There once was a beautiful English garden of the old Victorian style. It had a flowering hedge, a handful of fruit trees in full bloom, and flowers of every variety. It was an “English” garden, which means that each little cluster of flowers blended into its neighbor. There weren’t distinct patches of pansies, then daisies, then daffodils – they all grew together. An Englishman might like this kind of garden – while a German – not so much. There was a gardener who worked between the bulbs and blossoms in this garden. He was there everyday – except the Lord’s Day. He loved the Lord, and he loved the things which the Lord had created for man’s enjoyment. As this man was pruning and plucking one Friday afternoon, he noticed the western sky getting very dark. Before long the wind became unusually boisterous, the temperature dropped, and huge rain drops began to fall like bombs from heaven. But then the rain changed to hail – some of the biggest hail stones the gardener had ever seen. It pummeled his beautiful garden. The storm brought to the man’s mind the hail that smote the land of Egypt. It battered his little garden, breaking petals and flowers, pounding stems, drowning small shoots. The storm lasted an hour or more – and then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. There appeared a rainbow standing opposite to the setting sun, and the temperature rose just slightly. The hail melted and the rain water soaked into the soil beneath the fruit-trees. What had been a terrible little tempest became a blessing of moisture, clean air and peacefulness.
That little event in that English garden illustrates many such hours in any of our lives. David, in this Psalm, points back to some terrible storms in this life where clouds covered the face of God. He says, “I have had foes who rejoiced against me in my calamities. While my body stood at the grave-side, I thought that my soul had fallen into it.” The word “grave” in verse 3 is “sheol” and is translated “hell” just as often as it is “grave.” He confessed to nights of great weeping. He confessed that God had every right to be angry with him. But once again, the sun which never stopped shining above the clouds, emerged victorious once again. “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
I find David an easy man to love. While being special – a king, a psalmist, a prophet of God, a great man of God…. At the same time he is so typical and representative of a certain segment of humanity – God’s people. In David we find a man without any kind of sugar-coating – he is an open book. Despite his privileges, there was unforgivable rottenness in his bones – just as there is in all of us. But when we read of his repentance & faith in the mercy of God, it is unmistakably honest and humble. David is a type of Christ – a picture of our Saviour – at least up to a point. He is also a type of child of God. He is not a lost man, an unbeliever, a man spiritually dead. He was tempted like as we are – and there were times when he gave in and sinned against his God. He also knew what it was to suffer with depression, destitution, despair, disease and family death.
Yet today, at this very moment, David is rejoicing in Christ Jesus. I can’t say this with scriptural authority, but today he might not remember a single sorrowful night. Is Revelation 21:4 a verse to be applied prophetically towards one specific future day? Or does its blessing apply to David and to the rest of God’s saints the moment they stand before their Saviour? “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” My personal opinion is that Revelation 21:4 has been applies to each of God’s people the moment they leave their earthly lives behind and enter into the Lord’s glory.
According to its title, this Psalm was written at the dedication of David’s cedar house in Jerusalem. It was first sung on day when David’s U-Haul drove up to his brand new mansion. His was not the White House – David’s was more red, umber, russet or perhaps chestnut. And looking at primarily verse 5, I also see two guests, two Intervals, one God and one purpose entering that house. May David be a blessing to your heart here this morning.
Think, first of all, David’s One God.
I think that the second king of Israel had more religious training than the average man in that nation. He appears to have spent time in one of the schools of the prophets which Samuel had established. Whether true or not, I don’t know if David would have ever claimed to be a theologian – but he was. A theologian is simply a student of God, and David was certainly that. But there are two doors into the room of theology – the door of the heart and the doorway of the mind. David was a closet theologian, with the closet being his own soul and devotions. Jesus said, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” David had been richly rewarded, learning more of God than a hundred more average men put together. David was a theologian, because he studied Jehovah through loving eyes as opposed to a critical mind. How does Psalm 29 begin? “Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.” That is – “ascribe to God what is rightfully His.” How does Psalm 30 begin? “I will extol thee, O Lord, for thou hast lifted me up.” And Psalm 31? “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” David knew the Lord – not out of books written by Hodge, Chaffer, Strong and Gill. He had learned of the Lord through the genuine fellowship between his heart and the Lord.
David had no misconceptions about the authority and power God. He acknowledged that Jehovah is the sovereign God and King, even down to the control of the thunder storms of life. There is no question but that God has His days of justifiable anger, and He often permits weeping for a night. Never-the-less, or perhaps because of this, He is worthy of our adoration and unabashed praise and worship. Because, says David, I know from experience that God cares for those whom He loves. And God cares for those who love Him. Do you remember that verse from last week? “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
David speaks here of God’s holiness, His anger and His favor. He suggests that God’s holiness is worthy of our highest praise and thanksgiving. I suppose that every thinking theologian would say that this is true. But David was not basing his exhortation upon the cogitations of his theological mind. Rather this came out of the experiences of his tumultuous life. Notice that verse 5 begins with the little conjunctive word “for.” “Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life.” God’s holiness was something more than textbook jargon; it was life as far as David was concerned. Until we, ourselves, grasp the true definition of the holiness of God, we will never be able to enjoy the full love of God.
And that leads us to our Two Guests: God’s Anger and God’s Favour.
What is the anger of God as we find it here in this verse? The Hebrew root word refers “passion” – to rapid breathing, intensity, a spike in one’s blood-pressure. God gets “excited” at sinners and sometimes immediately displays His displeasure. Is this anger of God the same thing as God’s wrath? I most assuredly think not. God’s anger endureth but a moment, but His wrath, in once sense, is eternal. Thankfully, for the child of God, God’s wrath has been spent upon His vicarious sacrifice – Christ Jesus. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” And God’s wrath towards the soul which is resting under Jesus’ blood is past – it is history.
David shows us what he means by God’s anger in two ways – First, while David’s “Christian” life has not been perfect, to this point has been lived “relatively” cleanly. All the storms which came into David’s garden early in his life were not usually induced by acts of open rebellion on his part. That was not true of events which will come up later – but so far that is basically the case. In other words the “anger” to which he refers should not be directly connected to judgment for sin. Second, David comments on that anger in Hebrew poetic parallelism. “Anger” and “weeping” seem to go together, just as “anger” and “favour” contrast. This anger refers to the storms that beset David’s life from time to time. But in contrast to that there is the blessing of God.
David’s life is typical of your life if you are a child of God, except perhaps, a bit more intense. The mountains in his lifetime may have been higher than yours; ie. you’ve not become king as yet. And David’s valley’s likely were, I hope, lower than what you have endured. That doesn’t mean that I am making light of the pain which you suffer. But that is just the point – look at David and learn, from him, the lessons of weeping. Even the stormy days come out of God’s holiness and His love. He is still on the throne.
But what is the meaning of God’s “favour?” In God’s favour is life. If David had known Paul and heard him preach, he might said, “In God’s Grace there is LIFE.” If David had heard Lord Jesus, he might said, “Blessed are those in Whom God DELIGHTS.” And, “In Christ there is life, and life more abundantly.”
Into every Christian life from time to time there walk two visitors, God’s anger, and God’s favour.
Now think about the Two Intervals of their arrival.
In David’s poetry here, there is more than one bit of parallelism. There are “anger and weeping” and there are “favour and joy.” And then we see “moment” contrasted with “night” and “life” with “morning.” The last two parallels describe the time table of the first two parallels.
I can remember some momentous thunder storms in my life-time. There were a couple from Nebraska which I can remember because they included tornados. There were a couple more storms in Denver I recall because of the hail that came with them. And the house of my childhood stood on a plateau sort of overlooking downtown Denver. I could see almost all the way to Colorado Springs and the immensity of some storms. Because of the beauty of its thunder-head, I remember one storm just outside of Casper, Wyoming. And there was one in Calgary in particular was so violent that several people lost their lives. I can remember a handful of amazing thunder storms in my life-time. But out of the 550,000 hours in my life to this point, those storms would probably add up to less than 1%. The dark days of my life, have been just moments in comparison to the sunny days. And what are our few years in this world compared to the eternity of eternity? And in the last 24 hours, in addition to some clouds, we have spent 6 or 8 of those hours asleep. Do those hours of sleep stand out in your mind like quarter of your day that they really are? Do you remember them the way that you do the rest of your day? Compared to our waking hours, the time which we spend at night is often insignificant.
Some scholars think that the word “life” should be made to apply to “life-time.” For the child of God, the anger of the Lord is a but a moment while His favor is a life-time. Again, theologically, the saint finds that the anger of God is but a moment, but in his favor is life eternal. Then furthermore, isn’t night-time an integral part of our 24 hour day? Isn’t a moment simply a part of the time that we call “our lives?” What I’m trying say is that for the Christian the “moments of anger” are a part of larger whole called “favour and life.”
Every nook and cranny of the life of God’s child is firmly governed by the Lord’s omnipotence. And if the Lord should permit Satan to step in, as he did in Job’s life, it does not mean that the wicked one can do anything which God does not permit. Everything is under the Lord’s control, even the storms of life – down to the individual hail stones. And there has never yet been a night which didn’t dissipate in the sunshine of a new dawn. Your grief, your woe, your pain: these too shall pass. “His anger endureth but a moment; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in morning.”
And the truth is there is a Single Purpose in these things.
This is summarized in verse 4. “Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” When theologians, of intellectual variety have their gardens hit by storms, they sometimes get angry. It’s because they really aren’t true theologians at all. “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.” Similarly, God is a spirit and the only way to know Him is through spirit and heart – not the mind. Theologians of the intellectual variety have no way of blending God’s favor with His severity and His sovereignty. While Job was a true theologian and friend of God, his wife was not. Those whose theology has been entered through worship, can remain in a state of worship even when the thunder is heard and the hail begins to fall. They say with Job, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
Not David, but some people sometimes say, “Oh, my sorrow is unbearable; my pain is eternal.” It is eternal only if you are still dead in your trespasses and sins before the Lord. There waits for David and thousands of others, a glad tomorrow, where the gates of pearl swing open wide. And when they’ve passed this vale of sorrow, they will dwell upon the other side – God’s side. Some day the dark clouds will be rifted, and all the night of gloom be past. And all life’s burdens will be lifted, the day of rest shall dawn at last. Some day beyond the reach of mortal ken, Some day God only knows just where and when. The wheels of mortal life shall all stand still; and we shall go to dwell on Zion’s Hill. Someone once wrote – “When in our Fathers glory; we meet our own once more, we shall scarcely understand why we wept before.”
But the morning will never come to those who reject the Son. Luke 16 describes a man whose earthly life had relatively few stormy days, until he was personally overcome by death. He lifted up his eyes in Hell and torment, for which there was no respite. Why? Because his life was without God. His theology was God-less; which is an absurdity by definition. But then he died and found out that it was too late. There is no comfort that I can offer to that man in his pain, as he continues to live without the Lord. Jehovah may be the God of peace and the God of all comfort, but not towards those who do not love Him, and who have never come to Him in repentance and faith. I plead with you to meet the God that David loved; His name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Christian, cuddle up close to Christ, hide yourself in the shelter of the Rock. This storm will pass.