Joy Comes in the Morning

David has been ill, so ill that he felt near to death. David sees his illness as a sign that God was not pleased with him—that God was, in fact, angry with him. In verse six, David talks about how in his prosperity he felt that he would “never be moved,” but in the following verse he tells how God hid his face from him, and he knew he was in trouble. Sometimes, God just has to step in, slow us down, and make sure we recognize who is in control. Not even a king gets to set God’s agenda.

When things went wrong, David got praying. It is a sad fact of life that so many of us, like David, sometimes forget to pray till catastrophe hits. Trust me, when God decides it’s time to get your attention, He’s more than able to do it. At times like that, we can feel terrible despair. There’s guilt, there’s self-recrimination and then there’s that long, painful night of weeping. There may even be many nights of weeping, but whatever reason God has for engineering that circumstance in our lives, those are the nights He wants us to find Him, to trust in Him, to yield to whatever it is that He wants to do in and through our lives.

The trials we endure as followers of Christ may have nothing at all to do with God being angry, but they always have to do with His incredible plans and purposes for our lives. I can’t promise that things will turn out the way you want or expect them to, but I can promise that nothing you’re experiencing is a surprise to God. He won’t leave your side for a moment, and certainly not while you’re weeping through the darkest, longest nights of your life. You need to believe this—He won’t leave you alone for a single second!

And when that night is over, when the dawn breaks and the power and presence of Jesus shines into your heart more brightly than the sun itself, you’ll find that you know Him more sweetly and more intimately than ever before. Some of these trials may never be explained till the morning you wake in eternity and embrace Him face to face, but what a morning that will be! In that majestic moment, and for every moment in His presence for endless eons to follow, I wonder if we’ll even think of these troubled nights. Yes, weeping may endure for a night, but make no mistake, there is a purpose, and there is an end to even the longest night, and joy always comes in the morning!