Psalms 30
Butler1. I WILL extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast raised me up, And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. 3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol: Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. 4 Sing praise unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, And give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment; In his favour is life: Weeping may tarry for the night [or, come in to lodge at even], But joy cometh in the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.
THIS Psalm was composed after recovery from a sickness which had very nearly proved fatal. The singer begins with an ascription of praise to God for His great goodness, and calls upon all who, like himself, had known the lovingkindness of Jehovah, to join him in his thanksgiving. Thence he passes (v. 6) to a recital of his own experience, his pleading with God in his affliction, and God’s answer to his prayer. P.
The historical occasion of the Psalm is furnished by the narrative in 2 Sam. 24 and 1 Chr. 21. David’s presumption in numbering the people had been punished by a pestilence, which raged until the destroying angel had, in answer to the king’s prayer, been required to sheathe his sword. The spot where this indication of God’s mercy had been given was immediately purchased by David, and consecrated by the erection of an altar, upon which he offered sacrifices, and received the Divine approbation in the gift of fire from heaven. This place the king expressly calls the house of God (1 Chr. 22: 1), as the designated site of the temple, for which he immediately commenced his preparations, and in reference to which this Psalm might well be called a song of dedication, although naturally more full of the pestilence and the sin which caused it, than of the sanctuary yet to be erected. A.—That spot of hallowed
7. Thou, LORD, of thy favour hadst made my mountain to stand strong: Thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled. 8 I cried to thee, O LORD; And unto the LORD I made supplication: 9 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? 10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper. 11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness: 12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
associations David bought, and then built there an altar, offered sacrifices which the Lord signally answered by fire from heaven; whereupon David accepted these facts as God’s own consecration of this spot to be the site of the future temple—in a sort, a dedication of its corner stone—and forthwith proceeded to make preparation for the temple on this very ground. “Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel” (1 Chr. 22: 1).
2,3. It is at least supposable that the pestilence before which seventy thousand fell touched David’s person, though not fatally. Upon his humble cry to God, healing mercy came and brought him up from the jaws of death. His words mean precisely, Thou hast spared me alive from those (or out of those) who were going down by thousands to the grave. These words become specially pertinent under the supposition that he was attacked by the great plague, but restored in answer to his prayer. C.
3. Sheol, going down into the pit, i.e., dying. Made me alive from them, i.e., separated me from them by restoring or preserving my life, so that I no longer can be numbered with them. A.
4. Singing God’s praise is a work of the most meditation of any we perform in public. It keeps the heart longest upon the thing spoken.
Prayer and hearing pass quick from one sentence to another; this sticks long upon it. Meditation must follow after hearing the Word, and praying with the minister—for new sentences, still succeeding, give not liberty in the instant well to muse and consider upon what is spoken; but in this you pray and meditate. How fairly may the heart spread itself in meditation on the thing while singing it over! Our singing is measured in deliberate time not more for music than meditation. He that seeks not finds not this advantage in singing Psalms, hath not yet learned what it means. John Lightfoot.
His holy name; lit. “His holy memorial,” with reference, no doubt, to the passage (Ex. 3 : 15), “This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” God’s name is His revelation of Himself, in all His various attributes of love, wisdom, power, holiness, truth, righteousness. God’s memorial is that great history of redemption which was, so to speak, the setting up of a monument to His glory, on which all these attributes were inscribed. P.—The American Committee have brought out the idea precisely in translating: “Give thanks to His holy memorial name.” E. C. B.
5. The things of this Psalm are of continual interest. They do not belong to any one time or any one type of experience. Some of the notes in it are suitable to home and family and individuals through all the years of their history. Eminently so is this fifth verse, which tells us of the bitter and the sweet, the dark and the light, which run, in various distribution, along human lives. The underlying doctrine is the great doctrine or fact that “God is love,” that love runs through all, rules over all, explains all. Raleigh.
A reason why God’s saints should praise Him—because He manifests Himself to them in love, not in wrath; or if in wrath, but for a moment. Love rules over all. The literal rendering of the verse is: “For in His anger is (but) a moment, in His favor a life; in the evening, weeping may come in to pass the night; but with the morning (there is) a shout of joy.” The parallelism is carefully preserved in each member—“anger . . . favor;” “a moment . . . a life;” “evening . . . morning;” “weeping . . . joy.” Weeping is described under the image of a wayfarer who comes in at evening to lodge for the night. The suddenness and surprise of gladness, on the other hand, in the morning, are beautifully represented by the simple “at dawn, a shout of joy,” without a verb. Just as the sun in Eastern lands, without any long prelude of twilight to announce his coming, leaps, as it were, in a moment above the horizon, so does the light of God’s love dispel in a moment the long night and darkness of sorrow. See the beautiful parallel, Isa. 54 : 7, 8. P.
So brief and transient are the moments of God’s displeasure; so soon His anger passes away and His favor brings life out of threatened death. One night of tears; but with the morning, songs of joyful deliverance! Such for the most part is human life. Health the rule; sickness the exception; comfort fills out the years; pain and anguish are shut into the moments: weeping sometimes all the night, and then relief and joy for the days and years that follow. C.
To man pain is the exception and pleasure is the rule. His memories of pain, it is true, are ever more vivid than those of pleasure, and far more disposed is he to talk of his trials than his blessings; but is not the very rarity of his sufferings as compared with his enjoyments the cause of this? The uncommon ever makes a deeper impression than the general—the incidental exception than the general rule. The whole suffering of humanity here is but as one stormy night in the voyage of its earthly history; it is but a cloudy moment in a bright day of life. Evil is but a passing note or two at most in creation’s long and joyous anthem. Hornily.—In the deepest night of sorrow God gives us so much to be thankful for that we need never cease our singing. With all our wisdom and foresight, we can take a lesson in gladness and gratitude from the happy bird that sings all night as if the day were not long enough to tell its joy. Coleridge.
The believer’s mourning shall last but till morning. God will turn his winter’s night into a summer’s day, his sighing into singing, his grief into gladness, his mourning into music. The life of a Christian is filled up with interchanges of sickness and health, weakness and strength, crosses and comforts, miseries and mercies, joys and sorrows, mirth and mourning; all honey would harm us, all wormwood would undo us; a composition of both is the best way in the world to keep our souls in a healthy constitution. It is best and most for the health of the soul that the south wind of mercy and the north wind of adversity do both blow upon it; and though every wind that blows shall blow good to the saints, yet certainly their sins die most and their graces thrive best when they are under the drying, nipping north wind of calamity, as well as under the warm, cherishing south wind of mercy and prosperity. T. Brooks.
In spite of all that life can bring to shake our calmness of enduring faith, we have something within us (if we be Christians indeed) which the world cannot reach. Joys—secret but pervading joys—are treasured in the believer’s heart, though oftentimes he cannot himself measure the degree, or trace the source, of his own emotions! And in this gloomy night of life—waiting for the everlasting day, we must have patience, even though we cannot yet catch the dawnings of the morn—though we must live by sober faith, and be, for a while, the calm expectants of glory. W. A. B.
It is true of every individual Christian that to him the morning cometh. Long he may watch; and “hope deferred may make the heart sick;” and his faith may be ready to faint, but still it is true that to him brighter times will come, and on him the day-star of hope and salvation will arise. Or even should his trials continue till life shall close, and should night follow night full of gloom, still he sees a light above in heaven. Beyond the confines of all this darkness his eye beholds the beams of eternal day; a world where the sun never sets, and where light dwells forever around the throne of God. Barnes.—It is but a very short time between grace and glory, between our title to the crown and our wearing the crown, between our right to the heavenly inheritance and our possession of it. The short storm will end in an everlasting calm. “Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” T. Brooks.
6. In my prosperity.** Prosperity is more pleasant than profitable to us. Though in show it look like a fair summer, yet it is indeed a wasting winter, and spendeth all the fruit we have reaped in the harvest of sanctified affliction. We are never in greater danger than in the sunshine of prosperity. To be always indulged of God and never to taste of trouble, is rather a token of God’s neglect than of His tender love, Struther.—It is more common to pray for strength to endure through times of adversity and suffering than for strength to endure through times of prosperity and gladness. Yet it is these latter times of buoyant self-reliance that are most full of peril. It is not in those perilous ways when every step gives fresh evidence that without our Leader we are lost, that we are most likely to turn away from Him. That supreme peril comes rather when we walk in the open plain, and have forgotten the serpents that lurk among the flowers. For every soul that is harmed by adversity, ten are harmed by prosperity. Yet you will find a hundred persons who pray against that adversity which so often brings men closer to God, where you will find one who prays against that pleasant prosperity which too often allures men away from God and from their own best future. H. C. T.
I shall never be moved. We are very apt to dream, when things are well with us, that they will always be so, and never otherwise. To-morrow shall be as this day. As if we should think, when the weather is once fair, that it will be ever fair; whereas nothing is more certain than that it will change. H.—It is rare to receive much of this world, and not as the prodigal to go afar off; ’tis hard to keep close to God in prosperity, when we have much of this world to live upon and content ourselves with; to live upon God and make Him our content and stay, as if we had no other life nor livelihood but in Him; we are very apt in such a case to let go our hold of God, discustom ourselves to the exercise of faith, abate and estrange our affections from God. E. Pledger.
6,7. In their times of trial God’s people in all ages have been brought to feel their entire dependence on Him. In days of flowing prosperity we have little sense of that dependence. As the Psalmist puts it here: “In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.” When all goes well with us, we expect the same prosperity to continue; it seems stereotyped, the fixed and permanent condition of things. When the days run smoothly, “involving happy months, and these as happy years,” all seems certain to continue. But a change comes over our life. Ill-health fastens on us; death invades our circle; relatives bring us into deep waters; our means of living fail; we are plunged into a very wilderness of woe. How falsely we judged when we thought that it was by its own inherent stability our mountain stood strong! No; it was solely the result of God’s favor, for all our springs are in Him; the moment He hides His face we are most grievously troubled. Sad but salutary experience! W. G. B.
All the world does no good without the favor of God. As all the stars though they shine together, do not dispel the darkness of night; so no creatures can comfort us sufficiently when God hides His face. “Thou didst hide Thy face and I was troubled.” Manton.—What soul can be deserted and not be afflicted? Certainly His absence cannot but be lamented with greatest grief, whose presence the soul prizeth above all earthly joy; when the light of God’s countenance is obscured and the comforts of the Spirit detained, then the heavens appear not so clear, the promises taste not so sweet, doubts arise, fears overflow, troubles enlarge, and the soul becomes afflicted with all variety of disquietments. Mossom.
8,9. His plea with God is, What would my life-blood avail if Thou shouldst send me to the grave? Does the decomposed dust of the dead in their graves render praise to God? Does it bear witness before living men to Thy truth? i.e., If I may live I shall praise God and witness to His truth before the living, and this will avail to the glory and honor of God. But, cut down in death, my lips are dumb thenceforth as to any testimony for God in the land of the living. Essentially the same reasoning appears in Psalm 6:5 and 88:10-12 and Isa. 38:18, 19. C.—His prayer for prolonged life was not offered therefore with the view of any earthly possession or enjoyment, but only with a view to the honor of God. He dreaded death as being an end of praise to God. For no Psalms are sung beyond the grave. D.—God would be no gainer by his death. What profit is there in my blood, implied that he would willingly die if he could thereby do any real service to God or his country. Nay, in his honor God would seem to be a loser by his death. Shall the dust praise? The services of God’s house cannot be performed by the dust; it cannot praise Him; there is none of that device or working in the grave, for it is the land of silence. The promises of God’s covenant cannot be performed to the dust. The best pleas in prayer are those that are taken from God’s honor; and then we ask aright for life when we have in view that we may live and praise Him. H.
Every better spirit, just in proportion to its thoughtfulness and nobility, is saddened as it compares performance with aspiration and work with aim. There are times when the words of God’s most believing children about this fleeting life, and the shortness of our time for doing God’s appointed work, run in the mould of the Psalmists. There was a point of view from which life presented itself to our Lord Himself as a golden day, and death as a cheerless night. “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.” Bishop Alexander.
10. Lord, be Thou my helper.** In every duty; in every conflict; in every trial; in every effort to promote the Lord’s cause; in every season of prosperity; in every hour we live, this short prayer is suitable. If the Lord help us, there is no duty which we cannot perform; there is no foe which we cannot overcome; there is no difficulty which we cannot surmount. James Smith.
11,12. The words describe certain changes in the lives and experience of godly men. Sackcloth was the attire of the leper, the ascetic, the penitent, and the mourner, sometimes, too, of the prophets of God. Sackcloth represents a condition of affliction. Beautiful raiment was worn on festive and joyous occasions. Here the joy which the wearing of such attire would be taken is used to represent the raiment itself, and the raiment is employed to represent prosperity. There is in human life and experience the turning of mourning into dancing, the putting off of sackcloth and girding with gladness. They whose life has been redeemed from destruction will understand this. The words point to God as the Author of these changes, and affirm that praise is the end and object of these changes. Praise is higher than prayer. It is divine. There is nothing in the Divine consciousness which corresponds to our prayers; but in God’s self-appreciation there is that which is in harmony with our praises. While God’s creatures praise Him, they are unfallen; and in the degree that the spirit of praise is restored in them their redemption is being wrought out. S. Martin.—To bless God for mercies is the way to increase them; to bless Him for miseries is the way to remove them. No good lives so long as that which is thankfully improved; and no evil dies so soon as that which is patiently endured. Dyer.
Penitence must rise up into joy. In its very nature penitence is a passing, transitory stage, and not an abiding state. If it were the latter, it would prove that it was not true penitence, but some strange counterfeit. Penitence is like the dawn that passes into the full daylight. But what is to turn penitence into joy, confession into praise? Surely, belief in pardon. Ah! we want more faith to lift us up. We want more simple acceptance of God’s promises. We want more child-like restfulness in His fatherly love. Yes; it is true, belief in pardon is the secret charm which can turn penitence into joy. Blessed are they who, having confessed their sins, and believed in God’s pardoning grace, can say, “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” W. W. How.
12. To the end that my glory may sing praise unto Thee, says David. Whether his tongue
or his soul, or both. What he calls his glory he shows us; and what use he hath for it—namely, to give the Lord glory, to sing His praises; then it was truly David’s glory when it was so employed, in giving glory to Him whose peculiar due glory is. What have we to do in the world as once and again His creatures, anew created unto good works, but to exercise ourselves in those, and by those to advance His glory? that all may return to Him from whom
all is, as the rivers run back to the sea from whence they came. Of Him and through Him, and therefore for Him are all things. Leighton.