Mourning to Morning

We have explored many of David’s psalms or prayers to the Lord. These include Psalm 63 where David teaches us to thirst for the Lord, Psalm 110 where David teaches us to recognize the reign and rule of the Messiah, Psalm 34 where David teaches us that the Lord delivers the righteous in their suffering, Psalm 7 where David teaches us to seek refuge in the Lord, and Psalm 3 where David teaches us to pray even in the midst of fear.

This morning we continue this series of studying the Psalms with a look into Psalm 30. Like many of the Psalms we have looked at, this Psalm has a superscription or title at the beginning that gives us insight as to the reason for David writing it. It is to serve as a song to be delivered at the dedication of the Temple of God.

What is so fascinating about this is that David was not present at the dedication of the Temple because he was not alive. God told David that he would not be the one to build the Temple, instead his son Solomon would. So, David, began making preparations for the Temple building. We read about this in 1 Chronicles 22:1-19. However, David’s preparations went beyond the material, and included the spiritual such as worship, praise, and thanksgiving.

David was so excited about the Temple dedication, and he desired so much to honor God that he provides us with this psalm. In it we clearly see the deliverance, joy, and redemption found in God. Last week we talked about how David longed to worship. How worship to David was more than something he did, but it was a deep longing and desire for him. In the planning of the dedication to the Temple through this Psalm we see once again David’s heart after God. What’s more exciting is we can read this Psalm and see ourselves in it.

David journeys in this psalm through a path of despair to deliverance. He shows his life transition from pride in prosperity to redemptive promise. And he shows how his daily mourning in sorrow was changed into the joy that comes with the morning because of the eternal dawn.

When the temple dedication takes place in 1 Kings 8, we know that the glory of the Lord, God’s presence, filled the temple. This dedication was the representation of God’s dwelling presence among His people. Therefore, David shows the importance of acknowledging the deliverance and eternal favor God has for His faithful.

So, lets read the Psalm together. From it we will learn five truths to help us throughout all areas of life. Whether we are struggling, going through hardship, in a moment of prosperity, celebrating in joy, or whatever we are walking through at this moment we will do well to understand the righteous will always express confidence in God. This confidence is our rock of hope. God is good.

Psalm 30 ESV

A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

God’s Favor is for a Lifetime, and Joy comes with the Morning (5)

As we break this Psalm down, I want to jump around a bit. We will explore the middle section here first because I think with understanding it we will be able to understand and appreciate the beginning and ending verses better.

The center message of this Psalm is to show that God’s favor is for a lifetime and joy comes with the morning. In verse 5, we see David has experienced the anger of God at times in his life. This at times leads to weeping, although sometimes weeping comes simply from the suffering that comes from living in a fallen world. Sin and suffering bring about sorrow and pain. This can invoke the anger of the Lord, but His anger, the psalmist says, is only for a moment. How perfect and profound is this!

Instead, God’s favor is for a lifetime, or more literally God’s favor is life! Although we weep because of what we have done and what we are going through, the weeping will not last. It will end just as the night ends. With each new dawn enters a new day and with a new day enters new opportunities, new creation, new beginnings. It is so important to understand this verse teaches us that trials are temporary and never bring defeat to those who remain faithful unto God. One day, the last enemy will be conquered, the night will fade forever, and the eternal day will dawn. David captures the principle of enduring faith and the victory it will bring. Even in times of crisis, weeping, and sorrow we can have a confidence in the Lord that will make us strong, keep us calm, and and brighten our darkest of days. God’s favor is eternal and our joy comes with the morning!

God’s Hiding is Redemptive (6-9)

Like watching old homemade videos, David recounts times in his life where he was both weak and righteous. Listen to the story David tells in verses 6-9:

Psalm 30:6–9 ESV

As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

David admits weaknesses and faults in this confession. These are weaknesses and faults we all can admit in our lives at times. Notice from where David’s weaknesses begin: in his strength. It is in his prosperity where he begins to become conceited and arrogant. This leads to trust in self instead of trust in God.

“By your favor, O LORD” - David admits that it is God who provides, but David regrettably responded with pride instead of humility. He took the credit for his position of stability. When we go back and remember all the psalms we have studied there is a common theme: God has delivered David from many a dangers and delivered him to the throne of the kingdom of Israel. Because David so arrogantly claimed his safe immovability God hid his face from him.

This idea of hiding his face is the idea of not being known or concealed. This response was promised by the Lord for those who abandon Him and “whore” after foreign gods.

Deuteronomy 31:16–18 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

David feels the hiding of God because of his self worship. This leads him to a feeling of being dismayed or terrified. He knows he has made a mistake. However, this hiding is redemptive. It is in the darkness where we realize how much we need the light. David feels the weight of God’s hiding position and this terrifies him for there is no life outside the presence of God. For David, and us as well, the feeling of divine absence causes us to run back into the arms of God.

Think of the prodigal son in Luke 15. It is not the father who first abandons the son, but it is the son who abandons the father. Soon, the son realizes that life outside the presence of the father is destructive and hopeless. This causes the prodigal son to be dismayed as well, and to return to the father and plea for mercy.

This feeling causes David to cry to the Lord and plea for mercy. This prayer shows a transition in David’s heart. He begins with an odd question in verse 9. David, for a moment, is making an argument with God stating, “You will gain nothing, and lose a worshipper!” The strength of this is that it starts from God’s interest. “What glory will God have from this?” David questions, and this is the right question. However, the answer is not for us to give. We are obedient without questioning the will of God. We take the same attitude as Jesus, “not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

In verse 10, David drops the argument and turns into a man simply in need and appealing to the grace of God. We will look at this more later.

Praise God Enthuasitically (1-3)

It is these moments in David’s life that leads him to praise God. I can hear the words of the apostle Paul in David words here. Like David, Paul at times in his life asks for deliverance from his pain and sorrow.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 ESV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul’s statement here shows that the earthly weaknesses we face would be the platform for perfecting and demonstrating the Lord’s power. All throughout 1st and 2nd Corinthians Paul makes the argument that our view of strength and weakness is skewed by the world. When we think we are strong we learn we are really weak, but in our weaknesses we are made strong because of the strength of God. In Philippians 4, Paul demonstrates that we can overcome and deal with anything not by our strength, but by the strength of Jesus.

David tried to boast about his own strength and this made him weak. But in his weakness we see the strength and power of God because of God’s deliverance and rescue. This moves David to praise God.

The opening phrase of the Psalm is David extolling God, which means to praise enthusiastically! He praises God for three reasons here!

Deliverance (1)

Answered Prayer (2)

Rescue (3)

1. David’s is delivered from his foes. Furthermore, his enemies do not have the final laugh. With David’s deliverance will come their judgement.

2. Verse 2 seems to point toward a time or times in David’s life where he was very ill whether physically or mentally. During these times of distress and sickness David knew to cry out for help from the Lord and because of this he was healed. This is similar to what happens to king Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20. Hezekiah is told by the prophet Isaiah that he will die from his illness. At this point Hezekiah turned to the Lord above anyone or anything else. His desperation in prayer was answered immediately, and Isaiah was sent back to Hezekiah to let him know that God had heard his prayer and would deliver him from his fateful illness. Like Hezekiah, David attributes his healing to the power of God. Today, we must do the same.

3. Finally, God has rescued him from the depths of death. Maybe this is a reference to the previous verse. May David’s ailment left him with “one foot in the grave” but God lifted him up as one would lift a bucket out of a well. Either way this rescue is certainly a response to David’s prayerful request we see in verses 6-10.

At the temple dedication David desires to show the power of God’s deliverance, answered prayer, and rescue through the variety of hardships of life. He praises God for this continually and he calls the faithful to praise him too.

The Faithful are Called to Praise (4)

There is so much joy in praising God in worship. We have confidence through our faith in Jesus and in this confidence we can praise Him like David. But we must be careful not to throw away this confidence, but instead build a strong spiritual foundation. Look at Hebrews 10 with for a moment.

Hebrews 10:35–39 ESV

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

No matter the hardships we face, we do not cast away our confidence by neglecting to build a strong spiritual foundation. A part of developing and enduring a spiritual foundation comes from standing shoulder to shoulder with other committed brethren.

Hebrews 10:23–25 ESV

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

In a time like we find ourselves in right now we should all know the importance and value of supportive and faithful encounters with our brethren. We should all realize the value of the physical presence of the body of Christ, the church.

When this quarantine is over I assume many will show up longing for that presence once again. However, with the weeks that follow some will come to the conclusion that worshipping online will be good enough and acceptable since we did so during this time. This thought will be sinful. Right now our assembling is in this way due to circumstances out of our control. When the physical gathering resumes, staying home to worship “virtually” will be neglecting the meeting together.

So, hold fast to your confidence and allow your faith to live through your actions, and join in on the singing, giving thanks, and praising of His holy name. But always remember what His name is:

Exodus 3:15 ESV

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

There is great power, strength, hope, peace, and comfort in this name!

We will go from Mourning to Morning (10-12)

Finally, we turn to the final statements of this Psalm. This begins with the end of David’s petition in verse 10.

The Lord is gracious and will help his people and David knows this. David has transitioned from argument in verse 9 to trust in verse 10. We trust in times of joy and distress.

David turns to walk by faith knowing that one day his faith will be turned into sight. David recounts the reversal of weeping into joy. In verse 5 the joy comes in the morning, here the mourning turns to dancing. This reversal is the result of God!

Mourning or grieving over sins committed or death of another was sometimes demonstrated by wearing uncomfortable clothing called sackcloth. This was worn to show repentance.

David says that God loosens, or more literally liberates the sackcloth representing God bringing comfort and innocence to the guilty, and instead of sorrow God clothes with gladness. This is reminiscent of the deliverance from enemies and rescue from death we read about in verses 1 and 3.

This brings about reason for praise! Glory is representative of the whole essence of the person. The glory of David is found in the grace of God! In this saving grace David will sing praises and give thanks forever! His praise cannot be silenced. He cannot help but sing His praises and louder and louder. Hear his proclamation at the end of the verse: O LORD MY GOD, he cries out, I will give thanks to you forever. This is the closing verse of the song at the dedication of the temple!

The representation of this is profound. The Jewish calendar, work, life revolved around the temple. We must respond the same way. And David purposefully begins and ends this dedication song with praise and gladness to be sung endlessly!

This might possibly be one of the last Psalms David ever wrote. How fitting is it that in David’s final days he recounts the amazing grace of God. And even more so how fitting is it that David shows his faith in looking forward to the dedication of the temple even though he knew he would not be present. David is simply excited for the praise and glory that will be given to God. This excitement cannot be silenced.

Are we responding similarly today? Do we deeply desire after the praise and thanksgiving unto God. Can we see ourselves in the words of this Psalm? In our final days will we be as joyful to recount the great deliverance, answered prayer, and rescue of the Father? Will we devote our final words to the dedication of the house of the Lord? God’s purpose is redemptive! He seeks to save the lost. He desires to turn our Mourning to Morning! So, will you let Him?

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