I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God,
I cried to You for help, and You healed me.
3 O Lord, You have brought up my soul from Sheol;
You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones,
And give thanks to His holy name.
5 For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for a lifetime;
Weeping may last for the night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.
6 Now as for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I will never be moved.”
7 O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;
You hid Your face, I was dismayed.
8 To You, O Lord, I called,
And to the Lord I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
10 “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;
O Lord, be my helper.”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,
12 That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever. Psalm 30, NASB
Psalm 30, is what Brueggemann would call a psalm of new orientation.[1] In new orientation or reorientation there “is not a return to the old stable orientation, because there is no going back. The psalmists know that we can never go home again.”[2] In new orientation we have changed. We have grown. Healing has occurred. Our relationship with God has changed. Our relationship with others has changed. We have a different outlook on life. The change can be small or it can be monumental, but there is change and we know it. In these psalms we know the psalmist went through something. We know the psalmist made it. But most importantly we know God is and was with the psalmist through everything.
What I love about psalm 30 is how it begins. The writer starts out by praising and thanking God, but pay attention to why God is being praised and thanked. “I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.” The writer is praising God for not letting the enemy rejoice over him/her during the disorientation. How many times have we been in a phase of disorientation and the enemy was not able to rejoice over you? Sometimes because of your prayers or laments to God the enemy was kept at bay or unable to rejoice over the situation. The psalmist continues his/her praise and thanksgiving in verses 2 and 3, by thanking God for all those times they cried for God and God answered by healing him/her during disorientation. The psalmist not only thanks God for the healing, but also thanks God for saving the writer’s soul and body from death.
Verse 5 is one of my favorite Biblical verses. It usually represents a turning point during times of disorientation. I love “His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” For me this verse is a promise from God “that trouble don’t last always.” In verse 6 the psalmist remembers how self-righteous and arrogant he/she was during orientation when everything was going right. The psalmist write, “Now as for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I will never be moved.”’ Verses 7-10 show us a vivid picture of how the writer was thinking and feeling during the orientation phase of life. The writer was conceited and smug until disorientation happened. Now the psalmist looks back to see that the constant pleas and trust during disorientation for God’s salvation brought him/her over.
7 O Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain to stand strong;
You hid Your face, I was dismayed.
8 To You, O Lord, I called,
And to the Lord I made supplication:
9 “What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?
10 “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me;
O Lord, be my helper.”
Verses 11-12 describe the new growth of the writer and the new orientation. The writer realizes that God was always there even in the mourning. God has turned the mourning into dancing. God has loosened their sackcloth[3] and bound them with gladness. In this new life or reorientation, the psalmist’s soul extols and praises God. In this new relationship with God, the psalmist refuses to be silent. The psalmist will give God thanks forever for the healing and the new outlook on life that occurred as a result of having to lean on God totally during disorientation.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, Spirituality of the Psalms (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002).
[2] Ibid, p. 47.
[3] In ancient Israel people wore sackcloth as a sign of mourning or some kind of serious trouble in their lives or sometimes the lives of others.