Sorrow Is Passing But Joy Is Permanent Series

The Bible is very honest about suffering in this world. It declares over and over that pain, sorrow and weeping will be a part of life. However, the good news is that it is passing and not permanent. The negatives pass away, but the positives will come to stay. The ultimate goal of God for His people is a life of endless joy and rejoicing. God desires that we be joyful now even in this fallen world, but our fallen nature often fails to achieve His will. Like a father He has to be angry at His children who disobey him. What child has not experienced the anger of his or her father? Some of us have even been spanked in anger because of our folly. It is a part of growing up. God is our heavenly Father and He loves us too much to let us live in disobedience without penalty. However, He is merciful like any normal father, and He wants us to learn by His angry discipline so that He can in grace reward us with joy. His goal is always joy, but sometimes weeping is necessary to get to that goal. So, what this verse is saying to us is this, always be a positive thinker, for the goal of God for you is always joy. In any down time of suffering and sorrow do not let your weeping rob you of the promise that joy is coming. Every story in God's book has a happy ending. It may be in the next morning, but it will certainly be so in the resurrection morning. Joy is to be the final state for all of God's children.

This is the comforting message we see all through the Bible. Here is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17 "For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison." In Psalm 126:5 we read, "Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy." Isaiah 54:7 "For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back." Isaiah 54:7,8 "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee…" The good news is always permanent as we see in Psalm 16:11 "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Bad times are like a bad night, and we all have nights like this from time to time, but the good news is that bad night's end with morning, and in God's plan the morning is always joyful. Psalm 59:16 "But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble." Psalm 143:8 "Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee."

Oh, deem not they are blest alone!

Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep.

The Power who pities man, hath shown

A blessing for the eyes that weep.

The light of smiles shall fill again

The lids that overflow with tears;

And weary hours of woe and pain

Are promises of happier years.

There is a day of sunny rest

For every dark and troubled night:

And grief may hide an evening guest,

But joy shall come with early light.2

W. C. Bryant

Notice that life is divided into the night and the morning, or darkness and the light. Life is night or day, and night is sorrow, suffering and weeping, and day is joy delight and pleasure. All that is negative is the night, and all that is positive is the day or the morning. Night is a part of life in this world, but joy comes in the morning as the beginning of an eternal day. Our focus in any nighttime experience is to be on that morning that God promises us an eternal day of rejoicing. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Alexander Maclaren has an excellent paragraph on this text. He wrote, "There is an obvious antithesis in the first part of this verse, between "His anger" and "His favor." Probably there is a similar antithesis between "a moment" and "life." For, although the word rendered "life" does not usually mean a lifetime, it may have that signification, and the evident intention of contrast seems to require it here. So, then, the meaning of the first part of my text is, "the anger lasts for a moment; the favor lasts for a lifetime." The perpetuity of the one, and the brevity of the other, are the psalmist's thought. Then, if we pass to the second part of the text, you will observe that there is there also a double antithesis. "Weeping" is set over against "joy"; the "night" against the "morning." And the first of these two contrasts is the more striking if we observe that the word "joy" means, literally, "a joyful shout," so that the voice which was lifted in weeping is conceived of as now being heard in exultant praise. Then, still further, the expression "may endure" literally means "come to lodge." So that Weeping and Joy are personified. Two guests come; one, dark-robed and approaching at the fitting season for such, "the night." The other bright, coming with all things fresh and sunny, in the dewy morn. The guest of the night is Weeping; the guest that takes its place in the morning is Gladness. The two clauses, then, of my text suggest substantially the same thought, and that is the persistence of joy and the transitoriness of sorrow. The whole is a loaf out of the psalmist's own experience."