Joy in the Morning

Read

Psalm 30:4-5 Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

What it is speaking to me

Have you ever had one of those terrible nights of dreams? You know the kind, where your brain decides that 1-4am is the perfect time to give you one or a series of bad dreams. You wake up once or twice, heart pounding, from dreams that would make no logical sense to a sane, waking person but felt completely real while you were in them. I remember one that was upsetting but so real that even after I was startled awake, it took several minutes in that post-dream haze before I realized it had been a dream. I probably lay awake in bed for about 10 minutes, contemplating how to get myself out of the mess I was in, before it suddenly dawned on me that it had been a dream. None of it was real. The relief that rushed in, though, was not a dream. It was quite real.

Bad nights feel endless. There's no clock that helps. There's no comfort in knowing "well, this is only temporary," because at 3am, temporary feels like forever. That's just how nights work. They distort time, they distort fear, and they make small problems loom huge.

When I read Psalm 30, I get the impression that King David knew this feeling. And yet he writes with confidence that "weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." He's not saying the night wasn't real or wasn't hard. He's saying it isn't permanent. The sun still comes up. God's favor will always outlast the darkness.

Maybe your "bad night" isn't literal sleep, it's a full season. A diagnosis, a broken relationship, a financial mess, a prayer that seems to be going nowhere. And like my restless night, it feels like it's never going to end. You are tired, worn out, and need rest. But night passes, and the day is coming. Just hold on.

Joy is already on its way.

What is it saying to you?

What do you do when you have bad nights?

Where do you look for joy?

How do you trust for the morning?

What are we going to do about it?

Remind someone else today that their night has an expiration date... joy is coming.