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A Devotional Exposition
of Psalm 30by Son Nguyen
2. O LORD my God, I cried to You, and You have healed me.
4. Sing praises to the LORD, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the memory of His holiness.
5. For His anger is only a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
7. O LORD, by Your favor, You have made my mountain to stand strong; You hid Your face and I was troubled.
11. You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have torn off my sackcloth and have clothed me with gladness so that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.
12. O LORD my God, I will give You thanks forever."
Background: King David is dedicating the house of David/the Lord. It is a time of great joy, prosperity, and strength for him. However, note that throughout this song of praise, he dwells not on what he was able to achieve or has been blessed with, but he focuses entirely upon the personal relationship he has with God. This is a picture of a man who remembers to whom he belongs to and where all of his goodness comes from. It also strikes me in another marvelous way when it occurred to me that the word for man in the Bible is "zakar" which means the "remembering one". Indeed, David is a man after God's own heart. It is well for us to never forget our Lord, not even for a moment, if we are to be men of God - created in His own image.
Thoughts to consider/remember in our relationship with the Lord:
"O LORD my God, I cried to You, and You have healed me":
- The Lord will heal when we cry to Him. - Only God can completely heal our heartaches and the wounds deep within our soul. Delay not in going to Him for the kind of healing that will comfort and satisfy with lasting peace. - But 1st it is required that we acknowledge Him fully, in every fiber of our soul and in all that we do, as the Lord of our lives.
"Give thanks at the memory of His holiness":
- Holiness. Given the multitude of things David could have given thanks for, what a surprising choice - it is probably the last thing we think of in time of great celebration, but note how God's holiness is the essential source for how well we are doing. - Do we thank Him for His personal characters/attributes or only for His work/blessings to our lives?
"O LORD, by Your favor, You have made my mountain to stand strong. You hid Your face and I was troubled":
- In the Bible, "my mountain" is a figure of speech for that denotes my glory/everything that is strong about me. - David understands that everything good and glorious about him came because the Lord's favor is upon him. At the same time, David also understands that even though he is strong, all the glories that he may possess will come to nothing if the Lord turns from him. - What is the worst thing that can ever happen to us? What is our worst fear? Sickness, death, divorce, loneliness, losing our job, losing a friend/relationship are all things that will make our strength to fail and weigh down our lives with grief .... sometimes life is so hard on us that we feel like we can't go on. But for a true child of God, there is none worse than causing the Lord to turn His face away from us. David fears not losing his possession but chiefly his intimate relationship with the Lord. Are we that way?
"For His anger is only a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning":
- God, being a holy God, will at times chastise us to bring us back to Himself. When this happens, it is usually grievous to our systems/bodies/hearts/minds. When God performs surgeries to remove the cancers of our sins, it's going to be very painful .... and we are going to feel the hurt since He doesn't so much as to use a scalpel (nips/tucks here and there) but He rips things apart and wipes clean everything. - This correction time may feel like an eternity, and we may cry in great anguish and mourning, but God assures us that, after our repentance and learning, joy always comes .... His joy, the kind that heals and makes alive our soul again.
"You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have torn off my sackcloth and have clothed me with gladness so that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent":
- Indeed, God will turn our sorrows into joy. Rest assured that He will never leave us in our broken state forever. - But also note that we are given the joy and the renewal of our glory, not so much that we can be stronger Christians, but to sing His praise and be living testimonies of Him and His great love to the world.
Conclusion: Everything about us (strength, happiness, sorrows) revolves around our relationship with the Lord. Put that in the forefront and the very core of our soul. Let us sing and declare to the Lord: "O LORD my God, I will give You thanks forever!"
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