Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

Psalm 30

Now my brothers and sisters in Christ, it has been awhile since I preached on one of the Psalms, but this Psalm ties in well with the Gospel and the Old Testament lesson and reminds us that the Psalms are just as much the Word of God as our readings for the day. This Psalm in particular points us to the hope and joy that we find in the Resurrection.

It is important to remember this that as we are learning about Law and Gospel that both of those teachings are contained in the Old and New Testament. This Psalm in particular talks about the hope and joy that we find in the resurrection.

Now in order to understand the Psalms and the Scriptures, we must remember Christ’s words to the Pharisees when they searched the Scriptures hoping to find eternal life, but Jesus tells them, that the Scriptures are about him. If you have that in mind as we look at this Psalm it will become clear what this is about, even though it was written by David 1000 years before Jesus was born, Christ is speaking here.

Look there at the first 3 verses, and have fixed firmly in your minds the events that transpire at the time of Holy Week, His betrayal, the men wagging their heads at Christ saying, he saved others can’t he save himself, hear Jesus crying out my god, my god why have you forsaken me, and his final cry of it is finished.

Indeed his enemies rejoiced on that day and celebrated his death, that this man who had been teaching against them, and pointing out their hypocrisy and causing them nothing but trouble was finally dead and gone. At least that’s what they thought. But God did not let them rejoice over Christ, in fact the Father heard the cries of His only begotten Son and healed him, even bringing up his soul, and that hebrew word there means more than just a soul, but think of a spirit with flesh, that’s what we are. The Father raised from sheol, that is hell and restored him to life.

Jesus’ resurrection and His victory was proclaimed in the Old Testament that Jesus would overcome the powers of sin, death, and even hell itself. This is why He kept teaching the Disciples this fact again and again that they might take it to heart, and learn what Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms had revealed, but they didn’t get when it was happening.

We will come back to verses 4 and 5, but look down at v6, look there in his prosperity he trusted in the Lord, and was certain that He should never be moved, and by God’s favor he stood strong, and when His face was hid, He was dismayed. He cried out to the Lord pleading for mercy, and if you remember Jesus words on the Cross, He wasn’t just crying out for himself, He pled for the entire human race, for all of those who knew not what they were doing, Jesus was pleading for you.

Even though the Father afflicted him due to your sins, He did not let Christ remain in the pit, and in the dust of the earth, but raised him immortal that He might share with all mankind the fact that God is faithful to all his promises, that he would not abandon his soul to sheol, but rescued him, and turned mourning into dancing that Jesus Christ is Risen and that His glory may sing the praise of the Father and not be silent.

Now you might think well great, he has beat death, but what about me, what about my loved ones? If you have lost someone you know the pain of death, you agony and the bitterness that it leaves. When a person dies, they are gone from us in this life, and we do not get to see them again.

That is what the Disciples thought on the night that Jesus was crucified, the same thought the widows in our Old Testament and Gospel lesson thought, death had come and they thought it was over, there was nothing left to do but weep as despair and sorrow took hold and to grasp memories that would eventually fade away and when the memories were gone, they would be lost too. Death has been the enemy of mankind for centuries it steals from us the people that are dear, either slowly as illness wears them down, or suddenly and without caring if we got to say goodbye. Death doesn’t care if a person is young or old, that is why death is a curse upon mankind. A curse that was brought by Adam’s sin.

But do you know what our Gospel lesson really shows us today, as Jesus stops outside the city of nain and says to that young man arise? It might just seem like a nice thing that Jesus did for this widow and her son, but it also tells us something important. Jesus wasn’t just overcoming the powers of sin, death, and hell for himself, but for others, like that boy, and like you.

Jesus didn’t need to come into this world to be free from death, He was the one through whom all things were made. But He became flesh, and clothed himself in our mortal frame, so that he might win immortality for you. He came into this world to bring an end to the power of death.

That is why the Psalm says, Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy Name. Jesus won this fight for you. He suffered the Wrath of God for He could bear what we could not survive on the Cross, but He wanted you to have God’s favor. We may weep through the nights of Good Friday and Holy Saturday those days where we drift into despair, but then we come to Easter morning and there find the joy of the resurrection.

That is why at the funeral of a Christian there is certainly sorrow for death is evil and it wasn’t meant to be. It is wrong that someone who is dear to us has been laid low and we won’t get to see them again in this life. However, Christ won salvation for all who believe and are baptized, and we will get to see them again. We will see them in the land of the living, for our God is not a God of the dead, but of the Living.

I know it is tempting to set aside the Old Testament and think of it as strange and difficult, but i would encourage you to at least start digging into the Psalms and see what God has revealed to here, and the hope that there is in Christ. For what God did for Christ He will do for you, and He has clothed you in the robe of Christ’s righteousness so you are no longer a stranger, but a child of God. For you have been given His divine and holy name, and rejoice for that name that was handed down to you in baptism.

Do you not that all of those who have been baptized in Christ have been baptized into his death, that you might be raised with him. He goes down into the earth that He might raise up all who cling to Him and the gifts of God in faith.

That is why you will notice that verses 4 and 5 are all about. In the midst of His Passion, his suffering, death, and burial, that He reminds us to sing praises to the Lord. For He is there on the Cross laying down his life to save you. Even though we see the full fury of God poured out on Jesus that day, don’t be afraid, for God’s favor lasts a lifetime. That doesn’t just mean life here on earth, but eternity.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we would miss out on this wonderful teaching if we want to the Psalms or the Scriptures looking only to find ourselves in the Bible, rather look for Christ in the Scriptures, and when you see Jesus, you will not just see Jesus in His divine power and majesty, you will also see Jesus the Savior of Sinners, who rescued us from the powers of sin, death, and the devil not with gold or silver, but with his holy and precious blood, his innocent suffering and death, and He will raise you from the dead. In Jesus name. Amen.