From the Codex (emphasis mine):
In standard usage (within the default, unaltered loop) next_post_link
will generate a link to a post that is newer (more recent) than the
current post. This is in contrary to the similarly-named
previous_posts_link, which will typically link to a page of posts that
is older than the current batch.
It sounds like you just have different expectations about what “next” and “previous” means (I think if you asked me I would’ve guessed the opposite of this too).
If your – or more importantly, your readers’ – conception of what next and previous means is different, then just swap the order of the links and change the labels to the opposite:
<?php next_post_link( '« %link' ); ?> | <?php previous_post_link( '%link »' ); ?>
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