Joy Comes in the Morning

Psalm 30

We are spending this Summer in the Psalms, and I have enjoyed diving in to some of the songs that were used for worship in Old Testament times. When we think of the Psalms, we often think of King David, and this morning, we are going to look at one of his Psalms. Psalm 30 is introduced as a Psalm for the dedication of the temple, but if that were the case, it would be written in anticipation of the temple being built since David did not live to see the temple. It’s possible that this Psalm was written as a dedication of the palace which David did have built, and it may have been used later in the dedication of the temple of Solomon as well.

Psalm 30 NIV

A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David. 1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. 2 Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me. 3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit. 4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name. 5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. 6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.” 7 Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. 8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: 9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? 10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; 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 your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

Our God, the God of the universe, cares about the things that concern us whether we are going through difficulty, or if we are on the emotional mountaintop. It is amazing that He knows and cares about us!

He became a human being, in the form of Jesus, and He lived among us for awhile - He knows our weaknesses and our strengths - He knows what it means to be full of sorrow and full of joy.

King David is known as a man after God’s own heart, but when we dig into his life, we find that he had quite the roller coaster of obedience and disobedience.

We dug into his life last Summer, and we saw that although David was considered a man after God’s own heart, he was far from perfect. In fact, you could say that his life was sometimes a mess. But even through the mess of adultery and murder, he eventually repented, and he was known as someone that was passionate about his relationship with God.

Today, we benefit from his relationship with God through the many songs that are included in the Psalms.

David’s experiences of God were affected by all kinds of disobedience and failure, but through it all, He found a God that loved him and through the chaos, proved faithful through it all.

David’s history with God is unique, and so are each of our experiences with Him. We may have similar experiences, but even when we experience the exact same thing as someone else, we notice different things. We all have a unique history with God.

And my guess is that all of us have found ourselves at some point in our lives in a mess - either a mess of our own making, or of somebody else’s doing - or perhaps it was because of something that was not caused by anybody - just something that happened that put your life in a mess.

Some of us may have been close to death, at least once. Maybe it was due to an accident, or maybe due to an illness of some sort. Some may have been caught up in addictions that would destroy us. We all can relate to the words of the old hymn that says:

My heart was distressed ’neath Jehovah’s dread frown, And low in the pit where my sins dragged me down; I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay, Who tenderly brought me out to golden day.

Refrain: He brought me out of the miry clay, He set my feet on the Rock to stay; He puts a song in my soul today, A song of praise, hallelujah!

That miry clay is a place of despair, a place of loneliness, a place of darkness, a place of hopelessness and helplessness.

David said: 1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

David often would list reasons for worshipping God. When we feel overwhelmed by our daily struggles, we would find great solace in doing the same thing. There is so much for which we have to be thankful! So he says in verse 1 directly to God that he will exalt him, which means to lift Him up, because David himself had been lifted up.

Because of all that God has done for us, we ought to exalt Him whenever we have the opportunity.

David was personally helped quite dramatically by God, and he was spared public shame, which none of us are a fan of. And so he worships God.

David said: 2 Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.

When we are going through challenging times, we recognize that we need God to come to our rescue - but the thing we sometimes forget is that the healing doesn’t always happen in an instant. Sometimes the healing takes time.

We may be clear of the imminent danger, but we still need healing.

A soldier who finishes his/her tour of duty might be out of imminent danger from the enemy, but as we’ve seen over time, there are a lot of wounds that happen on the inside that need healing.

We all have fallout from the struggles we go through, and we need healing. Our wounds might not be visible to the naked eye, but they can be just as devastating than physical injuries.

A woman who had had a disease that caused her to bleed for a dozen years - in her weakened, desperate state, approached Jesus, even as he was walking with intent to get to somewhere else.

She reached out and touched just the hem of his garment, and what happened? She was healed. Completely.

She would have been an outcast, known primarily for her illness, her desperation, her neediness. Now, all of that had changed, on the outside.

But do you think she would have had an easy time of it being reintegrated into her town, her family, her friends and acquaintances?

No. She would have needed ongoing healing of her relationships as she re-established that she was no longer what she was before.

David wrote: “I called to you for help, and you healed me”. Can you say the same? Even though you have been saved from the worst harm, you still need healing, and so do I.

David’s life was never made perfect while he was alive. He lived a pretty complicated life until he died.

But he had faith in God, and love for God and his deep trust enabled him to focus on and celebrate the healing that God had done, not those things that yet remained imperfect in his life.

Then David speaks of God’s character and favour in his life:

5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night,

but rejoicing comes in the morning.

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

When David sinned with Bathsheba and when he murdered Uriah her husband, he was obviously out of step with God and His will for his life. He had turned his back on God and willfully sinned.

He may have even convinced himself that all was well, until a prophet named Nathan came to him and told David a story that angered David, but the real story was that David had done something much much worse. When confronted with the reality and the depth of his sin and failure and the level of offense against God.

David then wrote Psalm 51 in response: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me”.

He realized that he had sinned against God, and he repented of his sin. Sometimes people think of God as angry and on the watch for us to mess up so that He can zap us.

That’s not the God that we find in this Psalm. David says:

5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night,

but rejoicing comes in the morning.

God does get angry when we disobey and when we do things that will harm our spiritual life. He guides us, through the Holy Spirit living within us and through His word to live our lives in such a way that we honor and lift Him up. He knows what is best for us, and His desire is for us to grow in Christlikeness throughout our lives here on Earth.

God is like a good parent that cares about the things that His children do. When a parent doesn’t care, the children are often left to their own devices to develop. When a parent truly cares, there is discipline and there are rules to live by in the home, and it is the same with our heavenly Father - who disciplines us and gives us clear guidelines for living. He loves us enough to give us guidelines to live by.

The Bible actually says that He’s jealous for us. A healthy jealousy that desires that we live in a right relationship with Him.

And, in response, we show our love for Him - not just with feeling - not just with worship - we show our love for Him by obedience.

Jesus says: John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands”. The message paraphrase of Scripture says: “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you.

So God’s anger lasts only a moment. The point and purpose of His anger is that we will change our behavior and begin to obey Him - that we will trust Him enough to reorder our lives in such a way to bring honor and glory to His name.

I am so glad that it is His anger that lasts only a short time, but David says His favor lasts a lifetime! It is important to keep those things straight. All too often, we live our lives like He is angry and ready to blast us, when the truth is that His favor is what lasts. That doesn’t mean that He will make you healthy, wealthy, and wise - it means that He will bless you with right relationship with God and that there is a place being prepared for you in heaven.

7 Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain[c] stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

David sometimes felt that God hid His face. I’m sure that we can relate to that feeling sometimes. There are times when I feel like I am doing this on my own, but that is not even close to true. God is always with us, He is always directing our paths, even when we may not feel like God is there.

David was dismayed when it felt like God hid His face. We feel the same way. But God is ALWAYS closer than our own breath, living inside of us through the Holy Spirit at work in our lives. We need to remember that.

What does that mean practically? We don’t need to despair of God removing Himself from us. We need to invite Him into our aloneness, into our sadness, into our suffering, into the emptiness we may sometimes feel.

What I have found in my life is that the times that I have felt like He hid His face from me, it was really more about me turning my face away. He wants us to live in communion with Him. When we are in those times when we feel God is hiding His face, David says in those moments He called out to the Lord and cried for mercy - He cried out to God to be merciful and to be his help in those times.

We may find it easy to praise God when life is going along smoothly and we feel His presence, but David tells us it is important to keep praising Him even in those times when we feel alone because “will the dust praise Him?” “Will the dust proclaim His faithfulness?” The understood answer to these questions is NO - it is up to us to praise Him and let the world know that He is faithful!

David says, in those times of dismay and near despair that when He spent the time to praise and lift up God that God responds. Verses 11 & 12 say:

11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

The presence of God brings us to joy. He turns our wailing, our deep sorrow into the opposite, into joy. As the song Graves Into Gardens says:

You turn mourning to dancing You give beauty for ashes You turn shame into glory You're the only one who can

You turn graves into gardens You turn bones into armies You turn seas into highways You're the only one who can You're the only one who can

It may not happen the very moment you turn from despair to praise, but He is always faithful, and He will do it. But often, it means that we have to make some adjustments so that we are living in obedience to Him. We are to turn away from those things that would dishonor Him and live our lives for Him.

So may we learn from David. May we testify of how God has lifted or is lifting us out of the miry clay. How He is good and His love endures for ever. May we be quick to turn from darkness to Jesus in repentance.

May we never forget that Jesus fills our suffering and sorrow with His presence, and acknowledge the truth that His presence really DOES make all the difference for a life well lived.

He has called us to live lives of obedience, and in return, we will be blessed with the presence and leading of God in our lives. As we prepare to receive the elements of communion this morning, I would invite you to evaluate where you are in your relationship with God today. Does God feel distant? Praise Him! Does it feel like you are going through these struggles alone - remember that God is right by your side, and love Him by living in obedience. Maybe you need to make some changes - allow the presence of God to fill you as you experience His grace through the elements of communion.

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

The minister may offer a prayer of confession and supplication, concluding with the following prayer of consecration:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Matthew 26:27–29, Luke 22:19)

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

(Here the congregation may pray the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Before the partaking of the bread, let the minister say:

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

Before the partaking of the cup, let the minister say:

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.