EXPOSITION OF PSALM 30 (2)
Psalm 30:4-12

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(Continued from preceding message)

II. Saints are invited to join the song of praise (vv.4f). And a good reason is given for them to do so (v.5).

30:4 "Sing praise to the LORD, You saints of His, ..." A saint is a "holy one", one who is faithful and loyal. "You saints of His" are Jehovah's holy ones: His predestined sons whom He chose in Christ to be holy, and whom He accepted in Christ as holy before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4-6); those whom He in regeneration gave holiness and the holy divine nature (2 Peter 1:3f); those who have been made to be partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10) and therefore pursuers of holiness (v.14). Jesus Christ is their Exemplar (Psalm 16:10), and He is most perfectly "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26). Jehovah's saints are to "sing praise to the LORD", "For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful" (Psalm 147:1). In the words of Isaac Watts:

"... And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name." Jehovah's saints sing not only praises to Him, but also thanksgiving at every remembrance of all that He has done. Let saints here and now learn to sing as we shall in heaven, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! ... You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Revelation 4:8-11).

30:5 "For His anger is but for a moment, ..." Anger does not properly belong to Jehovah, for He is an impassible Spirit, the God without passions who never changes (Malachi 3:6). Holy Scriptures speak of His "anger" through the use of anthropopathism, "the ascription of a human feeling to one who is not human". "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psalm 7:11) and "forever" (Malachi 1:4). But to His people "His anger is but for a moment", as when He chastises them, and without intimating that His everlasting love for them has changed.

"... His favor is for life; ..." "His favor" is His goodwill toward His people and His delight in them, which is all in and through Christ. It is "for life", never-ceasing throughout eternity, for "at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11; cp. Romans 8:35ff).

"... Weeping may endure for a night, ..." "Weeping" is the activity of the soul under the chastening hand of God. It will "endure for a night" because it is but temporary – except for the wicked, for whom weeping is for eternity (Matthew 8:12).

"... But joy comes in the morning." This is true in spiritual conversion: The soul weeps through the night of conviction, but in the morning of regeneration joy comes as "The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2). And this will remain true throughout this present life (Lamentations 3:23): "Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed [in the night of affliction (v.19)], because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." Peter wept in the night of his denial of Christ (Luke 22:54-62); but he was joyful in the morning of his restoration to Christ (Luke 22:32).

III. Sin resulted in chastening (vv.6f). Here is a description of the psalmist's sin (v.6), an acknowledgment of his sin (v.7a), and the chastisement for his sin (v.7b).

30:6 "Now in my prosperity I said, / 'I shall never be moved.'" The Hebrew word translated prosperity (found only here in the Old Testament) means "ease". Times of ease and prosperity are great blessings from the Lord; but our hearts are prone to think of them as "my prosperity". Such blessings should humble us; but we often instead become overly confident in ourselves because of them. Our only stability is to be found in our relationship to Jesus Christ (16:8), not in earthly prosperity. "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12).

30:7 "LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; ..." It was only of Jehovah's unmerited "favor", His mercy and grace, that his "mountain" had been made to "stand strong" or prosper. (His "mountain" may have been either his soul, his prosperity, or his soul in its prosperity.) It therefore had been wrong for him to be presumptuous regarding it.

"... You hid Your face, and I was troubled." Jehovah will trouble the wicked by striking them with his rod of iron (Psalm 2:9). Saints are so sensitive to Him that they are troubled if He but turns His face from them (2 Chronicles 6:42).

IV. Chastening resulted in supplication (vv.8-10). Here is a description of the psalmist's supplication to God (vv.8-10) and his resultant deliverance from God (v.11).

30:8 "I cried out to You, O LORD; ..." Sinners seeking deliverance do not pray casually (77:1-3).

"... And to the LORD I made supplication: ..." To make supplication to Jehovah is to beseech Him to "Be gracious to me!" To cry out this supplication is to pray vehemently for His grace.

30:9 "'What profit is there in my blood, / When I go down to the pit? ..." "Can a man be profitable to God? ... "If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?" asks Eliphaz the Temanite (Job 22:1; 35:7). Absolutely nothing! No man is profitable to God nor adds anything to Him, neither in his life nor in his death, and neither in ascending up into heaven nor descending down into the grave.

"... Will the dust praise You? / Will it declare Your truth?" The psalmist here does not deny that the souls of departed saints praise God in heaven. Indeed they do! The Book of Revelation repeatedly describes them doing so (Revelation 4:10f; 5:8-13; 7:9-12; 11:16-18; 15:2-4; 19:1-8). (However, it may be argued that the psalmist may not have been as knowledgeable of this subject as are Christians today, and of the afterlife and the intermediate state in general, because of the progressive nature of revelation.) But the psalmist rightly declares that the lifeless dust of our bodies lying in the grave cannot praise God and declare His truth in this earthly land of the living. And the psalmist here reveals the prevailing desire of his supplication: He desires his life may be spared in order that he might bring honor and praise to the truth of Jehovah. And this is every repentant sinner's desire. Let it be our desire. And let our lives be lived in such a way as to prove it. Let us praise Jehovah and declare to all men that Christ is the very embodiment of the divine Truth (John 14:6). Let us declare to all men that "the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Let us declare to all men that "the truth is in Jesus" (Ephesians 4:21). Let us declare to all men that through faith in Jesus Christ "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Let us declare to all men, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8). This would not in any way profit Jehovah, but it will indeed please Him.

30:10 "Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; ..." The saint does not pray to receive what he deserves, but rather what he does not deserve.

"... LORD, be my helper!'" This Jehovah will do in the person of Jesus Christ. All who faithfully pray this prayer may afterward declare, "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6). And not only is Christ the saint's Helper, but also his Help – "A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear" (Psalm 46:1f).

V. Supplication resulted in deliverance and praise (vv.11f)

30:11 "You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; ..." Here is a change of activity for the delivered soul – and this dancing is indeed an acceptable means of praise (Psalm 149:3; 150:4).

"... You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, ..." "Sackcloth" is a suitable garment for "mourning" (Esther 4:1-4), but "gladness" is a suitable garment for "dancing".

30:12 "To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. ..." The saint's glory in this instance is his "tongue" (as also in 16:9 compared with Acts 2:26; also Psalm 57:8; 108:1; 149:5), the effect (Christ's glory) being put for the cause producing it (my tongue).

"... O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever." For when I leave this earthly choir, I shall join the heavenly!

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