innocent. . . . Let your anger fall against me and my family” (2 Samuel 24:17).

David then bought land for an altar (which later became the location for the Temple), and there he made sacrifices to God. And God answered his prayer. Verse 5 may describe the joy that David felt after this.

When you experience difficult times as David did, take comfort in David’s words. Know that the night is a vanquished foe. Daybreak is coming, and joy will come, for God answers prayer.

All through the night I wept full sore,

But morning brought relief.

That hand, which broke my bones before,

Then broke my bonds of grief.

CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

Bible Networking

For the full story of the Temple dedication, read 1 Kings 8 and 2 Chronicles 6–7. For some New Testament stories of nighttime weeping and morning joy, read chapters 12 and 16 of Acts.

Notable Quotable

“At nightfall Weeping comes as a guest to tarry; but in the morning Joy comes to stay.”

W. GRAHAM SCROGGIE