PSALM 30:5-For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Do we know the Bible tells us God collects our tears? He really does. David writes,“ You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?(Psalm 56:8). This may well be David’s use of an ancient practice of his time as an illustration. Here is a brief description–“Tear bottles, called lachrymatories, were used among the ancients for collecting the tears of mourners. These bottles were then placed in the tombs of the deceased. They were made of glass, pottery, agate, and sardonyx.”

Sit back and think of the various tears we shed in this life. There are tears of sadness, sorrow, loss, disappointment, failed expectations, pain, grief, happiness, joy, and I am sure each of us may add to the list. Our tears, mostly of the painful type this side of heaven, are the results of the Garden of Eden and the entrance of tear-producing sin into our world. They are the reality of living in a fallen and sin-cursed world. Even our Lord Jesus saw the results of the fall at a funeral and wept (John 11:17-44). But . . . and this is a good “but” about our tears and comes from today’s scripture. It is a simple and powerful truth comforting us during those painful tear-shedding seasons in our lives.

Toward the end of the verse, David reminds us of the duration of our weeping or tear-shedding. He states, “weeping may tarry for the night.” Obviously he is not referring to literal night. When combined with “joy comes with the morning”, we see the illustration, even contrast, between this life and the next.

In this life, there is much darkness (night-time) associated with sin. In the next life, there is nothing but light (morning) and that because of the absence of sin and the Presence of Christ. As we experience the reality of the former and get glimpses of the latter, the key lesson is to remember that our weeping, our tear-shedding, and crying will be over–soon. Yes, it doesn’t always feel that way when the circumstances causing our tears linger, but morning is coming. Him who is our morning is coming and those tears we shed in the night time of this life? Let’s end today’s nugget with what is going to happen to them . . .

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”(Revelation 21:1-4).

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the sure promise someday, and soon, all my tears will be wiped away; gone forever.”

QUOTE: “Jesus wept and knows every tear we ever shed and will turn all our tears of sorrow into tears of joy-forever.”

Because of Him,

Pastor Jim