God Favors Life

“For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Ps 30:5 AV)

I thought this quote was very appropriate. “We die like withered flowers when the Lord frowns, but his sweet smile revives us as the dews refresh the fields. His favour not only sweetens and cheers life, but it is life itself, the very essence of life. Who would know life, let him seek the favour of the Lord.” – R.A.Torrey.  Yet, there is another way of looking at the underlined portion of our text.  Many commentators look at the underlined portion comparing it to the moment of anger.  In other words, God’s pleasure is to give life.  Or, anger might be for a moment, but it is the LORD’s favor to give life as opposed to anger.  This may be the better way of looking at it.  Or, at least that is how we will look at it this morning.

As children, we all those teachers we didn’t understand.  We thought they were authoritative and overbearing.  We believed them to be unreasonable and enjoyed making the lives of their students a miserable experience.  They never smiled.  They never laughed.  They never use a curve to grade papers, tests, or final grades.  We wondered if they had any joy at all.  I went to Catholic schools most of my childhood.  If there were any teachers like the above, they were probably nuns.  Nuns had the reputation of being stern and without and happiness about them.  As a whole, they didn’t like their calling and of all creatures, the most miserable.  At least that is what I thought until we had a class picnic.  Our teacher took us on a field trip to a nearby historic landmark home that was several hundred years old.  It had a stunning flower garden in the back.  The work that went into that garden was mind-blowing.  After our picnic, our teacher took us back to the sister’s house and we hung out while she went and got changed.  She came down the stairs and gone was her black dress with a collar.  Gone was her habit.  That weird headdress they wear.  She was normal!  From her home, we went to a park.  There, our class had several activities in which she fully participated.  It was not a rare occurrence to see her plastered with water balloons.  Imagine!  A nun who laughed!  A nun who ran around like a silly school girl!  A nun who wanted her class to have fun!  This was not at all normal!

If we are not careful, we can imagine a God who is only stern and authoritarian.  We can see Him as a Creator preoccupied with judgment and punishment as though these pursuits are His pleasure.  We can think of God as an ogre who wishes only to torment His creation because of all their wickedness.  He would be justified in doing so.  But that is not God’s heartbeat.  In His pleasure is life.  He loves life.  Otherwise, He would not have created.  The very act of creating speaks to God’s priority to life.  Life is His pleasure.  This may seem obvious.  Yet, when adverse circumstances enter life, the first thing that comes to mind is an angry God.  His anger is but for a moment.  Our life should be defined by His favor.  This is the meaning above.  We tend to look only at the negative and fail to see the positive.  In His favor is life.  He desires the blessings of life to abound to our account.  He is not trying to make our lives horrible.  Adversity cannot be avoided.  It is part of our human experience.  It was introduced because of Adam’s sin.  But through that adversity is life.  Life because of God’s favor.