Joy

www.ccfchurch.net

“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.” Ps. 30:4-5 (NIV)

            “Sing to the LORD” When we have joy in our hearts about something, we feel like singing a song. I recently had someone ask me how I was feeling. I made a joke about singing a little song when I was a child. “Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day.” She chuckled. By doing this, I told her I was not doing as well as I would like because of the liquid sunshine we have had for several days. Without complaining, I told her I was having a tough time with the weather affecting how I was.

            “you saints of his” David speaks to people who know the LORD. Saints are  people separated to God. Several years ago, a friend’s adult daughter talked about an annual meeting of her Christian movement; “We welcome the saints.” She used the term to mean those who attended the conference.  

            “praise his holy name.” What do we have to praise God for? Has God saved us from our sins? Do we have central heat in our homes? Does the roof over our heads keep us dry? Do we have enough food to eat? Are we reasonably healthy? If we can answer these questions with ‘Yes’, we have a lot to praise the LORD for.    

            “For his anger lasts only a moment,” God has a quality that I admire. When I mess up, He doesn’t hold it over my head. When I ask His forgiveness, He forgives me right then. When God forgives, he forgets. He erases it from His memory.

            “but his favor lasts a lifetime” When we come to Jesus and ask Him to live in our hearts, God plans to be there with us for the long haul. When we make that request, He makes a commitment. 

            “weeping may remain for a night” In our times of sadness, we may feel like the hurt will never end. I know a dear Christian woman who has had times of intense grief; I believe she wonders when she will be able not to get so emotional about her losses.

            “but rejoicing comes in the morning.” When I first heard this scripture, the lady said ‘joy comes in the morning.’ This thought stayed with me for a while. Sometimes all we need is a season of prayer and then a good night’s rest in order to get our perspective back and see things with a clearer vision.