Psalm 30

Psalm 30 comes full circle.

It begins as it ends: with a thankful declaration of God’s faithfulness.

“I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

Viewed one way, Psalm 30 is a straightforward hymn of gratitude for divine favor and protection. But there is much more to explore along the way! Traditionally ascribed to King David, Psalm 30 is a todah, or thanksgiving song. In it the author praises God for deliverance (it’s not clear from whom or what—perhaps an enemy or illness). In any case, the circumstances but have been dire; here the psalmist compares his distress to the depths of Sheol, the place of darkness and silence that ancient Jews believed awaited them in the afterlife. “O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Moreover, this psalm has from ancient times been associated with the dedication of important buildings (first David’s own royal palace and later the First and Second Temples). All three monumental buildings shared a place of honor atop Mount Moriah on the modern-day Temple Mount.

“As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’ By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain…”

It is on the strength of these associations that many Jews recognize Psalm 30 as the psalm for the day on the first day of Hannukah, an 8-day celebration of God’s miraculous and faith provision amidst a Jewish revolt against foreign oppressors in the second century BCE.

“To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: ‘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 gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!" According to Jewish tradition, even as Judah Maccabee and his followers finished defeating the Seleucids, they immediately commenced ritual purification of the Temple. In doing so, they discovered that only one days’ worth of sacred olive oil remained undefiled, yet it burned for an additional seven days (the length of time required to press, process, and consecrate more oil).

You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”

Viewed another way, however, a deeper look at Psalm 30 also reveals the temptations of entitlement, materialism, and violence that so often accompany military victories, economic prosperity, and perceived religious favor.

“I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.” King David ostensibly wrote this psalm for the dedication of his own palace—one almost immediately defiled by the rape of Bathsheba and bloody wars of succession. David eventually turned his attention to constructing a House for God but was rejected as a consequence for his own guilt and bloodlust. This temple, it seemed would be built by the survivors of the House of David rather than its deeply flawed patriarch.

“O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.”

When David’s tenth(!!) son, Solomon, finally ascended the throne he set about constructing the First Temple as a lavish, permanent home for the Ark of the Covenant (and thus the physical presence of God on earth)—but he utilized enslaved laborers, economic exploitation, and coercive diplomacy to do so (and significantly upgraded the royal palace while he was at it).

“Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Even Solomon’s Temple, in all its glory, was hardly impervious to the ravages of greed and violence. Plundered no fewer than four times (once by Egyptians, once by northern Israelites, and twice by southern Judean kings themselves), the First Temple stood fewer than 400 years before its complete destruction at the hands of the Babylonian Empire c.586/587 BCE.

“As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’ By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed.”

Approximately 70 years later, Solomon’s Temple was replaced by a Second Temple originally constructed from quite humble materials by Judean refugees returning from Babylonian exile. It was this Second Temple that was recaptured and rededicated—after fierce and bloody fighting in its immediate vicinity—by the Maccabees in 164 BCE. “To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: ‘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 gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!’"

This modest structure was expanded and embellished by King Herod the Great (the violent, paranoid villain of the nativity story) nearly 500 years later. Herod’s monument to Judean kingship was the most fleeting of all, lasting a mere 50 years before being entirely (and definitively) destroyed by a Rome in response to another Jewish revolt.

“You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.” And so we see that the lasting legacy of the House of David—one that was never quite enough for generations of kings and warlords who exploited their own people, allies, and enemies alike to construct an ever-expanding series of palaces and temples—was never about buildings at all. Instead, God’s pledge to preserve the House of David was a promise to remain faithfully present with God’s often unfaithful people, even in the midst of exile—not because of the bloodstained, jewel-encrusted monuments erected by power-hungry rulers of Jerusalem (and indeed perhaps rather despite them). In this covenantal sense—as Christ demonstrated in the Incarnation—the House of David will never fall.

“O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”

These are the words of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!