Opening illustration: After receiving his second Academy Award, Denzel Washington said to his family, “I told you, if I lost tonight, I’d come home and we’d celebrate. And if I won tonight, I’d come home and we’d celebrate.” Denzel, a Christian, was trusting God, whether in blessing or in disappointment.
A Christian couple I know were inspired to follow Denzel’s example. The woman was applying for a dream job that had just opened up where she worked. The interview went well, but she knew she might not get the position. Her husband suggested, “Let’s make reservations at our favorite restaurant this Friday to celebrate - no matter what the outcome.”
Soon the news came that someone else was offered the job. But that Friday the disappointed couple still celebrated. While eating a delicious meal, they were able to count their blessings and renew their faith in the God who holds tomorrow’s opportunities in His hand.
When the psalmist counted his blessings, he was lifted out of his despair and praised God, saying, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing” (Ps. 30:11).
Are you facing a situation in which you could be disappointed? Why not set up a celebration to count your blessings no matter what the outcome? (Dennis Fisher, ODB)
Let us catch up with David in Psalm 30 and see how he give thanks to God even when he had great many disappointments.
Introduction: It is a classic psalm of thanksgiving where the speaker declares or narrates to the congregation what God has done to deliver him/her from crisis. The Hebrew term for this kind of psalm is todah, a song that confesses how God has acted to deliver. In poetic form, the psalm tells a story of thanksgiving; it narrates the divine action of deliverance that has brought forth praise.
The Psalm narrates a story that envisions God as present in joy and in trouble, that is, in all of life. The psalm proclaims a gospel of divine involvement in the world in all of life. It is a daring act of faith to see God in all the parts of life, and our psalm with powerful poetry helps us to imagine such a reality. The psalmist strongly holds to God's providence in the midst of a crisis of life and death, and God did not leave the psalmist alone but came to deliver her/him from the crisis.
Life as praise or thanksgiving would be an appropriate response to the psalm. The goal of the divine deliverance narrated in the psalm reaches beyond the rescue itself to the response of gratitude as a completion of the prayer. After the storm of life is over, there is a Psalm and this is that Psalm.
How to give thanks in disappointments?
1. Intention to ‘Give Thanks’ (vs. 1-5)
The opening of the psalm declares praise and thanksgiving for God's rescue from the crisis at hand and from opponents who had made the crisis more difficult. The psalmist lifts up God just as God has lifted up the psalmist.
• You have drawn me up
• You have healed me
• You brought me up
• You restored me
• God has delivered the psalmist from the power of death and Sheol
As the Hebrew word ‘rapha,’ signifies to heal, interpreters have been led, from this consideration, to restrict it to sickness. But as it is certain, that it sometimes signifies to restore, or to set up again, and is moreover applied to an altar or a house when they are said to be repaired or rebuilt, it may properly enough mean here any deliverance.
Sheol and the Pit (verse 3) indicate the realm of death or the underworld. The poetic imagery suggests being lifted up out of a well or cistern as a way of narrating God's rescue from the power of death. God has delivered from the grip of the power of death and has brought this one back to full life. Central to the psalm is the confession that it is God who has given this new life.
Beginning in verse 4, the speaker addresses the congregation, the "faithful ones." They are called to join in the thanksgiving to God. Verse 5 uses powerful poetic imagery to articulate the reason the congregation should give thanks: God's anger and the resulting weeping are but a moment in the context of a life of joy and hope.
Another way to put this is that God's 'no' to the faith community always comes in the context of God's 'yes.' Night and day become symbols of God's anger and favor. The striking reversal witnessed in verse 5 is characteristic of the poetic power of this psalm; other reversals are in verses 2, 7, and 11.
In the meantime we should recognize that in God’s favor is life (verse 5) when He so chooses and we must accept His decision is when He chooses otherwise. When it is given, God’s favor is like a shield covering us (Psalm 5:12). God’s favor provides mercy (Isaiah 60:10), preservation (Psalm 86:2, Hebrew), and security (Psalm 41:11), and assures that our prayers are answered if they are in God’s will Psalm106:4. 26 Such popular concepts that “hope springs eternal” and that things will be better with “the dawn of a new day come” all come from Psalm 30:5.
2. Story of Crisis and Deliverance (vs. 6-11)
The body of the psalm writer tells the story of the crisis, the prayer, and the deliverance. All was well in the life of this person. Perhaps he had come to trust in human achievement rather than in God. Suddenly prosperity faltered and he/she cried out to God for help and mercy. The pleas are in verses 8 and 10. The petitioner's questions in verse 9 are part of this persuasive prayer to convince God to answer mercifully. Behind the questions lie the petitioner's hopes to live and praise God, a life that is only possible with deliverance from death. In such praise, the speaker will bear witness to God's involvement in the world and narrate the good news of God's deliverance.
David is winding down the psalm just as he had begun it; with thanksgiving. He affirms that it was by the help and blessing of God that he had escaped safe; and he then adds, that the final object of his escape was, that he might employ the rest of his life in celebrating the praises of God. Moreover, he shows us that he was not insensible or obdurate under his afflictions, but mourned in heaviness and sorrow; and he also shows that his very mourning had been the means of leading him to pray to God to deprecate his wrath.
Both these points are most worthy of our observation, in order, first, that we may not suppose that the saints are guilty of stoical insensibility, depriving them of all feeling of grief; and, secondly, that we may perceive that in their mourning they were exercised to repentance. This latter he denotes by the term sackcloth. It was a common practice among the ancients to clothe themselves with sackcloth when mourning, for no other reason, indeed, than that like guilty criminals, they might approach their heavenly Judge, imploring his forgiveness with all humility, and testifying by this clothing their humiliation and dissatisfaction with themselves.
We know also that the Orientals were addicted beyond all others to ceremonies. We perceive, therefore, that David, although he patiently submitted himself to God, was not free from grief. We also see that his sorrow was after a godly sort, as Paul speaks, (2 Corinthians 7:10 ;) for to testify his penitence he clothed himself with sackcloth.
We again find powerful poetic imagery in verse 11 to describe the rescue. Grief changes to dancing and the customary sackcloth attire for grieving is turned in for joy. The thanksgiving is for God's deliverance from the crisis and for a new perspective on life centered upon gratitude.
Illustration: Mavis Jackson lived in Anaheim California and she often walked past the Crystals Cathedral. She kept saying to herself that someday she was going to go to that church. Then one Sunday she decided that today was the day. She got all dressed up in her best clothes as her Midwestern upbringing dictated. Sat on the main floor and watch as over 3000 people came to worship and was amazed to see the 90 ft. glass window or door or whatever it is slide open even inviting the birds to worship. She was in awe of the organ one of the largest in America and the choir and when it was all over she sat waiting to leave.
She said to the young women next to her that she was so glad to have come today. Wasn’t’ it wonderful. The young women nodded. Are you from here? Asked Mavis. No I’m from the Midwest. Said the young women, adding I’m actually here on a mission. To find my birth mother. There was a pause. I know how you must feel. Said Mavis. A long time ago, I had to give up a little girl for adoption, I didn’t want too. But … Another pause. The young women looked deeply into Mavis eyes. Do you know the birthday of your child? Yes, said Mavis cautiously November 30th. That’s my birthday gasped the young women. They shared their stories and found so many similarities that they checked further to discover that they were in deed mother and Daughter.
Mother and daughter had to meet in the most unexpected way. God gave one of his patented winks that say I love I care. God winks at us a lot more than we realize open your eyes and you will see him and you will understand his grace. Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning.
3. Renew the Promise of ‘Thanksgiving’ (v. 12)
The psalm concludes with a renewed promise of praise and thanksgiving to God throughout life. With the new perspective of gratitude, the psalmist's main vocation for life is the praise of God. Renewed life is a gift from God best enjoyed in thanksgiving. He expresses his acknowledgement of the purpose for which God had preserved him from death, and that he would be careful to render him a proper return of gratitude. Some refer the word glory to the body, and some to the soul, or the higher powers of the mind. Others, as the pronoun my, which we have supplied, is not in the Hebrew text, prefer to translate it in the accusative case, supplying the word every man, in this way: That every man may celebrate thy glory; as if the prophet had said, This is a blessing worthy of being celebrated by the public praises of all men. But as all these interpretations are strained, I adhere to the sense which I have given.
The Hebrew word kvvd, kebod, which signifies glory, it is well known, is sometimes employed metaphorically to signify the tongue, as we have seen in Psalm 16:9. And as David adds immediately after, I will celebrate thy praise for ever, the context demands that he should particularly speak of his own duty in this place. His meaning, therefore, is, O Lord, as I know that thou hast preserved me for this purpose that thy praises may resound from my tongue, I will faithfully discharge this service to thee, and perform my part even unto death. To sing, and not be silent, is a Hebrew amplification; as if he had said, My tongue shall not be mute, or deprive God of his due praise; it shall, on the contrary, devote itself to the celebration of his glory.
Application: God removes the “sackcloth” (Psalm 30:11) of our physical body and will “girdle” or put around us gladness. This is exactly what will happen in the resurrection. Our resurrected physical body will be removed and we will be girdled with a glorious resurrection body (1 Corinthians 15:52–54). For us, tears and weeping will go away, and joy will come with Christ (Psalm 126:5; 2 Timothy 1:4; John 16:19–22).
No matter what our circumstances, will we … “in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
