From Mourning to Morning

I have struggled all my Christian life with the concept of Joy.

What is Joy? How to feel Joy? What is the difference between Joy and Happiness? But mostly, How to experience Joy in the midst of trials, suffering, grieving?

I know that my Faith, or as I call it, my Trust in God, must be based not in feelings by in knowledge. Not if you feel God, but if you know God. Knowing Who He is.

He is Real and Ever Existing, He is All-powerful, He is All Knowing, He is Sovereign, He is Just, He is Faithful and Unchanging, and He is Loving, Good, Caring and Merciful!

But sometimes when I feel like God has hide His face from me,

6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I shall never be moved.”

7 By Your favour, O Lord,

You made my mountain stand strong;

You hid your face;

I was dismayed.

I had to remind myself, like King David:

5 For His anger is but for a moment,

and His favour is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30

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Because Who God is; because God’s favour is for a lifetime, our mourning will turn to morning (joy) at the end.

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I read a study on Psalm 30 from Desiring God’s ministries about thanksgiving and joy, that can help to explain joy after deliverance:

Psalm 30 - A Psalm of Thanks from the other side of some great distress after being rescued.

In this Psalm, King David has come through some trial, through some pit, as he cried out to God.

God has answered and now the psalmist renews his praise on the other side of being delivered by God from his distress.

The flow of the Psalm:

From Praise and thanksgiving after deliverance, 

To a flashback: From being on the “top of the mountain” to going into the “Pit” 

To finally, Praising God with his whole being.

Life is like that, we said like David:

6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,

“I shall never be moved.”

7 By Your favor, O Lord,

You made my mountain stand strong;

You hid your face;

I was dismayed.

The highs in our life are gifts from God, and we must be thankful for and humble by, but as His gifts are from His Sovereign grace, so the lows of life are His allowance tests.

Both the highs and the lows serve His eternal designs for His people.

In this verse, we see that in this life neither the mountain strength nor the hiding of God’s face are His final word. The Mountain strong season is not a sign of God’s eternal favour, nor is the season where God’s face seems to be hidden a sign of His disfavour.

When our mountain crumbles, it is God who is taking it away and He has eternal purposes for.

Which purposes? You must ask. - Sorrows always serves Gladness -

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

In the deepest part of the Psalm, that is a reflection on God’s character. It grounds the praise and thanks of the Psalm in Who God Is.

5 For His anger is but for a moment,

and His favour is for a lifetime.

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

No matter our present trouble or distress if we are His people in Christ and when we sink the roots of our joy into the very nature and character of God as verse 5 does, our roots of joy go down as deep as possible, as deeper than any trial, sense of despair or grief.

Our joy is grounded in who God is, as the God of joy in verse 5.

There is no greater foundation, no greater source, and no greater reason for security, for stability, for genuine joy than when our own joy is hidden in the joy of God Himself. That His anger, though real and painful is but for a moment and His favour, His grace, His love, His mercy is for a lifetime and forever.

Weeping may indeed tarry for the night and it does, oh how it does! for many long nights sometimes, but in God morning is always coming just a little while longer and joy comes with the morning and it gets us through those nights knowing that the joy is coming and as sure as David could be of this in verse 11 that God's turns our mourning into dancing.

We now in Christ are even surer, we are even more secure, we are even more enduringly stable because in a way David could not yet see what we have in the Cross and the Resurrection, which is, not just another example of joy sounding the last note but it is the Final goal.

Joy will have the last laugh for God's people, it will have the final say it will sound the last note as sure as Jesus conquered the grave.

The nature of God does not give us earthly assurances that we will have no nights of weeping, but in Christ, God does give us final assurance, final stability, the certainty of final joy. The night will end, morning will come, and joy will sound the final note for you in Christ.

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This weekend will be our first Thanksgiving without Joshua. Joy is still a mystery to me. You need to experience the Pit in order to experience real Joy.

You cannot avoid the pit, you cannot rush out of the pit, you cannot ask for a shortcut out from the pit. You need to go through and at the other side of the pit you will find the Joy from God.

My pit is deep and long. For how long I have to be in the pit, I do not know. At the beginning I cried to God, God get me out of the pit! please rush me out of this pit!. Now, I am trying, I am praying, help me to endure in the pit, that when you rescue me out, I can find joy again.

We pray that God will be with us this Thanksgiving and help us to endure the sadness of not having our Joshua with us, and we pray that in His mercy there will be not more or not many more Thanksgivings before His Glorious Return!

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