Psalm 30
A psalm. A song.
For the dedication of the temple.
Of David.
This Psalm was written either for the dedication of temple (which happened after his death) or else the consecration of the tabernacle when David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem and “danced before the Lord with all his might” (2 Samuel 6:14). The psalm divides into three parts, with the reason for the rescue (in the first part) not mentioned until the second, after the singer is safe and sound.
1 I will exalt you, LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 LORD my God, I called to you for help,
and you healed me.
3 You, LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
you spared me from going down to the pit.
4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people;
praise his holy name.
5 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.
David also sang “out of the depths” in Psalm 130, although there the word was ma’amachim, “deep places.” Here the whole phrase “you lifted me out of the depths” is a single Hebrew word, dilithani, “you drew me from the watery deep.” The picture is of God bringing the singer up like an ice cube with a ladle from a punchbowl.
Gus Grissom became the second American to ride a rocket into outer space in the summer of 1961. When his capsule, Liberty Bell 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean, a hatch blew off and the capsule filled with water, and Grissom almost drowned when his suit also filled up with water. A helicopter (spraying a storm of water into Grissom’s face as it descended) had to abandon the almost priceless capsule in order to save Gus Grissom’s life.
The difference between Grissom’s incident and the way God rescues us is that Gus wasn’t at fault when he was rescued, even though at the time an awful lot of people thought that he was. But we are at fault for our sins, yet God has scooped us up from drowning in our guilt and shame.
Let your heart linger on David’s perfect words: His anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. That’s an eternal lifetime for us.
6 When I felt secure, I said,
“I will never be shaken.”
7 LORD, when you favored me,
you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.
8 To you, LORD, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 “What is gained if I am silenced,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, LORD, and be merciful to me;
LORD, be my help.”
The predicament David describes is a time when he felt secure, but found out that when we rely on ourselves, we’ve turned away from relying on God. David realized that a fall into sin is a fall into hell if we turn away from God. If our boasting outshouts the voice of Christ, then what good are we? What do we accomplish if our vainity, our pride and our arrogance send us sliding into the pit of sheol, the realm of death as our souls await the judgment of a wrathful God to damnation? God made us to praise him. God made us to proclaim his faithfulness. When we turn from him, we throw all his gifts away. So David prays, “Be merciful to me, help me.”
11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
LORD my God, I will praise you forever. (NIV)
At last, filled with the knowledge of God’s forgiveness and love, David cuts loose and dances. His words are completely uninhibited. His mourning (“sackcloth”) is gone, and his “heart” praises God. The word for “heart” here is kabod, “glory,” and the Latin translation even has gloria mea, “my glory.” But the root meaning of kabod is “heaviness,” since we give God his full “weight” when we glorify him—we don’t make light of him. Or as Paul said about Christ, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things” (Colossians 1:19). So we see that David’s whole being, all his weight and fullness, or perhaps what was formerly the fullness or heaviness of his heart, are now lifted up in praise to God, and no part of David is held back in silence.
True thankfulness from repentance shows itself when we let loose and let go of all our grief and sorrow over sin, and we don’t hold any part of ourselves in sad or sour reserve, but we praise God completely and fully with our hearts and minds and body and strength.
Imagine what it will be like to praise him forever!
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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