Aug. 21
NIGHT OF WEEPING; JOYOUS DAY
"For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping
may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" Ps. 30:5
A moment under our Father's anger seems very long, and yet it is
but a moment after all. If we grieve His Spirit we cannot look for His
smile; but He is a God ready to pardon, and He soon puts aside all
remembrance of our faults. When we faint and are ready to die because
of His frown, His favor puts new life into us.
This verse has another note of the semi-quaver kind. Our weeping
night soon turns into joyous day. Brevity is the mark of mercy in the
hour of the chastisement of believers. The Lord loves not to use the
rod on His chosen; He gives a blow or two, and all is over; yea, and
the life and the joy, which follow the anger and the weeping, more
than make amends for the salutary sorrow.
Come, my heart, begin thy hallelujahs! Weep not all through the
night, but wipe thine eyes in anticipation of the morning. These tears
are dews which mean us as much good as the sunbeams of the morrow.
Tears clear the eyes for the sight of God in His grace; and make the
vision of His favor more precious. A night of sorrow supplies those
shades of the pictures by which the highlights are brought out with
distinctness. All is well.