December 2
Reading: Psalm 30
A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the Temple.
1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O LORD my God,
I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
3 O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face; I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “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?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me!
O LORD, be my helper!”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
The prescript over this psalm says that it is “A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the Temple.” And right away we have a problem. How can this be since the Temple was not built until after David was dead?
There are two good answers. First, when a psalm is attributed to David that does not necessarily mean that David wrote it. Most of the time that is so, but sometimes “of David” means a psalm written for the king. Sometimes it means that the psalm has been written in memory or commemoration of King David or of something he did.
More likely, in this case, is that David wrote this psalm for the occasion of the dedication of the Temple because he knew he would not be there. After all, David made preparations and assembled much of the building materials before he died. (1 Chronicles 22)
As you can tell when you read it, this psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving at the end of a life lived for God. David praises the Lord for rescue from enemies, sickness, death, and the anger of God. He praises God for His favor, mercy, and how the Lord has turned his sadness into joy. You might say that this is David’s testimony of God’s goodness in his life.
You might wonder how it is that David can be so joyful that the Lord has rescued him from all these things when he is writing at a time when he is close to death. It is a good question. Actually, any of us might be close to death at any moment. How can we praise God for His goodness when we might be about to die?
Twice in this psalm, David praises God for rescuing him from going “down to the pit.” It is strange language. We have seen it before in Psalm 28. What does it mean?
“The pit” as it is used in the Old Testament is probably not a reference to hell, but rather to the place where a body is laid in the ground. The pit is the gateway to Sheol, the place of the dead, where we await a resurrection and judgment and then glory. David probably did not have a developed theology regarding death, hell, a future resurrection, and a new heaven and earth. but he had an idea of all that. Enough that he hated the ugliness of death and knew that God had a solution. After all, God had promised him an everlasting kingdom. In verse 12, David says he will “give thanks forever.” I suppose he is still doing so.
This is the point of Matthew 22:31-32 where Jesus argues for the resurrection on the basis of the Hebrew present tense. “He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Thus, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David are all still alive!
When you think about death, realize that the same Lord who has turned your sorrows into joy has turned the grave into a great victory.