Psalm 30
Rev. David A. Davis
July 5, 2015
Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30. That’s what jumps off the page from the center of the psalm. Better said, the heart of the psalm. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. The psalmist poetically proclaiming, clinging to the promise of God. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30. Sing praises to the Lord, O you God’s faithful ones. Yes. God’s anger is but for moment by God’s favor is for a lifetime. Yes. Yes. Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me! O Lord be my helper! Yes. You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. Yes. But the heart of the psalm, the signature verse of Psalm 30, the memory verse, the takeaway, the refrain: Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
On its own it doesn’t even sound all that religious. It could have come from Ben Franklin or Shakespeare. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. But here with the psalmist, from the songbook of the people of God, it functions as a bold affirmation about life in God. Without even naming God it is a proclamation about God’s faithfulness and our hope in God. It is the heart of Psalm 30 and as a refrain, as a faith statement, it is etched into the heart of God’s people. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
God’s Morning joy. When you stop and think, this refrain from the psalmist it comes up in so many ways, so many places. Different words. Different phrases. Affirmations of God’s promise of morning joy. Elsewhere in the psalms. Psalm 42. You remember: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God…My tears have been my food day and night while people say to me continually, ‘where is your God?’ Psalm 42 concludes Hope in God; for I shall again praise God; my help and my God. Or to use the psalmist’s other words, Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
God’s morning joy. A few weeks ago in sermon I repeated what you have heard me say many times from this pulpit, “in Jesus Christ our best days are always yet to come.” That’s a variation on the theme. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. When you visit one of the senior saints in the congregation, or when you talk to your grandmother in Illinois, or when you stop to talk to your neighbor who is sitting on the front porch, and when you ask the question, how are you doing today? Then you can hear it, hear the refrain, not in the same words of the psalmist but that affirmation comes something like this, “Well, God blest me with another day” or “I woke up this morning and thanked the Lord for a new day”. Those phrases, those affirmations passed on from generation to generation. That’s not just one of grandpa’s saying. It’s a faith statement. A variation on the refrain. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
I had a church door conversation a while back with someone who took exception to the response of praise that morning in worship. We had sung “Thank you, Lord” A piece that came into our worship out of the context of our partnership with Witherspoon St Presbyterian Church At Witherspoon it is pretty much a weekly part of worship. It’s a short response with a black gospel feel to it. *** “Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord. I just want to thank you Lord.” The second verse, “Been so good, been so good. I just want to thank you Lord”. ***“You know it hasn’t been so good” was the gist of the commentary back at the door. What I thought about later and what could have been a follow up conversation, is how that song functions in worship. How it serves liturgically. It is another take on the psalmist’s refrain; boldly, yet simply, anticipating and proclaiming God’s once and future favor. Like Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. God’s morning joy.
Like the refrain itself, the implied affirmation doesn’t always come draped in religious language. But you have to have eyes to see and ears to here. Just last Saturday there was an article in the paper about the Jerusalem Youth Chorus. It is a choir made up of Palestinian Muslim and Christian teenagers and Israeli Jewish teenagers. They rehearse at the Jerusalem YMCA in West Jerusalem. As you can imagine it is an exceptional and singular effort at crossing boundaries, building friendships, and challenge the status quo of conflict and hate. I read the article on line. As one of their recorded songs was cited, I clicked on it. It was a cover of the song called “Home” by an American Idol artist named Phillip Phillips. For some reason, I have always had an affinity to Philip Phillips (David Davis)! The arrangement from the Jerusalem Youth Chorus enabled me to hear the song in completely different way. The video shows scenes from the region, the members of the choir, iconic views of the Old City of Jerusalem, the wall and its checkpoint. The recording starts with two voices singing, one in Arabic, one in Hebrew. Then as it gets to the familiar English chorus, you can’t help but be struck by the lyrics.
Settle down, it’ll all be clear Don’t pay no mind to the demons They fill you with fear The trouble it might drag you down If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you’re not alone Cause I’m going to make this place your home
Palestinian voices. Jewish voices. Singing together. LISTEN TO THEM. Palestinian voices. Jewish voices. Singing together about turning away from fear and being found and making a home. Singing in Jerusalem of all places. It is a critically relevant, courageously hopeful, creative, musical variation on the theme. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. A divinely inspired hope. God’s morning joy.
I have now listened to and read President Obama’s eulogy for Clementa Pickney several times over; his sermon from a week ago Friday in Charleston, SC. There is a point in that speech where the president shifted from eulogy to preaching. After his words about the slain pastor, after he placed the importance of the Black Church in historical perspective, and right before he started talking about grace, that shift to sermon happened. After he referred to the young perpetrator’s intent to spark civil war, his intent to deepen division that, in the president’s words “trace back to our nation’s original sin”. Then came a remarkable rhetorical, theological turning point in that speech. President Obama, sort of chuckled just a bit and said “Oh….but, Oh”. And he goes on, “But God works in mysterious ways. God has different ideas”. Then he went on to preach about grace. In that turn, that transition, that rhetorical moment when the President said God works in mysterious ways, he could have just as easily have quoted the psalmist. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. He was offering the refrain, a variation on the refrain. He was talking about God’s morning joy.
The person back at the church door pointing out to me that it actually hasn’t been all good, the worshiper want me to know that some days it still feels like night. And of course the person was right. If you read all of Psalm 30, if you put that refrain, the heart of Psalm 30, back into the context, the flow, the move and content of the psalm, it’s clear the psalmist understood that particular church door observation. Before God’s morning joy, there is the crying out, the acknowledgement of a life in hell. O Lord, my God, I cried to you for help….O Lord your brought up my soul from Sheol, from hell. Before the refrain the psalmist tells of weeping and crying for help, a gut wrenching plea to God. Along the way the psalmist admits to the spiritual arrogance, that part of our DNA: “I never thought it would happen to me”. Or in the words of the Psalm 30: As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” And who can’t relate to the honest portrayal of a bit of negotiating with God in a time of trial. “what good can possibly come from my life going to pieces, Lord? When I am done, will the dust sing your praise? Come, God, be my helper!” Yes, the heart of the psalm is God’s morning joy. A testimony to God’s promise framed by a cry for help and a desperate prayer. Yes, some days, many days, it still feels like night, O God. But..so…yet…and…still… Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning..
Last month my wife Cathy and I had dinner with some seminary friends we had not seen in way too long. Robert was my seminary roommate. Robert and Carol have two children both born within days of our children. We haven’t stayed in touch like we should and we basically had a few decades to catch up on. It was one of those old friend moments where you pick up right where you left off without missing a beat. There at the table, over a meal we laughed a lot, we sighed as we shared about our parents death and struggle for health and piece of mind, we radiated joy as we talked about the four children, our stomachs knotted up as they told of their youngest being badly hurt and the nighttime call from campus police. Joy. Weeping. Life. Death. Prayer. Gratitude. We covered it all in one meal. Twenty years or so. It wasn’t “life passing before our eyes”. It was all of life right there with us in that moment, at the table.
That’s what happens every time we come to this Table. You. Me. The honest one from the church door. Some bearing joy. Others dropping tears. Life. Death. Prayer. Gratitude. All of life right here with us at the Lord’s Table. We have it all covered in one meal. A couple in worship who are planning a wedding. The person just home from the hospital with a new hip. Family members in town for a memorial service. Someone having to wait the weekend for the results of test. The parent who FACETIMED yesterday with a child overseas having the time of their life. A visitor who just feels overwhelmed in the world this week. The member here for decades who thinks each Sunday in worship at this point in life is just bonus. Testimonies to God’s promise framed by cries for help and desperate prayers. Here at the Table, it’s Psalm 30, the movement of Psalm 30, all stirred together.
And Jesus, the one who invites us here to the Table. Jesus says, Come unto me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yon and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Or maybe, just maybe, Jesus says, Come, sisters and brothers, for the table is set. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
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