Reading… and Thinking

I will exalt you, O LORD,
  for you lifted me out of the depths
  and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
O LORD my God, I called to you for help
  and you healed me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
  you spared me from going down into the pit.
Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
  praise his holy name.
For his anger lasts only a moment,
  but his favor lasts a lifetime;
  weeping may remain for a night,
  but rejoicing comes in the morning.
…
You turned my wailing into dancing;
  you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
  O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

– Psalm 30 (NIV)

Our God hears, and heeds, the prayers of His children for help. When they cry out to Him, He responds, and provides deliverance.

But notice – this does not mean that trouble never comes:

• The Lord's anger was directed against David. We don't know why. The Lord does chasten His children, for the very purpose of bringing us to call on Him when we are wayward. This discipline does not mean that His favor is withdrawn; "His favor lasts a lifetime."
• We are allowed to weep, to suffer. Joy comes in the morning, figuratively speaking. What seemed very distressing fades as He replaces the suffering with His loving gifts.
• In this psalm, David lets us know that he was facing death. Every one of us will face death at some point – for some of us, it will happen more than once, but eventually there will be a time when it really happens.

As with most of his psalms, it's easy to see David as a type of the Lord Jesus here. In a very literal way, Jesus was brought up from the grave (sheol in Hebrew). And in Jesus we learn that the Almighty's response is not always to keep us from suffering or death – sometimes the response does not come in this life, but in the resurrection.

There will be trouble in each of our lives. Some of it will be our own doing. Some of it will be caused by other people, sometimes intentionally.

And some of it is sent by God Himself. In any of these circumstances, the right thing to do is to take our trouble to the Lord in prayer. He hears, and He delivers.

It's easy to call on the Lord when we're in trouble. Lots of people do it! And many of them forget all about Him once the trouble is past. They figure that they got out of it by their own cleverness or diligence, or luck. But men and women of faith know better, and they stop to give thanks to their God.

That's the real point of this psalm. Remember to pause and thank God for the help He provides! David says, "I will exalt you." He says, "I will give you thanks forever." Let's make sure that we call on the Lord in our gladness, as well as in our trouble! And look forward in confidence to rejoicing “in the morning” – when we are brought from the grave, and give our God thanks forever.