Daily Devotions
Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5
The sights and sounds of weeping: family members clinging to one another at the funeral of a loved one; husband and wife at the doctor’s office after receiving word of serious illness; teenage daughter telling parents about breaking up with her boyfriend; employees learning about a plant closing; hot tears of guilt after ending a marriage relationship.
David weeps also, initially for some physical ailment (Psalm 30:1-5) and then for some spiritual problem which led to sackcloth (Psalm 30:6-10). In both cases the weeping seems to endure for an endless night.
But David completes the picture: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” God delivers David from the grave through physical healing and from sin through full forgiveness. Now David rejoices in the God of his salvation (Psalm 30:11-12). After weeping, rejoicing!
Jesus describes a similar situation to His disciples in the upper room. They will weep while the world rejoices, He tells them. Jesus was to be arrested, convicted, beaten, and crucified. But their weeping would be turned to joy as they would see Him again, risen from the dead. Then they could live joyfully.
Because of our sin and a cruel world, we weep. We cry out to God for healing and forgiveness. We talk about leaving this “vale of tears.” We don sackcloth and confess our sins. Like that of David and the disciples, our weeping remains for a night.
But “rejoicing comes in the morning.” Jesus, who wept for Lazarus, has gone to the cross for us. The weeping women saw the empty tomb and met the risen Master. And Jesus Christ has clothed us with joy in our baptism so that we rejoice in forgiveness every morning and eagerly await that heavenly morning where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
PRAYER: Thank You, Lord Jesus, for suffering, dying, and then rising again so that my weeping may turn into rejoicing as I look forward to that glorious heavenly morning. Amen.
(Devotions from “My Daily Devotion” by Dr. Stephen J. Carter, copyright 1988 CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. For ordering information, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit www.cph.org.)