Will joy really come after my pain?
By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever had one of those nights that took forever to end? Normally, I’m the type who falls asleep the second my head hits the pillow. But one night, after too much caffeine and a heated argument with one of my kids, I found myself still tossing and turning at 2 a.m., trying my best not to wake my sleeping husband.
I prayed. I read news articles on my phone. I flipped through a novel on my Kindle. Nothing worked.
At some point, I slept. The next morning I woke tired but relieved—the hard night was over. My problems hadn’t changed, but my perspective had. Hope had somehow arrived with the new day, and I was better for it.
That’s what comes to mind when I hear the phrase “joy comes in the morning,” that joyful dawn, the hope of a new day, after a tough night or agonizing season. I first heard the phrase during contemporary worship at church in a Jesus Culture song called “Your Love Never Fails.” If you don’t know the song, it’s outstanding and highly Scripture-based—check out the video on YouTube here. The song talks about how, in spite of the painful nights or the raging oceans, God’s love never fails, for joy comes in the morning with God’s offer of new mercy.
The words don’t just make for inspiring song lyrics. King David penned the phrase in the Bible’s Psalm 30, a psalm of gratitude. As David wrote in verses 4-5, “Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
Now, David knew a lot about that never-ending lifelong cycle of joy and pain. While known as a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) who enjoyed an extremely close relationship with the Lord, David struggled deeply in his life. He knew the highs of triumph, love, and leadership and the equal depths of despair in the form of sin, betrayal, and jealousy. (This is the same David who ended up sleeping with his best friend’s wife, then killing his friend so he could marry the woman—he was far from perfect.)
And yet God loved David, and David loved God. In Psalm 30, David thanks God for saving him from ruin.
After a lifetime of understanding the ups and downs of human existence, David understands: Hard times do happen—indeed, they’re expected to happen—just like nighttime falls as the sun sets each day. But joy returns just like the sun rises each morning.
Morning is relative. It’s all in God’s timing, of course. It’s nice and convenient, isn’t it, when it really does happen in the morning, when I wake up relieved—my hard night is done, it’s a fresh new day, hope is on the move. But sometimes the new day doesn’t bring relief. Sometimes we’ve lost someone we love, whether to death or the end of a relationship, and dawn doesn’t magically return them to us. Sometimes, we have to wait for that joy. Sometimes—and this can be a bitter pill—joy doesn’t come until we pass away and we receive our heavenly reward in God’s holy kingdom.
Yet it’s a promise we can trust: after suffering, joy will come. “Morning” will dawn, sooner or later.
Whether you’re in a season of bliss or a season of hardship, know that the hope of God transcends all you are experiencing now. He’s with you in the hard night, the painful days, the backbreaking labor, the heart-wrenching grief… He’s with you always.
Your joy awaits. God bless you!