Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. (KJV)
Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (NRSV)
The night may be filled with tears, but in the morning we can sing for joy! (ERV)
Psalm 30:5
In the town of Barrow, Alaska — the northernmost town in the United States — the sun sets in mid-November and doesn’t rise again until late January. 67 days of darkness, without a single sunrise.
I wonder how this psalm strikes the residents of Barrow. “Weeping may linger for the night.” What do those words mean when you live in a place where “night” lasts for over two months?
But then, maybe we’re more familiar with Barrow’s extended darkness than we might realize. We’ve been under varying levels of social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders for almost 7 weeks. For some of us, that has felt like an unyielding, unending night… a night has “lingered,” unbidden and unwelcome, for far too long… a night that, as the psalm alludes, has been marked by pain, by grief, by tears.
And yet, the psalm also reminds us: the night doesn’t last forever. Not in Barrow, and not here. The morning comes… and with it, joy. That’s a promise in which we can trust, as sure as the sun will rise.
So while there may be “weeping” in this season, weeping will not have the last word. Joy will have the last word, because God always has the last word.
After all:
Our God is bigger than coronavirus.
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too.
We are people blessing people.
We are Wesley Church.
Blessings,
Pastor Candy
Want to know more?
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- View previous devotionals: https://wesleychurch.com/pastor-candys-devotionals-2/
