Psalm 30

NOTE: On May 30th I am moving to North Carolina. I have already prepared meditations for the next several days and they are scheduled to be posted at 6:30 AM each morning. However, I may not be able to respond to your email inquiries for the next few days.

In my meditation on Psalm 22, I noted that while Jesus was on the Cross he quoted from Psalms 22 and 31. Because of those quotes, It has been suggested he may have prayed all of the psalms from 22-31 while on the Cross. Psalm 30 is certainly a psalm Jesus would have remembered, if not on the Cross, then in his Garden of Gethsemane prayers.

The instructions for the psalm refer to the dedication of the Temple because from about 160 BC the Jews included this psalm in their celebration of Hanukkah. Judas Maccabaeus led Israel against a foreign army that had invaded Israel, and defeated them. Maccabaeus led the people to purify the Temple and to hold a festival every year to commemorate the rededication of the Temple. This festival, Hanukkah, which means dedication, is held at a time on the Jewish calendar that is close to our December 25 date.

When David wrote this psalm he was remembering all the suffering and the feelings of abandonment he experienced during the period King Saul was pursuing him across all of Israel. The people of Israel had very similar feelings under the oppression of the foreign invaders, so this psalm was an appropriate expression of their joy when the yoke of the oppressors was broken.

The author of Hebrews calls us to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). When I read that verse I immediately think of Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Psalm 30 is a very helpful reminder, in times of sickness or distress, to rest in the passage from Hebrews and keep my eyes on Jesus. When I do, I can then sing with the psalmist,

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.

You have taken away my clothes of mourning

and clothed me with joy,

that I might sing praises to you

and not be silent.

O Lord my God,

I will give you thanks forever!

Sē’lah

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What word or phrase in today’s reading of the Psalms

 attracts your attention?

Reflect on that word or phrase.

What insights come to you?

How does this passage touch your life today?

Reading for June 1, 2012   Psalm 31