"And It Came to Pass..."

Weeping may tarry for the night,

but joy comes with the morning —Psalm 30:5

“Trouble doesn't come to stay; it comes to pass,” the old preacher said, basing his premise on Mark's connecting phrase, "and it came to pass”(Mark 1:9 et. al.). His hermeneutic was faulty, but his thesis was sound: Weeping, like an overnight guest, may "spend the night" (the literal meaning of the verb), but he packs up his gear in the morning and goes on his way. Yes, in general we can say that sorrow doesn't come to stay.

Yet, I must also say, for some folks this world is a vale of tears. Sorrow upon sorrow is their lot; their “life is spent with grief; their years with sighing" (Psalm 31:10). What can we say about a grief that will not go away? 

Consider David’s conviction: “Joy comes in the morning.” David’s "morning" may be tomorrow morning, but it may rather be that “great gettin'-up morning,” when sorrow for all time will flee away. Some day very soon our Lord will come for us, or we will go to him and our "mourning will be turned into dancing" (30:11). Sadness may have it's day, but it’s not forever. It will be taken away.

"Our sorrow is not our own," Samuel Rutherford wrote. "It is lent to us for just a little while that we may use it for eternal purposes. Then it will be taken away and everlasting joy will be our Father’s gift to us, and the Lord God will wipe away all tears from our eyes.”

David Roper

8.8.18