His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime

Psalm 30 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death.

A Psalm of David.

I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
² O Lord my God,
I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
³ O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol;
You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
⁴ Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones,
And give thanks to His holy name.
⁵ For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.

⁶ Now as for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I will never be moved.”
⁷ O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;
You hid Your face, I was dismayed.
⁸ To You, O Lord, I called,
And to the Lord I made supplication:
⁹ “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?

¹⁰ “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;
O Lord, be my helper.”
¹¹ You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
¹² That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

The psalmist says:  Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, And give thanks to His holy name.  For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.  God’s anger against sin was dealt with in a moment, when on the cross Jesus bore the sins of the world. In Matthew 27:45-46 it says:  Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Then in John 19:30 Jesus said:  “It is finished!”  In that moment grace replaced anger. It is finished. Romans 6:23 says: The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Rather than death, we are the recipients of a lifetime of God’s favor by grace.

Those who knew Jesus, wept and mourned while He was in the tomb, but joy came on the morning of the resurrection. That same joy is a powerful force in the life of a believer. Nehemiah 8:10 says:  Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. A familiar song written by Bill and Gloria Gather says:  And because He lives, I can face tomorrow Because He lives, all fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth a living just because He lives.   As believers, we should see morning; each new day as an opportunity to live in the joy and the power of the resurrection.  All fear is gone. In Psalm 23:4 the psalmist says: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.  Even death has no power over us as believers. It is merely a shadow with no substance because we live with Christ. He has given us eternal life (John 3:16) and abundant life (John 10:10). In John 16:33 He says: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”   Romans 8:35-39 says:  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The psalmist says:  “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me; O Lord, be my helper.”  You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,  That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.   Amen.