May 10thSoli Deo Gloria
Psalm 30
G. K. Chesterton: ‘Thanksgiving is a matter of celebrating one’s dependence upon God.’ An attitude of gratitude leads to thanksgiving for the invisible but durable thread of God’s dependable grace which marks the faithful community’s/individual’s response to God.’
This is a story of going into trouble and coming out of trouble.
The prayer song has some of the greatest lines in the whole Bible:
God's "anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning."
"You have taken off my sackcloth, and clothed me with joy!"
This song captures the evangelical witness to the God of Israel as well as any passage in the Old Testament. It describes one sinner's personal testimony. It says that the Lord meets us in our suffering - in the pit but God does not leave us there. No, God moves us from mourning ("you have taken off my sackcloth") to morning ("joy comes in the morning").
Most of us show up in worship on Sunday morning in the hopes that someone will tell us this good news, in the hopes that someone will proclaim this promise.
The song easily divides into four stanzas:
Stanza 1 Praise (v.1-3)
The song begins by describing how God delivered the singer from a crisis: "you have drawn me up," and "restored me to life." Any person who has walked through some dark valley can sing this song.
Four action verbs are credited to YHWH in vs. 1-3.
You have drawn me up.
You have healed me.
You have lifted up my life.
You have restored me to life.
The singer names YHWH three times – she delights in praising her deliverer.
Stanza 2 Invitation to communal praise (v.4-5)
Now the singer invites others to join her in praise. Why? Because when you praise God in response to what ‘God has done for you personally’, it is a way of being restored to the community. When a person goes through a crisis - an illness, the loss of a job, the death of a child, a divorce -- it is easy for a person to become isolated from the community. Singing together strengthens our hearts and our minds for the next part of our journey.
Stanza 3 Disorientation (v.6-10)
Stanza three moves from orientation to disorientation. The absence of God destabilizes a scene of prosperity. The singer looks back on life before the crisis. She remembers a time when everything seemed fine, when there was health, wellness, security, or prosperity. Nothing wrong with those things, to be sure! What was wrong, she says, was her attitude. She just took it all for granted. And when it went away, "I was dismayed."
Stanza 4 Confession of faith (v.11-12)
The final stanza is a poetic work of art. It is a soaring exclamation point to the psalmist's testimony: "you have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy." Can a person literally be clothed in joy? Of course not. And yet, we all know what the singer means. A person can wear a frown, or a smile, or a grimace. Or joy. For many worshippers, their body language shows what they are ‘wearing’ as they sing out with exuberance their praises to God.
One translator (G.F. Knight) expresses the first line of vs. 11 this way: ‘in order that I may hymn You, and I may never be silent.’ As the great composer, J.S. Bach wrote on the title page of his compositions: Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory).
https://youtu.be/zyiatXbGeHQ - I will sing with the Spirit