Psalm 30
Our sweet little town has an extraordinary ice cream shop. It has become a favorite visiting place for our family. We love to gather around one of their outdoor picnic tables and try the latest flavors. Our son Jack, always enthusiastic, can barely sit still as he eats and talks excitedly. During a visit this summer, once again Jack chattered away while eating his ice cream, gesturing wildly as we gathered around the picnic table. Suddenly, he lost his balance, and began to fall backward. Time stood still for a moment as I watched him tumble backward off the bench head first. I reached for him but couldn’t grab him in time. My mind flooded with images of his skull cracked and bleeding from crashing full force into the concrete below. Right before his head slammed into the ground, his arm flew above his head, as if yanked by an invisible force, stopping him from hitting the ground. And there he was, in a single-armed backbend position like a 4-year-old spiderman, skull intact. When we all could breathe again, we began to laugh. Whoa, that was crazy! Can’t believe you did that!Like ice cream on a hot summer day, our fear melted away. Relief and gratitude flooded in.
While we may not all have a gymnastic 4-year-old to keep us in both fear and joy, we can relate to the experience of “almost lost it all.” A medical emergency, a relationship on the brink, a financial crisis: all moments of fear and uncertainty. Circumstances seems to spin beyond our control and we find ourselves crying out in fear and despair, “God have mercy!” We clutch tightly to the end of our rope and plead with God to intervene.
The Psalmist in Psalm 30 knows what it is to dangle from the end of her rope too. She had fallen into the pit, her enemies gathered round to rejoice in her downfall. BUT, right at that moment of crisis, when all seemed beyond hope, God intervened. The Psalmist praises God for God’s deliverance and invites fellow worshippers to do the same. The community is called to rejoice alongside their sister in faith in thanksgiving for God’s saving action.
The Psalmist goes on to present a series of reversals:
God’s anger is for a moment BUT God’s favor is for a lifetime
Weeping may linger for the night BUT Joy coming in the morning
I was in mourning BUT God turned it into dancing.
I was clothed in sackcloth BUT God clothed me with joy.
These reversals highlight many facets of God’s character.
Vs. 1- God is Rescuer and Defender. Vs. 2- God is Hear-er and Healer Vs. 3- God is Restorer to life Vs. 4- God is Transformer of grief and sorrow Vs. 7- God is sometimes the Hidden One.
We eagerly embrace the characteristics of vs. 1-4, but the description of God as the Hidden One gives us pause, perhaps even discomfort. The Psalmist names the discomfort. You hid your face God! And so the Psalmist cried all the louder, making supplication boldly and without hesitation. The Psalmist’s posture reveals a great deal about how we are invited to approach God in our fear, sorrow, regret, and uncertainty. The Psalmist does not coat the psalm with any spiritual veneer, but expresses her experience fully. Tear, anguish, and even anger are appropriate and even invited by God.
The Psalm concludes with what is so common in Psalms of this nature, a pivot to praise- a joyous acknowledgment of what God has done. In the NRSV translation, as well as several others, the translators choose to employ the present perfect tense in vs. 11. While this may not interest you grammatically, the theological implication is significant. The present perfect tense indicates a past action that has ongoing implications into the present. In this passage, that indicates that God acted in deliverance (to transform both mourning and sackcloth) which bears forth glorious fruit of joy and celebration into this present moment. Our wonder and delight at the salvation of God spills over across time.
As we approach the final verse of the psalm, the Psalmist takes one final turn. Continuing from vs. 11, the Psalmist employs the all-important “so that,” directing us toward the purpose of both God’s deliverance and our joyous response. God has acted and we have responded “so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.” As a result of this divine saving action and our response of joy and thanksgiving, the delivered abandon their silence of despair and declare what God has done aloud for the world, bearing witness to the mercy, compassion, and salvation of God.
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