Rev. David Holwick ZJ Series on Psalms
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
November 5, 2000
Psalm 30:1-12
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I. Social insecurities.
A. Big theme in election.
1) Will our elderly be taken care of?
2) Will the young have something comparable to look forward to?
3) Can the politicians gain some leverage by milking it?
B. King David could empathize with Bush and Gore.
1) He had plenty of enemies taking potshots at him.
2) David didn't have to worry about elections but he worried
plenty about coups.
3) The only security on his mind was his own.
a) And things looked good. Real good.
b) Nothing to worry about.
4) Then - boom!
II. The proud boast. 30:6-10
A. The middle of the psalm portrays the problem.
B. David thought he was secure.
1) When this Hebrew word is used, easy circumstances and a
careless outlook are seldom far apart.
a) "Feel secure" is always used negatively.
2) Security has a way of lulling us into complacency.
a) We begin to be practical atheists.
b) There is a god, but we don't need him right now.
c) David experienced it and so do we.
3) Security is not appreciated until it is gone.
a) When it is taken from us, our eyes finally open.
C. He thought it would last forever.
1) "I will never be shaken."
2) Like saying the Titanic can't sink.
III. The disaster. 30:2b
A. David left God out of the picture.
1) God was ticked off at David. 30:5
2) God decided to hide his face. 30:7
a) After disaster hits he realizes God made him firm,
but God can change his attitude toward us.
b) (Mountain may be a metaphor for David's kingdom or
personal fortunes.)
B. No details are given but it was life-threatening illness.
1) It wasn't what he expected, or even feared, but it got
his attention.
C. Yet David is most concerned about gloating by enemies.
1) Maybe he was just as concerned about his legacy as
his life.
IV. The humble appeal and rescue.
A. What gain is there in my destruction?
1) Commercial word is quite down-to-earth - God gains nothing
and loses a worshipper.
2) However, allowing for its limited horizon (death), he
starts from God's interests.
a) He is asking the question, what will God gain from this?
b) It is the right question but not for us to answer.
B. The argument is dropped and an appeal is made. 30:10
1) David is simply a man in need.
2) God's grace is all he can appeal to.
a) Famous "Sinner's Prayer" - Lord, be merciful to me,
a sinner."
b) Have you ever prayed that?
C. The rescue. 30:1-5
1) David was lifted out of the pits.
a) Brought me up - word for pulling up bucket from a well.
2) The well was as deep as death.
V. The celebration. 30:11-12
A. His weeping was turned into rejoicing.
1) This was so significant he brackets the psalm with joy.
a) Weeping visits but joy stays. 30:5
b) Wailing can become dancing. 30:11
2) New Testament takes it further, saying sorrow produces joy.
3) Depression is not a permanent state.
a) When we are in it, we think it will last forever.
b) God can turn it around.
Although Henri Matisse was nearly 28 years younger than
Auguste Renoir, the two great artists were dear friends
and frequent companions.
When Renoir was confined to his home during the last decade
of his life, Matisse visited him daily.
Renoir, almost paralyzed by arthritis, continued to paint
in spite of his infirmities.
One day as Matisse watched the elder painter working in his
studio, fighting torturous pain with each brush stroke,
he blurted out:
"Auguste, why do you continue to paint when you are in such
agony?"
Renoir answered simply: "The beauty remains; the pain passes."
#4388
B. David knew how to get excited about God.
1) In 2 Samuel 6:14 he danced before the Lord.
"David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD
with all his might."
2) An ephod doesn't cover much. It is sort of like a kilt.
a) Here, David clothes himself with joy. 30:11
b) He sings out loud to God.
VI. What are we taking for granted?
During the darkest hours of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued
a proclamation calling for a national day of thanksgiving.
It was in 1863 that he said:
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven;
we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity;
we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other
nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace
and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us.
And we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts,
that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom
and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-
sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and
one voice, by the whole American people.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands,
To set apart and observe .... a day of Thanksgiving and praise
to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
#16791
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This sermon borrows heavily from the commentary in the Tyndale Old
Testament series, "Psalms 1-72," by Derek Kidner.
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 4388 "The Beauty Remains; The Pain Passes," from "A 3rd Serving of
Chicken Soup for the Soul, copyright 1996 By Jack Canfield
and Mark Victor Hansen; Chicken Soup of the Day (internet),
September 28, 1998.
#16791 From internet sermon by Rev. Chris Vogel, "Giving Thanks In
Turmoil," Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (PCA); Waukesha,
Wisconsin; http://www.cornerstone-pca.org/sermons.html;
Main ID #6674 in Holwick's Access 97 Sermon Database.
These and 16,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Draft notes.
A. Psalm of thanks.
B. Already lifted out of depths.
1) He had enemies.
2) He had called for help.
3) God saved him from death.
C. God's displeasure.
1) Lasts only for a moment.
2) Favor lasts a lifetime.
a) Rejoicing comes in the morning.
D. Security.
1) Felt secure.
a) Said, "I will never be shaken."
2) My security rested on God's response.
a) I had to call for mercy.
b) What is benefit if I die?
c) My wailing turned to dancing.
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Commentary notes
Derek Kidner, Psalm 30: Mourning Into Dancing
I. The rescue.
A. Drawn me up - word for pulling up a bucket from a well.
1) The well is as deep as death.
B. Threat was from sickness. 30:2b
1) David is most concerned about gloating by enemies.
2) Compare Paul in Acts 20:24 and 2 Tim 4:7 (finishing race).
C. Weeping - rejoicing.
1) Carried further in NT in concept of sorrow producing joy
(2 Cor 4:17, John 16:20-22; also see Ps 126:5-6)
2) Contrast between momentary and eternal.
3) Contrast between lightweight troubles and "weight of glory."
II. The foolish boast.
A. "Felt secure" - easy circumstances and a careless outlook are
seldom far apart when this Hebrew word is used.
1) See heedlessness in Jer 22:21 and fatal complacency in
Prov 1:32.
B. Mountain stand firm.
1) Metaphor for David's kingdom or personal fortunes, as long
as God sustained him.
2) Telling contrast to the flower-like frailty (7b) of his own
resources. (frailty = dismayed ?)
C. What gain in my destruction?
1) Commercial word is quite down to earth - you gain nothing
and lose a worshipper.
2) However, allowing for its limited horizon (death), he starts
from God's interests.
a) He is asking the question, what will God gain from this?
b) It is the right question but not for us to answer.
D. In verse 10 argument is dropped.
1) David is simply a man in need.
2) He only has grace to appeal to.
III. The celebration.
A. Exuberance of verses 1-5 returns.
1) Enhanced by chastened recollections of verses 6-10.
2) Has a buoyant spirit, as when David danced before the Lord.
a) He could also show intense joy by stillness.
2SA 6:14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before
the LORD with all his might
2SA 7:18 Then King David went in and sat before the
LORD, and he said: "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and
what is my family,that you have brought me this far?
B. My heart may sing.
1) Literally, my glory.
a) Older commentators saw allusion to God's image.
b) Seems to be equivalent to soul or spirit.
2) The praise, which has effervescence of dancing, also has
depth and persistence.
a) David may not have suspected how much when he says
"forever."
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Expositor's Commentary, Psalms, by Willem A. VanGemeren.
I. Praise is the key motif, bracketing entire psalm.
A. Illness brought him to edge of life.
1) Particular event not important.
2) Experience of deliverance was.
B. In God's condescension to his need, David realized afresh
God's love for him.
1) "Gloat" has same root as "joy."
II. God's wonderful acts.
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Discipleship Journal #31, Jan-Feb 1986
Peace: Resolving Conflicts
"The God Of All Comfort"
Why does God permit you to suffer the pain of personal catastrophes?
And what can you do during them?
By Helen Crawford
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"THE LUMP is cancerous," Dr. Gatchell said.
My first reaction was, "Lord, am I at fault? Have I done something? Are you punishing me?"
Through prayer, confession, and heart searching, God's Holy Spirit comforted me with the words of 1 John 3:21: "Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ..." I now knew the air was clear-God was not condemning me. It was God's doing but not a punishment.
Our pastor's recent message on Paul's prayer for the removal of a "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor. 12:7-10) sparked my thinking to recall this incident and how prayer and His promises enabled me to experience God's sufficient grace.
STRENGTH FROM THE WORD
Every spare minute I could manage before I went into the hospital I spent with my husband and daughter and reading the Word. I needed some special assurance, something personal to carry me through. I found it in Psalm 56:9: "Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me."
A little phrase, "Even if he does not," kept coming to me the first day of my hospital stay. I guessed it was from Daniel's experience with the lions, but rather located it in Daniel 3 with the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace. They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, " ... we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up" (Daniel 3:16-18). I believed the Lord was requiring my complete trust in Him whether or not I would be healed.
I don't recall now if it was the night after surgery or prior to it that I awakened in a cold sweat, totally overtaken by fear with the repetitious thought pounding like a jackhammer in my head: "I have cancer! I have cancer!" But just in a moment's time God's wonderful Spirit ministered these thoughts based on the Amplified Version of Proverbs 31:18: My lamp of faith and dependence upon God need not go out, but full of the oil of His Spirit it can burn on through the night of trouble, privation, and sorrow, warning away such robbers as fear, doubt, and distrust. Immediate warmth, peace, and calm overtook the prior fear and cold. This was "my night" but God was removing "the robbers."
God was true to His promise in Isaiah 59:19: "So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him" (KJV). This "standard," or flag, was God's Word-totally adequate in the physical and emotional darkness of the night. A DEEPER DARKNESS
The trauma of the cancer operation and God's abundant provision of grace readied us for the next onslaught. This one, which related to one of our children, was by far the hardest experience we had yet faced. To Christian parents the family is the most meaningful, most precious gift God gives. Yet we were seeing our family deeply wounded-love, respect, closeness, communication were torn, as one of our children went the way of the world. The values we stood for were trod underfoot.
My first reaction was the same as in the previous crisis: "Lord, have I done something? Is this my fault? Where did I go wrong?" I prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm 139:23-24). John and I prayed and cried together. We pointedly asked each other, "Is there anything you see I've done or should not be doing?" Then we rested in God's promises and deliverances. Life had to go on, despite our family crisis.
God's personal assurance came through many passages of Scripture as the Lord opened our understanding. These enlightened truths-this food for our souls, this heavenly manna-assured us of God's presence. We could share the confidence of the psalmist who wrote, "My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises" (Psalm 119:148).
I had heard a prominent Christian teacher mention he dealt with hard problems by giving special time to prayer in the night and searching out each prayer promise he knew. I assigned myself a promise each night to study over and pray through.
This was one: "Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: 'Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, and you shall commit to Me the work of My hands" (Isaiah 45:11, NASB). This child was to be given over to Him. He was the work of His hands (Psalm 139:13-16).
When I exhausted these prayer verses I studied the Old Testament's recorded prayers. I learned from Daniel 9:21 that Daniel prayed in "extreme weariness" (NASB). I had always thought that it was time to quit praying when I got tired. But now I found that the Lord strengthens us when we pray, despite our weariness (Daniel 10:19). That assurance kept us going, as it did Daniel. A special gust of spiritual strength came to us whenever we gained new insight from a verse or passage.
Four years passed. We kept up with the daily affairs of our ministry and our marriage and our personal lives. But the pain our child's rebellion caused never diminished.
"It's taking so long, Lord!" God replied that He would not permit us to be tempted beyond our ability to bear it (1 Cor. 10:13). He assured us that His answer would come: "Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3).
"But Lord, I'm so tired of crying! I want to come to You one day without crying." God replied, "O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more" (Isaiah 30:19). "But when, Lord?" He taught me to say by faith with David, "My times are in your hands ..." (Psalm 31:15).
Already the night watches and the tears seem so distant. Our family is whole again. We pray together. We show our love by our desire to be with each other. The once wayward child now relishes projects with Dad and helping Mom. The psalmist's phrase resounds in our hearts: " ... weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
John and I now cry with other families and feel their heartaches with their children. The feeling and knowing would not have been there if we hadn't been through His pruning process. We might never know the "why" of many situations, or their outcome. But we can always believe that we suffer in part " ... so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Cor. 1:4).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
HELEN CRAWFORD and her husband John are area representatives for The
Navigators in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
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