From Mourning To Morning

O God, we trust in your power to create, to sustain, and to enable. But we could not trust if we did not know that you are always near. Be with us Lord, as we are gathered here to worship you. Help us not to check our minds or our hearts at the door, but enable us to bring all that we are to you, so that you might make us into what we ought to be. We pray this because of, and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #375

“All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”

†CONFESSION OF SIN & ASSURANCE OF PARDON

based on Psalm 30

Minister: To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “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 merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!

TIME OF SILENT CONFESSION

PASTORAL PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Congregation: You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Assurance of Pardon

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, ESV)

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE 1 Thess. 1:1-10

Steven Hoffer, Elder

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†PSALM OF PREPARATION #119M

“O How I Love Your Holy Law”

SERMON Psalm 30 // From Mourning to Morning

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Teach us thy ways, O Lord; we will walk in thy truth. Unite our hearts to fear thy name. Amen.

TEXT: PSALM 30

Psalm 30 ESV

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!

AFTER SCRIPTURE

The Lord bless to us the reading of His holy word, and to His name be glory and praise

Intro

In 2013, a Vietnam Veteran from Alabama, hatched a plan that would allow him to air his perceived grievances to the world. Feeling that everyone had wronged him, he enlisted the help of a neighbor to build what he told the neighbor was a storm shelter. In reality, his plan was to kidnap two children, exchange the children for a female reporter, and then have the reporter broadcast his message to the world before taking his own life on air.

He befriended the school bus driver that came down his street everyday. One day, he approached the bus with some produce to give to the driver when he pulled out a gun and demanded that he give over two of the children. The driver said that he couldn’t do it.

After repeated requests, the driver insisted that he could not and would not hand over any of the children to this man. So the man shot the bus driver dead.

The crazed man then grabbed one young boy named Ethan and took him to the bunker.

The man called police to tell them that he had a hostage and where he was located. And the whole police force, state intelligence and national intelligence agencies descended upon this little town of Alabama to rescue this boy. (TA beautiful example of common grace. When agencies work to do things like this, and when our nation sees the value of life rightly, we rejoice).

The man had placed a long PVC pipe from within the bunker out to the edge of his property for the agents to speak with him. Inside the pipe and inside the bunker, he had also placed booby traps and bombs.

For seven days he held this boy in this pit, negotiating and complaining to the FBI.

One thing that was discovered by the FBI was that the boy had a lot of difficulties with his health — he needed a lot of medication each day. The old man allowed for agents to drop off medicine, affording them a glimpse inside the bunker, making plans that ultimately concluded in a raid. When the blew the doors to the bunker, marines jumped in, only to be caught by a web of rebar and chains, suspended as sitting ducks for this man as he fired at them at blank range. Other marines cut the lines dropped in, terminated the man and ultimately rescued young Ethan.

Now, what makes its way through in the news stories at the time of this great rescue, is that Ethan had come from a really unstable and difficult background. He was only five years old but had already been moved around quite a bit in the foster care system. The whole nation was holding its breath for his rescue, agents had given their lives to pull him from the pit, but after all the sirens faded and the patrol cars left Alabama, it was as if this boy was forgotten. He was eventually placed back into the foster system.

But if you read the news stories the anniversary of this event a few years later, we learn what happened to Ethan. One of the foster families that had him before the kidnapping, when he was just a baby, was a local pastor and his wife. And when they learned that the little boy that was captured was the little baby that they cared for years ago, and when they learned that he had been placed back into the foster system, they adopted him. They gave him a new name. This boy who was redeemed from the pit, wasn’t restored in the way that he would have expected, not in merely a quick fix — a mere rescue from the pit. He was rescued and placed into something far greater than he would have expected and could have imagined.

The story that David tells in Psalm 30, his prayer recounting his own life, follows much of that same arch. He is brought to the pit, redeemed from it, and then he is renewed in a way he didn’t see coming.

The Outline:

Setting his prayer poetically and as a song, David writes this Psalm in the way that many stories or movies are told, where the first scene we see the effect of a situation, even though we don’t know the cause of it. You see what will happen but you don’t yet know how the characters got there — and then the movie flashes back to tell that story. Usually, the ending scene, the third act, takes you back where you started.

That’s like the setting here in Psalm 30. And so we’ll look at this Psalm through those three movements today:

In vv.1-5, we see David up from the pit

In vv.6-10, we learn how David when down to the pit

And in vv.11-12, we are back from pit to praise

Let’s look at that first scene — the one that shows us what will happen, before we know exactly what happened.

I - Up From The Pit (vv.1-5)

“I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.” (Psalm 30:1–3, ESV)

The fist scene of this prayer we find David in overwhelming praise. David describes a situation where Sheol, this place of the dead, as if it is reaching out for him, pulling him into the pit. David was calling out for help the Lord helped and the Lord healed him.

Sheol is known not only as death (as in the end of consciousness), but a place that is defined by its separation from God. And what David can see in his life, is that sheol comes pulling at him to bring him down to the pit in that separation. It’s a compelling image of sin and sin’s effects in our lives. It’s why David not only is pleading with God for help, but ultimately for healing.

Sheol is pulling at him, but he is also involved. The fish bites the lure because he is attracted to it, but then it pulls him to his death. Sin, of course, works the same way on us, capturing us by our own appetites. And when we see sin’s foul grip in our lives and in our homes, when we see pride and bitterness and greed and addictions and envy and snarkiness, it’s like seeing the tentacles of hell pulling you into the pit.

But the Lord heard David’s cries for help and the Lord lifted him up and out of the pit and he healed David.

Not only was he rescued, but he was healed. Like Ethan, not only rescued, but adopted, the Lord gives us an abundant life and hope. Not only do we have redemption, we have new appetites and desires. Ultimately, being pulled from the pit, we will have resurrection and the wiping away of all of our tears.

To truly live at all means to run from sheol (this separation from God), to flee it and walk with God in God’s presence.

This first scene of David’s praise is because the Lord did hear his cries and came to his rescue.

David says, “Lord, I lift you up because you have lifted me up”. That’s a great description of what worship is.

And now David calls for corporate worship in vv.4-5. He calls for all of those whom the Lord has redeemed to rejoice. “You have lifted us up, now we lift you up”

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 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.” (Psalm 30:4–5, ESV)

Who are those who are to lift up his name? It’s the hasidim, those who are marked by God’s hesed. You may remember that word from our study of Ruth and that it means God’s overabundant (superabundant) love and faithfulness.

Those who have been marked and stamped by this loved should ignite in stupendous rejoicing.

All of creation testifies to the glory of God in some way: the grass, mountains, oceans, the bugs, and storms. And all of creation testifies to God’s glory with different amounts of clarity. But the redeemed, the saints, are to sing the most clearly about the holiness and the redemption of God. And the songs of rescue will last longer than our weeping. The songs of rescue should ring loud and clear in a world of panic in the pit.

And not only should our songs be holy, but the singers of the songs should be holy, too. Holy ones should sing of the Holy One. We shouldn’t be able to praise on Sunday and curse on Monday. James says that saltwater and pure water can’t come from the same source.

God is holy, and because he is holy he rebuffs us in our sins, but He is also making us holy.

His anger lasts for a moment but his favor for a lifetime.

God’s holiness collides with our sin and he doesn’t budge and inch. And God’s righteous anger at David’s pride bends David to repentance instead of breaking David. He sees God’s displeasure but he sees it how he should: Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.””.

God’s anger isn’t hate, it’s his holiness. And his holiness is the only thing that can save you. His holiness is the only thing that is willing to save you.

And so David repents. We’ll see in just a minute that David’s main sin was pride. And in his repentance, David isn’t just asking that God would take his pride away, he has turned the other way, to rejoicing.

Application: Don’t forget that repentance means turning the other way. We aren’t asking that we would just stop sinning, but that God would create in us obedience in the opposite direction. The Prodigal doesn’t just need to stop indulging, he needs to run home.

When we are bitter, repentance looks like forgiveness

When you are filled with greed, repentance looks like generosity and contentment

When we tear down with our words, repentance looks like building others up in encouragement.

Not as a way to pay back, but in a reflection of a new heart.

In David’s great pride, his repentance looks like praise and gratitude.

Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Because of God’s holiness, though there are pits and though there is sorrow that lasts through the night. And though that night might not be 24 hrs, or 7 days like Ethans, though it may be years, God’s holiness will never drop the ball. All will be made well. The judge of all the earth shall do right (Gen. 18:25).

God’s holiness is tied to His salvation. If he gives his word to you that he will save you, then trust his word. It’s a holy word. He will not drop that ball. If you hear his voice, and if you feel the cords of sheol pulling you to the pit, call upon His name — He will save. That’s what this Psalm is about — we have a God who saves, and when we have done wrong, we have a God who forgives.

(The last and final word for a Christian. No matter what the pit, the morning always dawns.

Next we learn what it was that was leading David down to the pit. This is the flashback scene.

II — Down To The Pit (vv.6-10)

“As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

David says that it was pride. He had a measure of prosperity and began to say to himself and believe that “he shall never be moved”.

Do we ever think that way? It doesn’t take much.

“I’m really a pretty good Christian. My marriage and my kids are doing great. I did really well here. I shall never be moved. This will last forever.”

“We Americans built a pretty great thing; it will last forever.”

Or, “My bank account is just fine.This will last forever”.

This is where the superscription of the Psalm might give us a clue as to what is happening. They don’t usually convey too much information, but this one does.

This Psalm is for the dedication of the Temple, or the House.

If you remember David’s story, and most of us know about his early rise to the throne from Sunday School lessons, that David, starting in 1 Samuel 16, is anointed to be king, he then defeats Goliath, then he is persecuted by Saul and ultimately prevails, he becomes the king of Judah, and then the King of Judah and Jerusalem. And David is on top. But this is where he starts to lean into his pride. He doesn’t ride out with the men in the time of war, he commits adultery and murder, and he asks the Lord if he can build Him a temple, but the lord says, no.

And here is perhaps where David is so dismayed. God simply has to turn his face and David’s house of cards come toppling down. He sees that his great mountain was only upheld by the hand of God. And he is terrified that since God told him that he cannot build his temple, that God is turning his face away from David.

Application:

Do we ever say anywhere “I shall never be moved?” The great bulwark against pride and forgetfulness, and we see this all through the Bible and in the very fact that David is writing a Psalm like this, is gratitude—it’s worship.

There was a man at the church I went to growing up who was a Polish immigrant. He used to pray over his trash as he took the trash to the street because when he was a child they were so poor that they didn’t even produce enough trash for a trash bag. He said that he never forgot it and was filled with thanksgiving for

The other day I was carrying some of the kid’s sheets to the laundry and it just hit me profoundly that one day I won’t be doing their laundry. One day there won’t be little sheets to wash or toys to pick up. There will come a day when I wish everyone was home and that I could have some dirty sheets to wash.

Our lives, our joys, and even what we see as our burdens, are gifts of grace from the Lord.

“Our great mountain” of security and stability in anything is but the grace of God. And in His anger, and in His love, sometimes He will simply turn His face and show us how quickly the pit will pull us down without the mercy of God.

And so he continues and says,

To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: “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 merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!”” (Psalm 30:6–10, ESV)

David is terrified that since God told him that he cannot build his temple, that God is turning his face away from David. So he prays in an argumentative way. Lord, if I go to this pit, will the dust praise you?

And this is a faithful way to pray. A way we should pay attention to. He’s not only asking the lord for what he wants, but why he wants it. James chapter four says that we often pray but we don’t receive because we ask wrongly, to spend it on our passions. But here David is praying for his deliverance and for the sake of God’s glory. In this frame, it’s not wrong to argue with God this way. Moses prayed this way when God came to judge the Israelites when he said, God, if you do this, what will the Egyptians think of you? Spare us for your glory. Jesus prayed this way in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Is there any other way? Nevertheless, your will be done.”

We should learn to pray according to God’s character and according to His will and glory, asking for specific things, not because they are solely for our relief and benefit, but that our redemption and restoration redound to His glory.

This is what the Bible teaches us about praying to a sovereign God. And we shrink away from this so often. On the far end of the scale , there are those who do not pray at all because God already knows our needs — that’s their caricatured view of sovereignty. But perhaps where many of us live is that we pray with a mid-level of timidity, we pray for generalities, never knowing if they are answered or not. Never knowing if God was faithful to them or not. We are to pray for specific things and ask them in reference to God’s will and character.

Not just, “Lord bless my neighbor, but Lord bless Jim and Sheryl’s difficult marriage, their testimony to their children of the mystery of the gospel in their faithfulness to one another. Be glorified there.”

Ultimately, David’s prayer is answered, but not in the way that he was expecting. In 2 Samuel 7, we hear the Lord speak to David and he tells him that though David wanted to build a house for the Lord, God would not allow it. But instead, God is going to build a house for David. And offspring that will establish your kingdom and He will build a house for my name, and I will establish his throne forever.

Like it is so many times, God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way that we might expect, but His plans far surpass our intentions.

III - From Pit To Praise (vv.11-12)

“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” (Psalm 30:11–12, ESV)

In this last scene, we return back where we started — looking at God’s redemption, remembering that he hears us when we cry out, recalling his mercy that he takes those that are attracted to the siren song of Sheol, and he heals us — he gives us new appetites. We are to be filled with worship and thanksgiving.

That’s what this psalm is all about. That’s what this series on the Psalms is all about — the Psalms of thanksgiving.

God not only turns our morning into a feeling “happy”, but of whole body/life rejoicing and buoyancy “dancing”.

Apply — good works?

David’s last line in this prayer is a declaration to give praise to God forever. And since the time this Psalm was written, and still today, this Psalm of praise has fulfilled that call, being prayed and sung by those who have been redeemed. Whose sackcloth have been replaced with gladness.

But David was never allowed to build that temple, but His offspring was.

Christ also went down to the pit, all the way down to Sheol, and He died. And there was weeping and mourning by the disciples, but on the third day He rose again, and he turned their weeping into dancing. And the Lord established His temple, not with brick and mortar but with the lives of his people, the church. And to them all, these holy ones who have been redeemed, this song is a very fitting song to remember the foundation of this temple. Not only has he saved us, but he has adopted us. We not only have rescued lives, but we have redeemed lives, and one day resurrected lives. We are a people who are loved by the Lord. We have a God who hears us and will heal us. He has been to the pit and he knows the way out of the grave. He turns our sackcloth into gladness. Our mourning into morning.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE Insert

“Yet Not I, but Through Christ In Me”

THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION Mark 14:22-25

(Possible table sermon: You might think the the last thing the prodigal son, who spent his life on partying and feasting, is another party and another feast, but that’s exactly what he received. To those who are running their lives into the pit, don’t need to hear that running to God is running to safety but also emptiness. No, what you are running to in the Lord is fullness. You are running to the ultimate feast and the ultimate joy.)

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

CONFESSION OF FAITH Belgic Confession, Article 35

Minister: This is a table for people of faith. Without faith, we cannot receive Christ here. Let’s confess what we believe about this meal.

Congregation: We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ has ordained and instituted the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and sustain those who are already born again and ingrafted into his family: his church.

This banquet is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates himself to us with all his benefits. At that table he makes us enjoy himself as much as the merits of his suffering and death, as he nourishes, strengthens, and comforts our poor, desolate souls by the eating of his flesh, and relieves and renews them by the drinking of his blood.

With humility and reverence, we receive the holy sacrament in the gathering of God's people, as we engage together, with thanksgiving, in a holy remembrance of the death of Christ our Savior, and as we thus confess our faith and Christian religion. By the use of this holy sacrament we are moved to a fervent love of God and our neighbors.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

HYMN Amazing Grace! # 433

SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

PRAYER

†OUR RESPONSE #234

Tune: The God of Abraham Praise

The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high;

“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” they ever cry.

Hail, Abraham’s God and mine! I join the heav’nly lays;

all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Go in confident peace, for the Lord is with you. Amen.

Grace Notes:

Psalm 30 is a call to gratitude and remembrance, not only for David but for the whole church, to the God who hears our calls for help, comes to our aid and brings healing. Weeping will mark our lives now as we live in a world marred by the fangs of sin and death that would pull us to the pit. But those who call on the Lord for help will never be dismayed. His word is a holy word — If he promises to help, He will. And though our mourning may linger through long seasons, God’s faithfulness and healing will ultimately bring the mourner to dancing.

From this text, we also noted a few practical examples from David that we can emulate:

‌In David’s repentance for pride, he is filled with rejoicing. We, too, need to remember that repentance isn’t merely stopping sinful behavior but faithful obedience to the right (and usually opposite) behaviors. If you are filled with pride, fill your life with gratitude. If you are critical, fill your words with praise. Etc.

What does repentance look like for you today? What would it look like to turn the opposite direction from some of the sins you are committing?

‌

In David’s bold prayer for redemption, he also argued with God that it would serve His glory. As the Psalms are our prayer guide, we, too, need to learn not only to pray for what we want but for why we want it. We need to align our desires and supplications with what God has revealed about his glory and his will. David’s prayer is informed by what God has revealed about Himself in scripture. These specific, scripture-filled prayers teach us to ask for things for the right reasons — reasons that God has revealed to us through His word. Reasons that He honors.

How can you pray more specifically today? How can you add the ‘why’ to the ‘’what’ that you usually pray?

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