Psalms 30

Psalms 30:1

Psalm 30: A Song of HealingMost of us have at one time or another experienced the delicious relief of recovery from a serious illness. We have said goodbye to the sterile world of surgery, anesthesia, intensive care, intravenous feedings, hypodermic injections and the interminable pill parade! It is too easy to think that our recovery was “thanks to modern medicine!” We forget to sing a psalm of thanksgiving to the One who is ultimately responsible for all our healing. But David did not forget. It may be that he had just gotten over a critical illness when it came time to dedicate his house. In any case, the dedication was the occasion for this hymn of praise to Jehovah, his Healer. 30:1-4 It teaches us first of all to extol the LORD with undiluted thanksgiving for the return of good health. David had sunk very low. His life signs were feeble. His foes were all but gloating over his imminent demise. Then he cried out to the LORD in his extremity and the Lord answered by bringing him back from the brink. It was a narrow escape from the dissolution of Sheol, a close call from going down to the grave. Psalms 30 teaches us that we should not only thank God ourselves, but that we should share our exuberance by inviting the saints to join us in praise; let the solo become a choir! The sweet singer of Israel called on all God’s people to sing praise to the LORD and to give thanks to His holy name. 30:5 Then he gives the reason for this praise in the form of two extraordinarily beautiful contrasts. Knox’s translation of this verse is priceless: For a moment lasts His anger, for a life-time His love; sorrow is but the guest of a night, and joy comes in the morning. Let me pause here with a personal story. There was a time when the MacDonald family was plunged into deep sorrow. Friends trooped in to express their condolences, but nothing seemed to assuage the grief. Their words were well-intentioned but inadequate. Then Dr. H. A. Ironside sent a brief note in which he quoted Psa_30:5 : Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.That did it. The bands of sorrow were snapped! Since then I have had occasion to share this verse with many other believers who were passing through the dark tunnel of grief, and always the verse has evoked a nod of gratitude. 30:6, 7 The next lesson in the Psalm is that we should not rest in material prosperity but in God. Before his illness David was prosperous and self-reliant. He thought he was immune from trial and trouble. He was apparently immovablelike a great mountain. He had cushioned himself with every conceivable form of protection and security. It seemed he had nothing to fear. But then something happened. As if overnight, the Lord seemed to hide His face; it seemed as if He were angry and had withdrawn His favor. Life became a nightmare. 30:8-10 But the nightmare produced a sudden change in David’s prayer life. In his prosperity his prayers had been dull and listless. But now in his illness he prayed intently and sincerely. He reasoned with God that if he died, this would not benefit the Almighty. The lifeless remains of the psalmist could not praise Him, nor could his dust declare God’s faithfulness. What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth?To us such an argument does not carry much weight. In fact, it seems grossly deficient from a doctrinal standpoint. But we must be careful not to be too severe on the OT saints. In many ways they saw through a glass darkly. We have two illustrations of this in the Psalm before us. In verse 5 David had interpreted his illness as a sign of God’s anger. We know that God’s chastening is a sign of His love, not of His anger (Heb_12:6). Yet even we ourselves often slip into the fallacious thinking that sickness and suffering are marks of His displeasure. Then in verse 9 David speaks as though death ends all praise on the part of the believer. As far as praise and witness on this earth are concerned, he is of course correct. But we know from NT teaching that a believer’s spirit departs to be with Christ at the time of his death while his body goes into the grave (2Co_5:8; Phi_1:23). The believer himself is in the conscious presence of the Lord, worshiping Him in a way he never could on earth. The OT saints could not have known this. Christ is the One who brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2Ti_1:10). But the remarkable thing is this: with their more limited knowledge in many areas, many OT saints seem to have outstripped us in faith, prayer, zeal and devotion! 30:11 Now back to David. Verses 9 and 10 give us his prayer to God when he was in the throes of his illness. Then between verses 10 and 11 the answer comes. He is healed by the Lord. The last two verses of the Psalm celebrate his recovery. For David it was like the difference between the mourning of a funeral and the joy of a wedding. Or to change the figure, it was like a new suit of clothes. God had removed his sackcloth and dressed him up in garments of gladness. 30:12 One result of David’s healing was that he could now praise the Lord in life rather than lying silent in the grave. And that is exactly what he intended to doto give thanks to the Lord forever. He says, in effect, “I can never forget what the Lord has done for me, and I’ll never cease to praise Him for it.” I don’t know what this Psalm does to you, but it makes me feel ashamed. I think of all the times I’ve been sick, and of the urgent, desperate prayers with which I stormed the gates of heaven, and of how the Lord graciously answered. But then I forgot to come before Him with a thank-offering of praise. I took the healing too much for granted. I neglected to express my thanks. God has given us David’s example not only for us to admire but to follow as well!