Scripture Daily

Context No. 1107 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 30:1-12: in context

1I will extol you, LORD, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me. 2LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me. 3LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 4Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of his. Give thanks to his holy name. 5For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning. 6As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” 7You, LORD, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled. 8I cried to you, LORD. I made supplication to the Lord: 9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth? 10Hear, LORD, and have mercy on me. LORD, be my helper.” 11You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness, 12to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent. LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

This is a psalm of thanksgiving after deliverance from a deadly crisis. I will extol you, LORD, for you have lifted me up and not let my foes rejoice over me; you healed me, brought my soul up from the grave. He calls the faithful to praise, with the famous line: his anger is but for a moment, his favor for a lifetime; weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. He admits a lesson learned: in his prosperity he had grown complacent, thinking he would never be moved, until God hid his face and he was shaken. And it ends in praise: you have turned my mourning into dancing.

Two things stand out. First, the honest confession about prosperity: I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. In good times the psalmist had grown quietly self-assured, mistaking God's blessing for his own permanence, until God hid his face and he discovered how quickly his footing gave way. It is a common blindness, that ease breeds a false sense of security, and sometimes God lets the ground shift precisely to teach us that our strength was always his gift, not our possession. Second, the great promise held in the images of night and morning: weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. The night of weeping is real, and it is honestly named; the psalm does not pretend the sorrow away. But it is framed as a night, something with a morning on the far side, whereas God's favor is a lifetime and his anger only a moment. The proportions are set: the weeping lasts a night, the joy comes with the dawn. And the end of it is that God turns mourning into dancing, not merely stopping the grief but transforming it into its opposite. The one who wept in the dark is the one dancing in the light.

Have I grown complacent in easy times, thinking I shall never be moved, and can I hold onto the promise that my night of weeping has a morning, and that God can turn even mourning into dancing?

Sources