Well, let's turn to the psalm number 30 this evening. The psalm number 30. We welcome you. I want to thank you for coming and making that effort to come away from your work and to be in the house of God. We greatly appreciate it. And for those who are watching in online, we welcome you in the Savior's precious name. So we're in psalm 30. This evening let's read the psalm together and let's hear the word of God as we find it here in this 30th psalm. The psalm is as David said, I will extol thee O Lord for thou has lifted me up and has not made my foes to rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave. Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but for a moment. In his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And in my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. Lord, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. I cried unto thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood? When I go down to the pit, shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness. To the end, that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee. Amen and we'll conclude at the end of the verse number 12. Well the circumstances leading to the composition of many of the Psalms And while that is left for us to try and decipher from the internal evidence as to the circumstances leading to the composition of those psalms, that is not the case for this particular psalm that we have come to read this evening, the 30th psalm. The title of the psalm gives to us the specific event that led to David penning this sacred composition, a psalm and song at the dedication of the house of David. All the details that we have mentioned in the psalm seem to align themselves with the time that David erected a house of his own on Mount Zion and the act of dedicating that house to the Lord. And so before we consider the psalm, I suppose it would be best for us to turn to that portion that describes what happened. So let's turn to 2 Samuel and the chapter number five, and read about this particular account. David has just come to the throne. He has been on the throne for quite some time in Hebron, and now he's looking a place to establish his capital. and thus he looks towards the city of Jerusalem. In verse number six it says, and the king and his men went to Jerusalem, on to the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, except thou take away the blind and the lame, I shall not come hither, thinking David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. And David said on that day, whosoever getteth up to the gutter and smited the Jebusites and the lame and the blind that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. We're off. Or wherefore, they said, the blind and lame shall not come into the house. So David dwelt in the fort and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millau and inward. And David went on and grew great. And the Lord God of hosts was with him. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons. And they built David a house. David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people, Israels. sake in gratefulness to god for all that god had now allowed him to accomplish and see now the nation once divided now joined together under his reign david now comes to pay in this psalm of thankfulness i suppose we come to learn a lesson from david's response because we learn the lesson that any venture that we embark upon in our Christian lives and any victories associated with such ventures, all of these should be dedicated to the Lord. All glory should be ascribed to the Lord who has enabled us to secure such victories in our ventures. And this is what David comes to do. He comes to ascribe to God all the glory with regard to the victory there at Jerusalem and the venture of the building of this particular house. Now unlike other weeks where we have looked at really the entirety of the psalm and we've attempted very quickly to glean from all of its verses the various truths that we find therein, tonight I want to hone in on one particular verse and to preach upon it. And it'll come as no surprise to you that it is the verse number five. For there we read, for his anger endureth for a moment, and his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And really it is that final or those final two statements that I want to preach upon this evening. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The place is Holland. The year is 1567. The country is overrun with Spanish troops led by the notorious and cruel Duke of Alva, the Iron Duke, who represents the secular arm of the papacy and of the Spanish Inquisition. His mission, to bring the country back under the yoke of Spanish rule and back into the arms of the Mother Church. His dreaded courts have already sentenced thousands to torture, to imprisonment, and to the stake. During the six years of governmanship, no less than 18,000 Protestants were executed. In one of the Duke's dungeons lies a notable prisoner. His name, John Herwin. In his dreadful prison, he simply sings. Just like Paul and Silas did in Acts chapter 16. In prison, he sings. And such is his singing that we're told by one of his biographers that he was wont to recreate himself by singing. And the people used to flock together to the prison door to hear him. Enraged by that, the adversary sentenced Herwin to death. At the place of execution, he lifts his voice and he sings. An angry curate priest interrupts him and tries to silence him. However, Herwin signals and gestures to the crowds, who in response, they lift their voices and join him in his song. And what does he sing? As he's about to be martyred for the faith, he sings Psalm 30. But for a moment lasts his wrath, life in his fever lies, weeping may for a night endure, at morn does joy arise. Having finished singing the entirety of the psalm, his executioners first of all strangle him to death, Then they reduce his body to simply a pile of ashes. Think of it, even at the stake, when the faggots were piled high and the fetters weighing down every limb, martyrs for the faith have sung the promises of God and have passed into heaven itself with the words upon their very lips. It was Psalm 30 that was sung. at this martyr's death. But back to our text, there are a number of things that I want to highlight to you. I want you to notice, first of all, the sequence within the verse. The sequence within the verse. Let's read that statement at the end of the verse five again. Weeping may endure for a night. But joy cometh in the morning. And we often consider a 24-hour day in terms of a morning that is then followed by a night. And you find the Spirit of God deliberately directs the inspired payment to reverse that order. And instead, he speaks, first of all, that is then followed by a mourning. That is no mistake. In actual fact, that is the divine order. It's an order that is seen in the very first chapter of the word of God. Turn to Genesis chapter one, and let's trace this statement as we find it throughout this chapter that really catalogs for us the six days of creation. Verse number five. It says, God having saw the light and divided the light from the darkness, we read in verse five, and God called the light day and the darkness night. There it is, day and night. Now that's the order, but notice it says, and the evening and the morning were the first day. There's the order. The evening and the morning were the first day. Look down there at the verse eight. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. Verse 13. And the evening and the morning were the third day. Verse 19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Verse 23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. Verse 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. In God's order of things, evening precedes the morning. Night comes before day. And as Christians, we need to remember this. The dark night always comes before the bright day. This world is the Christian's night. This is our night. We're presently passing through its gloom and its darkness, but we're headed for the light of God's eternal day. According to the book of the Revelation, there is no night in heaven. John writing in Revelation 22 verse 5 speaks of heaven in this way. Heaven is the eternal morning. But here, is night. Darkness surrounds us in this world. The darkness of sin causes this world to be a gloomy place for the Christian pilgrim. And thus the order is right within the verse. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. We need to learn from the divine order of this particular psalm. We learn that God often gives us darkness before he brings us to the light, Mr. Spurgeon. And some comforting thoughts with regard to the divine order that we have in this particular passage and also in Genesis chapter one, placing the evening before the morning. And this is what he said, learn first, to be content with this divine order, and be willing with Job to receive evil from the hand of the Lord as well as good. Study next to make the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. Praise the Lord for the sun of joy when it rises and for the evening as it falls. He said there is beauty both in sunrise and in sunset. Sing of it and glorify the Lord. Believe that the night is as useful as the day. He said, the Jews of grace fall heavily in the night of sorrow. The star of promise shines forth merrily amid the darkness of grief. Continue thy service under all changes. If in the day thy watch would be labor, at night exchange it for watch. Every hour has its duty. Do thou continue in thy calling as the Lord's servant until he shall suddenly appear in his glory. My soul, thine evening of old age and death is drawing near. Dread it not, for it is as part of the day as the Lord has said, I will cover him all the day long. The night precedes the morning. And so, beloved, we need to be realistic in our estimation of this world. It's always going to be night for us here. This is our night. Our morning is yet to break. The dawn of the eternal morn is yet to break. This is night for the child of God, the divine order, the divine sequence. within the verse but i want you to notice in the second place the sorrow within the verse david speaks about weeping weeping may endure for a night now we only come to weep whenever we are filled with sorrow for the christian and for the non-christian this world is a world that is full of its sorrows. It is a veil of sorrows. Sin has caused that to be so. When God communicates to Adam and Eve the consequences of their sin, he will remind them in Genesis chapter 3, the verses 16 and 17, that sorrow was going to haunt them throughout their journey, throughout this dark world. He said unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow. and thy conception, in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And so there was sorrow for the woman, and there was also going to be sorrow for the man. And unto them, Adam, he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat if it curses the ground for thy sake, In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Sorrow is a consequence of the fall. And although we have been redeemed by Christ, we still live in a fallen world. And therefore, being surrounded by a fallen world and living with fallen individuals, we're going to find our lives full of sorrow, full of trouble, and full of grief, and full of tears. And so there's going to be weeping. Weeping may endure for a night. There's going to be many a tear, many a tear. This world is a place of sighing and sorrowing, especially for the child of God. It's undoubtedly a veil of tears for the believer. Presently our sorrows arise from many quarters. Could I suggest in the first place that the devil causes us to sorrow at times. He is our adversary, and at times we feel his fiery darts within our souls. He causes us at times to doubt our salvation. He lures us away from the lover of our souls, which is always a departure that is marked by sorrow. He tempts us to sin, and then whenever we fall into such temptations and sin, we mourn and lament how quickly we have lapsed into sin. What sorrow He inflicts upon the believer, all in attempt all in an attempt to sideline the child of God and the work of God and to disqualify them in the service of the king. He is a great source of sorrow, the devil or adversary. Disease causes us to sorrow, sickness. Sickness can be the source of many a tear. whether that is personal sickness in her own bodies, or whether that is with regard to someone within the family unit. How many go to their beds at night and wet their pillow with tears, such as the pain that they're enduring in their own bodies and in their own frames. And they know what it is to weep in the night, such as their grief and sorrow, such as their pain, that they weep themselves to sleep. What do we read about David there in Psalm 6? In Psalm 6, in the verse six and seven, we read about David's experience. He says, I am weary with my groaning. All the night make I my bed to swim. I water my couch with my tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief. And what is the source of this grief? Well, look back at the verse number two. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. Oh Lord, heal me for my bones are waxed. It seems to be that there is a physical sickness that has come upon David's physical frame. And as a result of that, and as a consequence of that, here we find a man, a man going to bed crying, weeping because of his sickness. Not only that, but death causes us to sorrow. The death of a family member, a husband, a wife, a child, a brother, sister, maybe a close personal friend. It all brings with it its sorrow. What heart-wrenching sorrow the widow feels when her husband is gone from her side. What grief a child experience when mother or father is taken away from them in death. What anguish a friend comes to know when their earthly companion is no longer available to speak to here on earth. When Lazarus died, the Son of God came to express his sorrow at such an event. through his own tears. He stands at the grave of Lazarus and the scripture simply says Jesus wept. He felt the weeping, the sorrow, the sorrow inflicted because of death and how real it is and how difficult it is to get over a death within a family circle, within a home. Oh, there's sorrow because of division. Divisions in families and homes and church and among friends. It brings with it great sorrow. Sorrow to the individual. Sorrow to all who are involved. Sorrow to the onlooker. Aye, and sorrow to the heart of God as well. Oh, there's weeping then. And then our defeats in our Christian lives. There's sweeping at times accompanies that. sorrow accompanies every defeat in our christian life we mourn having let the lord down having known the scriptures and knowing what we ought to have done and we failed to do it and we find ourselves having then engaged in some activity some sin having failed the lord having as a result of of rage as a result of temptation overtaking us. We find ourselves that night mourning because of our sin. A portrait of such sorrow you'll come to find in Luke chapter 22. In the Lord's eyes, meet Peter's eyes across the high priest's courtyard. You'll all know what happened. Peter has denied his Savior with cursing and swearing. Luke tells us there that Peter went out and wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. As is the case, tears of sorrow often follow our sins, our defeats in the Christian life, all the weeping that there is in our lives as a result of our failures. I'm sure you could add many another source from which sorrows arise, but these are sufficient enough, I believe, to impress upon our hearts that this world is a veil of tears. Earth's night. Earth's night is one that's marked by weeping. We are to expect it. We're not to be surprised by it, brother, sister, when it becomes our experience. Many will be the tears we shed because of our sorrow, broken-hearted over our unsaved loved ones that care not for their soul, distressed over our own behavior, at times distraught over personal or family sickness. What a long night of weeping we face in our world. And yet while there is sorrow within the verse, we don't end there to depress ourselves. If that's all that we had, well, what a poor, what a poor message it would be tonight. And yet the psalmist doesn't end there. He doesn't end in the state of weeping during the night. but he goes on to speak about joy coming in the morning. And so we find here thirdly and finally the succor that is within the verse, the sequence of the verse, night before morning, the sorrow in the verse, weeping, weeping, enduring for a night. Now the succor, joy cometh in the morning. Now some people believe that the verse turns Is it where it comes out of the valley? Where does it turn? You ask yourself the question, where does the verse turn? Some people believe that it turns at the word but, but being a conjunction, a sort of a pivot upon which the verse changes. The whole tenor of it begins to change. But could I suggest to you that the verse changes direction just a little bit before that, because I believe it turns at the statement, for a night. That's where it turns. Weeping may endure for a night. In actual fact, I believe it actually turns one word on up the verse. I believe it turns at the word Endure. Weeping may endure for a night. And I say that because the word endure, it means this. Lodge. Lodge. It can be translated stay the night. Stay the night. A one night stay, as it were. Weeping is not a resident. Weeping is a lodger. Weeping may lodge for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. It only lodges. You know what a lodger is? They only stay a little period of time, and then they're away. A resident is there for good. Well, for the child of God, weeping is not a resident. Weeping is but a lodger. Weeping may lodge for one night, a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Notice our weeping is said to last for a night. Weeping may endure for a night. Now notice that the verse does not state that our weeping is going to be forever. We don't read that. I don't read that word in my Bible. You shouldn't read it in your Bible, and if you do, you may get yourself a new Bible, because there's something wrong with your Bible. It doesn't say weeping may endure forever, because that's not the case for the child of God. Weeping may endure for a night. In other words, there is a limit to our weeping. There's a limit to our weeping. I know if you're anything like me, you want your night of weeping to be of a 12-hour period. It's your hope, your aspiration that tomorrow morning you'll wake up and all your weeping's over with regard to whatever difficulty you're presently going through or the difficulty that you will be going through. But you know, a better way to look at this night in the verse is to look at it in terms of our lives on this earth. Life in this world, I've said, is a night of weeping. But that night is going to soon come to an end. Going to come to its natural end, save the Savior's return. Death will take us from this place of tears and transport us to the place where there is no more crying and where there are no more tears. Now don't get me wrong, I believe that God can intervene into circumstances and into problems and into difficulties. Don't get me wrong, I believe that God can do that. I believe that God can cause our sorrow to be turned into joy. But if that never happens in this life, it will come in the life that is yet to come. It will come. God will make sure that he will wipe away all tears from arise when we reach heaven. When our days of mourning here on earth are ended, we will enter our eternal reward. And when we do that, earth's sighing will give way to heaven's singing. Earth's weeping will give way to heaven's worship. Earth's disappointment will give way to heaven's delight. Earth's heartaches will give away to heaven's happiness. James Smith said, morning, though lengthy, is limited. Though sharp, it must be short. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. That morning will soon break upon us, and all its glorious consequences will be realized by us. Yes, soon, very soon, the days of our mourning shall be ended. We come to leave this night of weeping behind. We will be divested of our sackcloth. and we will be robed with the garment of everlasting praise. The sackcloth being the garment of grief and mourning, the garment of everlasting praise being ours through Jesus Christ. Child of God, what joy awaits us? What joy awaits us in the eternal morning? You see, all that causes us to weep here on earth will not be found in heaven. There's no sickness there. Remember I mentioned that. But there's no sickness in heaven. And Satan is banished from such a place. He has his own place reserved for him in the bottomless pit. And as for sorrow, well, that is an unknown emotion in glory, and there's no death in heaven, and there's no separation caused by strife. It's unheard of among heaven's residents. And as for slippages and falls into sin, that'll never happen in our glorified bodies, for we will be there never to sin again. And thus, all that causes us to weep now will not be present in that better land. And that is why the Psalmist, he says in Psalm 16, verse 11, that in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Oh, unutterable joy! Oh, unparalleled happiness! Oh, the unconceivable glory that awaits the child of God on heaven's happy shore. And therefore, it is for us to keep the prospect of the morning before us, heaven's morning, to keep that prospect of heaven before us as we make our way through this dark and dreary and depressing world. I say, child of God, cheer up. Cheer up, brother. Take heart, sister. it's better up ahead. Joy cometh in the morning. How different our latter end is compared to the latter end of our unsaved loved ones. While our mourning will be turned into laughter and joy, their laughter and joy will be turned into mourning. While our weeping will cease forever, Theirs will have only begun. Those who fail to mourn and to weep over their sins in time will have an eternity to mourn and weep over their sins when they face eternal punishment for them. For there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Brethren and sisters, we need to keep this before us too. Their loved ones, their friends, their neighbors, who will eternally weep in hell's never-ending night. But all of their weeping will be of no avail. All their weeping and all their tears will be to no avail. May such a truth stir us to do all that we can to win them to Christ, reminding ourselves of the night of weeping, that they will enter and never, ever leave. And so remember, child of God, the time of trial is short. Weeping may endure for a night, It's called elsewhere a day of adversity, an hour of affliction. Our afflictions are but for a moment, is what Paul says. Heaven's joys, they're forever. Let this truth then encourage all who are enduring a night of weeping. May it be to the encouragement of your heart that your mourning will only last until the morning. Joy cometh in the morning. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts for the Savior's sake, amen. Let's bow briefly in prayer. Our gracious and loving Father, we thank thee for our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. who in Gethsemane's garden prayed with strong crying and with tears, and yet for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. The Savior passed through the night of weeping. He traversed through the valley of Baca, the valley of tears, and he came out the other side and climbed the hill of the Lord, his weeping most certainly endured for a night, but joy is now his in the morning. And we praise thee, dear God, that our night of weeping, Lord, even if it lasts all of our time on earth, We bless thee that joy will break in the morning when we find ourselves in the better land. Bless thy good word to our hearts, we pray. May it have been an encouragement to some individual, maybe someone, who found themselves weeping even as they made their way to the house of God. Lord, we pray, having seen their tears, And having now poured into their souls the consolation of thy word, may they leave with joy in their hearts as they consider all that God has promised to them, even in his word. So answer prayer and continue to be with us when we get to prayer, for we offer these petitions in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen.