That My Heart May Sing

Psalm 30

It’s easy to get sidetracked when you read the Bible.  You can study the Bible, memorize it, or learn everything about it in the original Hebrew or Greek.  You can systematically categorize every doctrine found in the passage and learn how to refute every objection that is brought up against it.  But we need to careful that we don’t forget the number one reason we read the Bible.  Jesus rebuked the Jews that had been persecuting Him by saying, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” John 5:39-40 (NIV ’84).

 In Jesus day there were people who had memorized the whole Old Testament.  They could recite the Bible forwards and backwards.  They could articulate their theology better than anyone else, and yet they only knew the Bible, they didn’t know God.  They thought they had eternal life because they had studied the Bible but they needed to know God in order to have eternal life.  So, our number one goal in reading the Bible is to know God.

As we read Psalm 30 I want you to take note of anything that you learned about God.  I want you to underline whatever grabs your attention.  You might find a verse that talks about what God is like.  You might find a verse that talks about what God has done or what He will do.  Just highlight anything that you can learn about God from this passage.

¹ I will exalt you, O LORD,
   for you lifted me out of the depths
   and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
² O LORD my God, I called to you for help
   and you healed me.
³ O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
   you spared me from going down into the pit.

 ⁴ Sing to the LORD, you saints of his;
   praise his holy name.
⁵ 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.

 ⁶ When I felt secure, I said,
   “I will never be shaken.”
⁷ O LORD, when you favored me,
   you made my mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
   I was dismayed.

 ⁸ To you, O LORD, I called;
   to the Lord I cried for mercy:
⁹ “What gain is there in my destruction,
   in my going down into the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
   Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
¹⁰ Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me;
   O LORD, be my help.”

¹¹ You turned my wailing into dancing;
   you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
¹² that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
   O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.

As I read this Psalm I was gripped by something that God does.  In 1 Peter 1:13 we are told to “set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  This means we need to stop setting our hope in a safe and pain-free life.  God will use trials to purify us.  And sometimes He won’t alleviate those trials until we get to heaven.  Someone might have a chronic illness or a fatal disease.  God may not take it away until they get to heaven.  I’ve had chronic back problems for about 19 years.  My wife has had chronic health problems, some of which haven’t gone away.  Some of you Tigers will have to put up with the Gamecocks until the day you die.  I’ve found God will oftentimes use immovable and unrelenting trials to make us hope for heaven.  Paul says in Romans 8:18-24,

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. “

One thing is certain.  We will be completely free from this bondage one day.  So, one of our challenges as Christians is to stay focused on heaven.  I need to fix my hope completely on God’s grace that will be given to me when I see Jesus face to face.

And, yet, at the same time I see that God, at times, will bring relief for trials before we get to heaven.  There are days that I have relief from my back pain.  And there are some health problems that haven’t bothered Miriam like they once did.  By God’s grace, we were able to leave some trials behind when we left Wilmington and moved here to Clemson.  We’ve seen some breakthroughs with health problems, medical bills and other financial troubles.  I’ve even seen N.C. State beat the Tarheels in basketball.  Sometimes God does provide relief on this side of heaven.  In Psalm 30:5 David says, “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”  And in verse 11 he says, “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.” 

One thing I’ve learned lately is that God loves to show compassion and grace.  In Isaiah 30:18 it says, “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for him!”  God knows that we are frail.  He knows that we are like dust. 

In Psalm 103:13-16 it says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.”  As you read the Gospels take note of how many times Jesus heals people. He takes away their trial right there on the spot!  Jesus didn’t heal everyone.  And, even though our faith can move God’s heart to bring about healing it doesn’t always move God to remove the trial if God has decided not to remove it.  Even Paul, a man full of faith, had a trial that God didn’t remove: 

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

I’m learning to see trials as J.B. Phillips did when he translated James 1:2 to say, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!”  Welcoming “trials as friends” is an act of faith because it means that I’m trusting in God’s sovereignty over the situation.  I’m also learning to go ahead and ask God for help. That’s an act of faith because I’m trusting in God to intervene even if He decides not to.  And I’m learning to say “Father, Your will be done…” as Jesus did when He repeatedly came to the Father in prayer knowing that going to the cross was His purpose.  That’s an act of faith too because I’m relinquishing control of the situation and trusting that God’s will is more important than mine.

Why would God turn “my wailing into dancing” and remove “my sackcloth “and clothe “me with joy”?  Why would God remove one of our trials before we get to heaven?  The answer, according to verse 12, is “that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.  O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

So, what is communion?  It’s a reminder to be thankful for what God has taken away from you and me in the past plus a reminder to praise God for the promise of what He will take away in the future.   When we put our faith in Jesus Christ he took away the wrath we deserve on judgment day.  God took away the penalty for our sin and, one day, He will take away the presence of sin altogether when we get to heaven.  We will have glorified bodies.

 In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Paul says, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  In a sense, “proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes” is relief from the past and relief for the future.

Verse 26 says that we proclaim an event that happened in the past until a certain event will occur in the future.  In the past, Jesus died and conquered death for us by dying on the cross.  We are to keep proclaiming this until He brings us total rescue from the sinful world and our sinful selves.  We’re not only celebrating what God will do but what God has done and is doing right now.