A Light Momentary Affliction

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

​David was a man keenly familiar with suffering.  Very few have suffered as much as David did.  True, some of his suffering was the result of his own mistakes, but then that only makes the suffering that much worse.  He was a man familiar with being hunted down and hated by someone he admired and supported (King Saul).  He was familiar with the death of his own infant son.  He was familiar with the unbelievable pain of having one son murder another of his sons.  He was familiar with having a son betray him and then try and strip the throne away from him.  Yet through it all David managed to write songs like Psalm 30 where he says, “Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name” (v.4).  How was David able to write such songs and sing such praises in the midst of so much suffering and pain in this world and in this life?  The next two lines says it all.  “For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  Whatever difficulty God is bringing us through, it is only for a moment.  If you are one of God’s people, if you are trusting and resting alone in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for your eternal security and, therefore, are in covenant relationship with God, then “his favor is for a lifetime.”  And all the trials and tribulations this world has to offer is only “for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”  For those who are in Christ, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is always getting brighter and brighter.  As Paul accurately wrote, someone else very familiar with suffering, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18).