David, in Psalm 30, speaks of desperate days in his life and their transformation by God into days of delight.
His experience resonates with that of many believers, who have also “experienced the almost ineffable release of being transported from despair or illness or catastrophic defeat or a sense of alienated distance from God, to a height of safety or health or victory or spiritual intimacy with our Maker and Redeemer” (D.A. Carson)
The writer “captures the heart and the imagination” with vivid contrasts. Take a look at some of these contrasts in the following table:
|
anger for a moment |
favor for a lifetime |
|
weeping for a night |
joy comes with the morning |
|
morning |
dancing |
|
clothed with sackcloth |
garments of gladness |
|
death/pit/ dust…silence |
life…praise / giving thanks / telling of his faithfulness |
The story behind the Psalm is not complicated. It falls into five parts:
1. Life is good, the future looks bright
David was spiritually complacent, “I said, in my prosperity, I shall not be moved” (vs.. 6).
2. Suddenly, the bottom falls out of life
David faced a life-threatening illness, probably in response to his sin (vs.. 5 – “your anger”) and was terrified he would die (vs.. 7 – “dismayed”).
3. David cried out to God, pleading for mercy
He prays, “to you, O Lord, I cry and… plead for mercy” (vs.. 8-9).
4. God wonderfully answered David’s plea and healed him
David describes it like this: “you have healed me… you restored me to life” (vs.. 2-3).
5. David extols God
He “sings for joy” (vs.. 1) at what he has done (vs.. 12), and calls others to do the same (vv. 4-5).
It’s not hard to draw out lessons for our walk with God from this Psalm. I’ll highlight two.
Lesson 1
We can learn from David’s attitude when things were going well for him. He felt almost invincible (”I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved” vs.. 6).
“It is easy… for God’s people to trust in themselves for continued well-being,” forgetting that our “prosperity” comes from God’s and his favor, not from our skill, hard work and cleverness (”By your favor, O LORD you made my mountain stand strong” vs. 7). One commentator noted, “Instead of confiding in the Giver, he trusted in the gift, as though it had been his own work.”
Lesson 2
Another lesson, one more central to the emphasis of the Psalm, lies in the ground of David’s plea for mercy.
David’s prayer was not just for “the mere prolonging of earthly days, precious as that is” but that he might live and publically praise God for his faithfulness. He wants his experience with God to motivate others to put their trust God as their “helper” and have a similar experience of his faithfulness.
The emphasis here is God centered (God did this, and this, and this…praised be God!) rather than David centered (I did this, I did that, … I trusted, I prayed, etc).
