For a moment [is passed] in his anger, a life in his favour; at even weeping cometh for the night, and at morn there is rejoicing.
David wrote this psalm after God lifted him out of a deep distress. Verse 5 is the lesson he drew from it: God's anger set against His favour, and one night set against the morning that follows.
Anger Measured Against Favour
The verse does not deny God's anger. It measures it, and sets it against something far larger.
Holiness must have anger against sin. But God's own gracious heart limits that anger. Set side by side, the anger lasts only "for a moment," while His favour (or grace) "is for a lifetime" — with no limit at all. Precious, eternal favour!
One writer answers someone who used this verse to argue about the punishment of the wicked. His reply looks at who the psalm is speaking to.
He also appeals to Psalm 30:5: "His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime." But those words are part of a call to the Lord's saints to sing to Him. The deliverance the psalmist received from his enemies is what illustrates them. They apply to the discipline of the righteous, and not to the punishment of the wicked.
Why The Night Came At All
The psalm has a backstory: the singer had been comfortable, and comfort had done him harm.
As a psalm of experience this one is of high value. It is full of sayings a tested believer can put straight to use. It is the speech of a heart that God had taught deeply in the real secret of faith. The psalmist had tasted prosperity, and it had made him confident in himself. When someone takes the Lord's favour and uses it to prop up his own strength, he is sure to misuse it, and he never really understands it. The believer has to learn resurrection as a preparation for the right use even of the present life.
That reframes what the deliverance is worth. It is not simply the return of the good days.
The great truth of Psalm 30 is a very practical one. The joy that flows from the deliverance the Lord gives is greater and deeper than the blessing of prosperity. That holds true even when we admit the prosperity came from God.
Evening First, Then Morning
The order in the verse is not random. God set evening before morning, and the writer treats that order as a rule rather than a one-off.
Now the cloud had passed and the anger was gone. It really had lasted only a moment. In the favour that followed came "life," in the fullest sense. This holds as a principle for everyone who turns to Him in the same way. Weeping may stay with us at evening, and a night of darkness and distress follows. But God's order is evening first, then the morning. And for the morning He has prepared a song of joy instead of sorrow.
Which Night, Which Morning
Commentators read the night on more than one scale. One is the believer's experience now. Another is a night still to come for Israel.
Just as God's anger is but for a moment, so "weeping may tarry for the night." The Lord is absent from the earth now, and God's people still have to pass through that night. It tests their faith and may cause weeping. The night of the great tribulation will do far more: it will bring unspeakable sorrow and weeping to the godly in Israel.
Each night has its matching daybreak, and the same writer names both.
"But joy comes with the morning." This will be gloriously true for Israel, when "the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings" (Malachi 4:2). The dark night will give way to the bright coming of Israel's Messiah, who will bless His people with the light of the perfect day. For believers today the night is Christ's absence. His return to take His own to Himself will bring in the joy of a new day.
The Pattern Fulfilled In Christ
Christ's own darkest hours — the garden of Gethsemane and then the cross at Calvary — ended the same way.
After sorrow comes rejoicing. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. The noonday darkness of Calvary went deeper than the midnight darkness of Gethsemane. Still, beyond them both was a morning with no cloud and no pain — the morning of resurrection and heavenly glory. Here darkness and tears; there no night, no tears, no sorrow and no sighing.
Summary
- Moment. God's anger against His own is real but measured. Holiness calls for it; grace limits it. The verse speaks of the discipline of the righteous, not the punishment of the wicked.
- Lifetime. Set against that moment is favour with no limit, and in that favour is life itself.
- Night. The dark stretch has a purpose. Good times had bred self-confidence. The believer has to learn resurrection before he can use even this present life well.
- Morning. God's order is evening first, then morning. That holds for everyone who turns to Him, and a song of joy waits on the far side.
- Song. The joy that comes from deliverance runs deeper than the prosperity that was lost. Christ shows the same pattern: His darkness at Calvary gave way to the morning of resurrection.