Psalm 30:Psalms of New Orientation

Introduction

In reading the Psalm there is a major move from ordered, reliable life to an existence that is run amok and disorganized. From clean to messy.

As the Psalm give voice to the new reality of disorientation when things are turned up on there heard. The Psalms also give voice to the return of Order.

While the speaker may on occasion be left “in the Pit,” (as in Ps. 88), that is not the characteristic case. Most frequently the Psalms stay with the experience to bring the speech to a second decisive move, from disorientation to new orientation.

The Psalms regularly bear witness to the surprising gift of new life. No a return to the old stable orientation. but a New life that you may never had expected.

Grace Abounds

Even in the Old Testament when we often think of rules and regulations. We see Grace flowing. It is a mistake to think of the Old testament different from the New in terms of Grace and the lack of . Grace Abounds.

In the Psalms the speaker an the community of faith are often surprised by grace, when there emerges in present life a new possibility that is inexplicable, neither derived nor extrapolated, but wrought by the inscrutable power and goodness of God.

That newness cannot be explained, predicted, or programmed.

We do not know how such a newness happens any more than we know how a dead person is raised to new life, how a leper is cleansed, or how a blind person can see (cf. Luke 7:22).

We do not know; nor do the speakers of these psalms. Since Israel cannot explain and refuses to speculate, it can do what it does best. It can tell, narrate, recite, testify, in amazement and gratitude, “lost in wonder, love, and praise.”

You Can’t Go Back

When God gets a hold of you. When you go through it. When your life has been turned upside down. And but through the grace of God you return to a sense of order.

That new orientation is not a return to the old stable orientation, for there is no such going back.

The psalmists know that we can never go home again.

Once there has been an exchange of real candor, as there is here between Yahweh and Israel, there is no return to the precandor situation.

There is no returning to where you were. Though some may desire it. This desire to return is often what causes people to fail to move forward. They desire to stay in the past. They want to keep things the way there were. Instead of taking thing as they are.

God is with you in this new place. Move forward in Him.

From Plea to Praise

Psalms of New orientation can be noted in that they move from plea to praise.

The songs are not about the “natural” outcome of trouble, but about the decisive transformation made possible by this God who causes new life where none seems possible. Water Brueggemann

Thanksgiving

The most obvious song of new orientation is the thanksgiving song. The speaker is now on the other side of a lament or complaint. The occasion for the song is that the speaker has complained to God and God has acted in response to the lament. The result of God’s intervention is that the old issue has been overcome. The speech concerns a rescue, intervention, or inversion of a quite concrete situation of distress which is still fresh in the mind of the speaker.

The Once and Future King

These are the songs of new orientation par excellence. They give public liturgical articulation to the “new kingship” of Yahweh, which has just now been established. It is likely that the enthronement songs are one version of victory songs that celebrate Yahweh’s victory over Israel’s enemies. In these psalms kingship is granted to Yahweh on the basis of the victory just won.

This would include New Songs about Jesus victory and coming back one day.

Hymn of Praise

It characterizes a public (as distinct from personal or intimate) song that is sung with abandonment in praise to God for the character of God’s person or the nature of God’s creating and liberating actions.

Next Steps

Some of you are in the new life needing to take time to thank God for his grace and mercy as he has lead you to a new position in life

Some of you are in the dark night of the soul need to remember the light and that new orientation is coming

Some of you need to let go of the past and move into the future.

YHWH taken you from the past into a new life. ABC

A New Life

Psalm 30

Psalm 30 LEB

A psalm; a song for the dedication of the house. Of David. 1 I will exalt you, O Yahweh, because you have drawn me up, and have not made my enemies rejoice over me. 2 O Yahweh, my God, I cried for help to you, and you healed me. 3 O Yahweh, you have brought my life up from Sheol. You preserved me alive from among those going down to the pit. 4 Sing praises to Yahweh, you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy fame. 5 For there is a moment in his anger; there is a lifetime in his favor. Weeping lodges for the evening, but in the morning comes rejoicing. 6 But as for me, I had said in my prosperity, “I shall not be moved ever.” 7 O Yahweh, by your favor you caused my strong mountain to stand. You hid your face. I was bewildered. 8 To you, O Yahweh, I called, and to the Lord I pleaded for grace saying, 9 “What gain is there in my death, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 10 “O Yahweh, hear and be gracious to me. O Yahweh, be my helper.” 11 You have turned my wailing into my dancing. You have removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy 12 so that I may sing praises to you and not be quiet. O Yahweh, my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Bibliography

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