You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September 2007.
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4.13-15
Following on last week’s text, “treasure in jars of clay”:
In his the messiness of his life, Paul holds the treasure of the gospel. Paul’s faith is strengthened in the brokenness/glory tension.
It seems that verses 13-15 function to explore this paradox even further, how Paul has such great faith even though his life situation often appears to be in tatters.
In v.13, Paul quotes from Psalm 116, where the Psalmist is crushed, ready to die, and then is rescued by a faithful God. Paul is quoting briefly from the Psalm knowing that his readers will likely know the Psalm and if they do not, will go and read it.
So now, take a break from this blog, and go read Psalm 116….
Paul, by quoting the Psalm and then proclaiming his own faith, communicates that we can have faith because we live by the Spirit of the God who has shown himself faithful.
Then in verse 14 Paul amplifies the point by saying that because God was faithful to raise Jesus, he will be faithful to raise us also.
The result of God’s faithfulness and our faith is God’s grace reaching more people, who in turn will thank God, resulting in more glory for God. I love how Eugene Petersen translates 4:15: Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!
This is the eschatological language of future resurrection leading to new creation in the present. Let’s take a few moments to unpack that heavy statement:
- Paul is making an eschatological (last things in history) proclamation – that God’s raising of Jesus guarantees our bodily resurrection at the last Day. Paul here is echoing 1 Cor 15, where his point is that you and I as Christians will be raised because Christ was raised. We belong to the risen Christ, a fact that ensures our long-term future as risen people.
- Paul is saying that the new creation result of resurrection starts now, with more grace, people and praise coming to God as a result of the resurrection. So the resurrection of Christ not only guarantees our everlasting life, it also ensures our participation in the new creation in this age.
Hear an engaging talk on this topic by Tom Wright: Jesus’ Resurrection and God’s New Creation
Resurrection needs to be much more at the center of our theology and missional thinking. Protestants and Catholics alike have rightly done a lot of thinking about the meaning of the death of Jesus at the cross, but comparatively little thinking about the implications of the resurrection on our life and mission as Christians.
Most Christians know that Jesus’ past resurrection guarantees our future resurrection, but don’t think a lot about the relevance of resurrection to life in the present age. To put it another way, for most Christians, Jesus’ resurrection is history which points to our future resurrection, a mystery, and that’s the end of the discussion about resurrection.
For Paul, the resurrection of Jesus and our future resurrection are beginning and ending markers of the reclamation/salvation/new creation process which forms the mission of God, which becomes the mission of the church.
Paul teaches that the resurrection of Jesus set a process in motion which culminates in the re-creation of heavens and earth and the resurrection of the elect of humanity to inhabit the new creation.
You and I are squarely in the midst of God’s re-creative process. We are part of the larger picture of more and more people saved by more and more grace, returning more and more praise to God.
The faith we need to live and to implement Christ’s resurrection comes to us from the Spirit, as we trust the God who has saved in the past. Our faith comes to us as a gift, by means of the Spirit prompting us to have confidence in the God who by his action has earned our trust.
So Paul’s life is in tatters – so what?, he might say. God is not in shambles, though the world may be so. Jesus is alive, which means that we are all headed to resurrection. Therefore this life matters in a huge way.
For Paul, his mission is not to get his life together, or to be seen by others in a good light. For Paul it’s all about working with God in reclaiming more and more people with more and more grace. Lives are re-created, re-shaping the whole world, resulting in more and more praise and glory to God’s name.
run to Sunday!
Ten Words to Live By: Treasure 2 Corinthians 4:7-12
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, Paul shows the strangeness of Christian life and ministry by means of a series of paradoxes – seeming contradictions – the first of which is:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay… 4:7
What is the treasure to which Paul is referring?
Remember, dear reader, when questioned about the text always look first for the answer in the text.
The treasure which is contained in jars of clay is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6
In other words, the treasure is the light of knowing revealed truth, specifically, the truth of knowing Christ through the message of the gospel and the Holy Spirit.
Paul and his friends had been running all over the Roman Empire carrying a great treasure – the gospel message – which was this:
- God had come in the person of Jesus
- God makes us right with God through the Messiah’s death and resurrection
- Our response is to repent and believe
- God gives his Spirit and adopts us as Sons/heirs
- Now belonging to God in Christ, we join the church in God’s mission to reclaim humanity and all creation for God’s glory.
The problem (for some Corinthians it seems) was that Paul and his gang had been carrying this precious treasure around in a brown paper wrapper.
Kind of like wrapping a Rolex in newspaper – and in those days the most disposable items were common everyday clay pots and cups – go to any archaeological site and you could spend all day bending over to pick up pottery shards.
So the first paradox was the Corinthian’s concern – that the great treasure of God’s message was being carried by “plain men” like Paul.
Paul and his friends did not seem to be the sort of people that God would entrust with his crown jewels.
And I, along with many of my fellow pastors, fall into the same boat. Not the sort of people you would pick out of a crowd to be up in your pulpit week after week.
The Corinthians had demonstrated that they were very picky about their leaders. Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul had to deal with various factions in the Corinthian church, where some would only listen to him, others only to Apollos, or Peter – and others not to any earthly man but only to Christ Himself.
Imagine That.
Paul’s status among the Corinthians had deteriorated significantly since the writing of 1 Corinthians. Now, besides the inside rabble-rousers, there were outsiders coming in, influencing the church and denouncing Paul, stirring up opposition to Paul, and so they were refusing his apostolic authority based on his supposed defects.
Paul’s response was to say “yes I am defective, but aren’t we all, and it is to such as us that God has entrusted his message.”
And why is it that the message comes in the hands of weak, vulnerable people like Paul?:
…to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 4:7
The power that is above every power – even above that supposed power which the false teachers at Corinth had – was the power of the good news of Christ to change lives.
God deliberately entrusted the gospel to weak & fragile humans so that it might be abundantly clear that it is the power of God’s treasure/gospel at work and not the power of any powerful person.
For if a weak, sloppy old pastor delivers the message, isn’t it clear that any benefit is coming from God and not from the pastor?
And if you can share your faith with a friend when clearly you are not perfect, it will be crystal clear that it is God who changed her life and not you.
Power through weakness is a great theme in 1 & 2 Corinthians, counteracting the great danger to the human soul which was so prominent at Corinth – pride in the power of men and women – specifically pride in the supposed human ability to be spiritual through devotion and effort.
Paul goes on in verse 8 and 9 to further describe how the all-surpassing power of the gospel is carried by such fragile human messengers.
To get the message across, Paul employs four paradoxes, no doubt taken from his own life experience:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9
Paradox 1:hard pressed on every side, but not crushed
in other words: under pressure yet not imploding
Paul in his weakness is under constant pressure, yet the gospel message (the light/treasure in the jar) and the Spirit prevent him from being crushed
Paradox 2: perplexed, but not in despair
in other words:
at a loss, yet not totally lost
stressed yet not distressed
Cracked pots yet not crackpots
The pressure Paul is under created mental stress – Paul confesses to being often confused – at a loss – not knowing which way to turn or what to do
Yet despite being confused he does not despair – despite being at a loss he never feels totally lost
Returning to the image of fragile pottery – Paul is a cracked pot but not a crack-pot
Only the glorious good news and the Holy Spirit keep him mentally sound
Paradox 3: persecuted, but not abandoned
in other words: exiled yet not alone
A huge part of the pressure Paul is under comes from his opponents. Despite bringing people good news, he is often rejected and chased out of town.
Paul grew up in two great cities – Tarsus and Jerusalem. But now he has no home. His calling from God is to go from city to city, not knowing whether he will be welcomed, arrested or banished. Yet wherever he lays his head at night, he knows is under the care of a sovereign and powerful God.
Paradox 4: struck down, but not destroyed
in other words: knocked down yet not out
Some of the wording in these verses seems to come from battle – either military or gladiatorial. When a fighter is knocked down he either has the strength to get up off the mat or he doesn’t.
Paul however had a secret weapon when facing setbacks. He was often knocked down but never knocked out because he knew that while he could never get up under his own power, he had living within the great power of the risen Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Paradox summary:
under pressure yet not imploding
cracked pots yet not crackpots
exiled yet not alone
knocked down yet not out
What is Paul saying ?
That our Christian lifestyle is the most dangerous and yet the most rewarding lifestyle of all.
That there is power in fragility
Strength in weakness
Peace during stress
Companionship in exile
In summary, fulfilling God’s mission means to be always full of death and full of life at the same time, since we follow and carry within us a Lord who is both crucified and risen.
What Jesus offers is two invitations at once – “come and die” – and also “come and live”
We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake,
so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Corinthians 4:10-11
What Paul is saying is that he is:
always dying yet never lifeless!
Here Paul sums up the four paradoxes with the greatest one of all. Paul connects the fragility of his ministry not only with the fragility of Jesus’ life, but with his death. Paul views all the sorrowful, dangerous, abandoned experiences of his life as signs that his life is moving in the same direction as Jesus’ did – towards death.
But because Paul is united with Jesus by grace and faith, Paul knows that he is united with Jesus not only in death, but also in life. So at every fragile, dangerous, nearly shattered moment of his life, Paul sees in that the death and life of Christ at work.
So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 2 Corinthians 4:12
Death is at work, in that Paul is a temporary vessel, a clay pot about to be smashed.
Death is at work, in that Paul’s in his fragility and ultimate death is in union with Christ and his own scorn and crucifixion.
But life is at work as the treasure carried in the clay pots is shared and received, as people pass from death to life by believing in God’s One and Only.
Life is at work in us as we carry out God’s mission to reclaim humanity and all creation, placing everything at the feet of our glorious, exalted Lord.
Is death at work in you? Is life?
…we have this treasure in jars of clay…
run to Sunday!
This week as I prepare to preach on 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, I want to hear how a great preacher handled this text. What a preacher – what a voice – what a pleasure it is to hear the great John Stott.
Truth is the word which I chose for a sermon title on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6. On this past Sunday, Jered did a great job preaching a short sermon on this text. I was away last week, and now I am playing catch-up with this post.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
As Jered explained, it is possible that the “god of this age” is either spiritual evil in the form of Satan, or evil in the form of reliance on idols – materialism / religion / nationalism.
The Apostle Paul and Jesus both took the view that any reliance on things other than God – religion, material things, national politics or even religion is misguided. It is as if people are blinded by the seeming brightness – attractiveness – of such things when in fact they are all temporary and will in the end rust and rot.
God offers to all people – whether they are born Muslim, Jewish or anything else – salvation as a free gift through sharing by faith in the crucified & risen Christ. This is why we preach the gospel in places where other religions are practiced.
We share by faith in the benefits of Christ’s death. Our sin is forgiven and we, though sinners, are declared righteous because the righteous son of God died as a substitute for us.
We share by faith in the benefits of Christ’s resurrection. By God’s Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, we become spiritually alive, a foretaste of our future resurrection. Together with God, we work for the redemption of creation and the salvation of people leading up to the coming resurrected.
What I have taught for many years is that God does not condemn anyone, but that all people have the opportunity to respond to God’s kind offer of salvation.
To me it is not harsh or unfair of God to make one pathway to salvation – his one and only Son.
What happens though is that religions, often including our own religion, along with the desire for power and money, blind people to the simple clear offer of salvation in Christ. Pastors and others have clouded the issue by teaching or implying that there are things we can do to assure our own salvation. But in reality, God did it all for us in Christ. Our job is to say yes, then go on with the Spirit from there.
God did not create one true religion, and we should not act as if this is what God was trying to do – create a religion which would include some people and keep others out. But rather, the eternal God decided to reach out to save people from every race and belief system. To do this he came to earth in person, as Jesus Christ, God in the flesh.
Paul writes that salvation along with our ministry is not our own invention, nor do we deserve anything from God. Our salvation and ministry come through God’s mercy. (4:1) Paul is helping people find God’s mercy by offering Christ; he’s not trying to create a religion we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord (4:5)
Salvation is an inner creative work of God’s Spirit. Just as God created light by his Word and Spirit, so also by Word and Spirit God creates light in our hearts. God’s light in our hearts enables us to perceive the truth – that Christ is the unique image of the invisible God.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (4:6)
run to Sunday!
Introducing the Sermon Series: Ten Words to Live By
First Corinthians has long been my favorite letter of Paul’s. I love the way Paul faced the many issues, addressed them all with courage, specificity, a clear presentation of the gospel, and pastoral concern. Throughout the letter, Paul kept pointing the church back to the center, the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for us.
In second Corinthians, Paul continued lifting up Christ and the gospel, while shepherding a still belligerent Corinthian church. 2 Corinthians is a goldmine, especially the heart of the letter, the subject of the next sermon/study series.
It seemed relatively easy to break 2 Corinthians 3:12 – 6:3 down into ten sections. I’ll be highlighting each part of the study/sermon series by using one “theme-word” taken from each section. (see previous post). Thus the series title: Ten Words to Live By.
To “live by the Word” is a foreign theme in our culture, but it was native to Paul as a Jew. The Corinthian Christians had come to Christ in the midst of a free-flowing society similar to ours. Paul found it particularly difficult to convince these “post-pagans” to live by the Word. Christian leaders today face a similar challenge convincing post-moderns to live by the scriptures rather than by the winds of culture.
The Corinthian Letters 2 Corinthians is probably the fourth letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. How could this be? From the book of Acts and from the two letters themselves, we can gather enough information to reconstruct Paul’s interactions with this church. What follows is an interesting window into early Christian community and leadership, warts and all.
First Visit Paul first visited the city and founded the church, writing 1 & 2 Thessalonians from Corinth. This is the visit referred to in Acts 18, on Paul’s 2nd missionary tour. He stayed 18 months, from July in the year 50 to September 51. The dating comes from Roman records of Galio’s proconsulship. Apollos continued on in Corinth with some success. (Acts 18:27-28 and 1 Cor. 3:5)
In Ephesus: The real first (lost) letter to the Corinthians
Three months later while Paul was in Ephesus on his 3rd journey, he heard about moral looseness among Christians at Corinth. He wrote a letter in response. This letter is lost. In 1 Cor 5 Paul refers to the lost first letter. He tries to correct in 1 Cor 5:9-11 a misunderstanding about what it meant not to associate with the immoral – he meant (in his first lost letter) not to associate with an immoral brother as if all were well; apparently the Corinthians took it to mean to withdraw into a Christian enclave away from the world.
Paul’s Guests While Paul was still in Ephesus, he was visited by “Chloe’s people” (mentioned in 1 Cor. 1:11) from the church at Corinth. This was probably an unofficial delegation of people who met at the home of Chloe. The urban churches of the Roman cities met in various houses in each city.
Chloe’s people filled Paul’s ears full of news from the Corinthian church. Examples of what they told Paul may be found in the first part of 1 Corinthians where Paul writes of what he heard:
- My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 1:11
- It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you… 5:1
Paul also receives an official delegation from Corinth around this same time: I was glad when Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus arrived, because they have supplied what was lacking from you. (they’ve made up for your absence) 1 Cor 16:17
This group probably brought him a letter. In the second part of 1 Corinthians, Paul seems to be quoting from what the Corinthians wrote. What kind of letter was it? Probably not a humble letter asking Paul to rule as apostle. Rather, it seems as if it was a letter from a smug church contending with Paul – “Why can’t we do this, or that? “ – revisiting Paul’s leadership, wanting to “do their own thing.”
Paul writes his second letter, known to us as First Corinthians
In response to the reports from Chloe’s people, and the visit of the official delegation and the letter they brought, Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians. This is the one we call First Corinthians, which responds point by point to the stories told by Chloe’s people and to the official letter brought by the delegation.
Knowing this helps us to understand 1 Corinthians. As we read the letter, looking over Paul’s shoulder, we can imagine him wrestling and praying over what to say into such a crazy situation. The letter seems to run all over the place, because Paul was not so much writing on a single theme as he was responding to various issues.
Church Invaders Soon after 1 Corinthians was written, a outside group entered the church. They were Jewish Christians, as mentioned in 2 Corinthians: Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. 2 Cor 11:22.
Elsewhere in 2 Corinthians (especially in chapters 10, 11, 12) we hear Paul responding to these opponents. It seems that they came into the church and called themselves apostles, disturbing the church and distorting the message of Christ.
Paul’s Painful Visit and the Third Letter
These “apostles” had already assumed some authority when Paul made a second, painful visit to Church. On this visit he experienced a painful encounter with a certain man: So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. 2 Cor.2:1
Instead of rallying to Paul on this visit, they failed to show him support. He went back to Ephesus, determined not to return to Corinth as he had originally planned.
From Ephesus Paul wrote them his third letter, a rebuke written out of anguish and many tears. Another lost letter, referred to in 2 Corinthians: For I wrote to you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. 2 Cor. 2:4.
Paul, back in Ephesus experiences a trial where Paul expected to die, but God spared him, and Paul left to find Titus – in Macedonia. Titus brings Paul news about Corinth. The painful letter has hurt the Corinthians, and they repented. (2 Cor 7:8-13)
In their repentance they over-punished the man with whom Paul had the painful encounter. Paul is about to come for a third visit, then he writes a fourth letter, Second Corinthians.
Summary: Paul’s four letters to Corinth:
The first letter: lost
Second letter: 1 Corinthians
Third letter: lost
Fourth letter: 2 Corinthians
run to Sunday!
Debbie Oberlander will be leading a Monday night study based on the upcoming series on 2 Corinthians.
Here are the details:
- meets Mondays 7 – 8:30 PM beginning September 10th in the comfortable youth lounge
- studying the scripture preached on the previous day by Pastor Ted
- advance reading – Pastor Ted’s blog notes
- optional book “Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians” by Tom Wright
- study series ends November 12th
“Ten Words to Live By”
a sermon series beginning September 9th
The message for Sunday September 2 is called “When Life is Good.”
The Scripture is Psalm 30.
Psalm 30
A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David.
The title of the Psalm tells us that this was a song perhaps used at the temple dedication in King Solomon’s time. Solomon, instead of composing something himself, chooses a piece written by his father David to express his gratitude to God.
Last week we saw David trapped in an isolated, confined space, lamenting his desperate situation to God. This week in Psalm 30 we find David on the other side of misery, having been delivered and now thanking God for sparing him. Psalm 30 could have been written by David following his deliverance from Saul, or at another key moment in his life.
The Thanksgiving Psalm was not unique to Israel. A prayer very much like Psalm 30, written by a draftsman thanking his god for healing his son, was found inscribed on a stone stele (monumental slab) from the 19th Egyptian dynasty (c.1250 BC).
Doug Stuart teaches the memory device “IMART” to help us recognize and understand Thanksgiving Psalms.
Attention IMART shoppers; you know you are praising like David when:
- I Introduction or Intention – you intend to praise God
- M Misery – you recall when things were bad
- A Appeal – you recount your appeal to God and reliance on Him
- R Rescue – you retell of when God intervened and rescued you
- T Testimonial – you witness with testimony to God’s salvation
Typically these thank-you (todah in Hebrew) Psalms come in three main sections, and ours follows the pattern:
Intention/Introduction Psalm 30:1-5
Misery/Appeal/Rescue Psalm 30:6-11
Testimony to God’s salvation Psalm 30:12
Section-by-section:
Intention/Introduction Psalm 30:1-5
1 I will exalt you, O LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 O LORD my God,
I called to you for help and you healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought me up from the grave;
you spared me from going down into the pit.
4 Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning.
notes:
- The opening statement is a declaration, perhaps better expressed by saying “I proclaim that you are exalted”
- The “lifted me out” phrase is how one might describe water drawn from a well. What powerful praise: “God, you raise me up like water drawn from a well.”
- David’s rescue curtails the gloating of his enemies (Saul’s house?). They wanted him dead, but God saved him from the pit, which in verse 3 is symbolic of death. Death is among the enemies which now has no cause for boasting, recalling resurrection’s slamming shut the boasting mouth of death in 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
- We can tell that “pit” means “death,” because line 2 of verse 3 “you spared me from going down into the pit ” is a restatement of line 1 of verse 3: “you brought me up from the grave” This is called synonymous parallelism , where the second line means the same thing as the first, restated for poetic beauty. We may use one line to interpret the other, and interpreted together they say one thing, not two separate ideas.
- Verse 4 instructs the covenant orchestra and chorus to belt out praise to God. Instruments used in those days included the lyre, ten-stringed harp and timbrel.
- Verse 5 characterizes God’s theme as lasting grace, punctuated by momentary anger at sin, then returning again to favor, just as the despair of night (lack of light) always gives way to the bright rejoicing at the new day.
Misery/Appeal/Rescue Psalm 30:6-11
6 When I felt secure,
I said, “I will never be shaken.”
7 O LORD, when you favored me,
you made my mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I called;
to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 “What gain is there in my destruction,
in my going down into the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me;
O LORD, be my help.”
11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
notes:
- In verses 6 and 7a David compares life under God’s favor with standing high atop an unshakable mountain – I am thinking of the “king of the world” scene in Titanic. When life is good it seems like it will stay that way forever, and perhaps with David we get a bit too confident, like David saying to ourselves (and maybe to others) “I will never be shaken”
- This proud testimony to his own position stands in contrast to his later humble testimony to God’s faithfulness in verse 12 “I will give you thanks forever.”.
- Perhaps David forgets – and then remembers – the lesson of Deuteronomy 8:17-18
You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.
- Midway through verse 7 comes the misery, where David gets shaken and is toppled from his mountain, ending up confined and isolated in a place where God is hidden from him (see previous post below on David’s lament).
- In verses 8 & 9 David remembers that in misery he cried out to God for mercy. David recounts how he appealed to God’s name and glory – that if God saved him from death, David would praise God, whereas if he died and turned to dust, there would be no praise to God’s name coming from the dust. Were he to be saved, David was promising God that he would be a living testimony to God’s faithfulness.
- Verse 10 recounts David’s prayer request, “be merciful to me,” a prayer found six other places in the Psalms (4, 6, 26, 27, 31, 56).
- The rescue David recalls in verse 11 “wailing into dancing” “sackcloth into joy” seems to be the outworking of God’s gracious governance expressed in verse 5: “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”
- Nahum Sarna writes in his book On the Book of Psalms (page 23):
The transformation of mourning into dancing is more than mere rhetoric. …the stem of the Hebrew term used here (for dance) means “to writhe, whirl.” …the dance is not only the expression of exuberant joy but is itself also a mode of worship, a means of extolling God, as Psalms 149 and 150 affirm:
Let them praise his name in dance
Praise Him with timbrel and dance
Testimony to God’s salvation Psalm 30:12
12 that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.
notes:
- There are two aspects to this final word in Psalm 30
- Personal relationship with God: David prays using the phrase “O Lord my God” in Psalm 30 only at the beginning and end of the Psalm. The bookend positioning of the personal address emphasizes David’s personal relationship with God.
- Testimony of a thankful heart: David cannot keep silent – his heart overflows. He can no longer pretend that it is his own position that makes him secure. He cannot help but singing from his heart that it is God and God alone who has set him right.
Using the Psalm
A Psalm. A Song at the dedication of the temple. Of David.
Let’s return to the beginning of the Psalm, where the editor of the Psalter (the whole collection of Psalms) tells us that Solomon used this todah Psalm at the dedication of the great Jerusalem temple. The story starting in 1 Kings 8 makes for great reading. The language is so vivid that one can’t help but be drawn into the sights, sounds and smells.
The temple marked a new beginning for Israel; it was a reason to celebrate grandly. No more would the Yahweh religion be a laughingstock among the nations, who must have snickered at the Israelite god encamped in a tent. The magnificent new temple put their religion on par with the other great empires of the near east.
But Solomon’s prayers in 1 Kings don’t focus on the greatness of the Temple or the improved reputation of Israel. He prays instead with humble gratitude for God’s past deliverance, as his father had first done in Psalm 30. One could imagine David’s song being sung by the crowds just after Solomon’s prayer. Solomon is making a new beginning for his nation and looking forward to be sure. Yet the prayers and the song both look backwards with thanksgiving and awe.
When making a new beginning let’s take time to think on how God has brought us to this point in our lives. Are you like me – do you often simply say “what’s next” without considering how gracious God has been to enable us to be here to say “what’s next” ?
The big picture is that God has brought us through our yesterdays and in the same way will lead us through our tomorrows. So when our life takes a new and interesting turn, when our congregation is poised to move forward to a new thing, let’s follow David and Solomon’s lead and declare to God and to everyone how grateful we are to God for working in our lives.
Meditate on God’s goodness to you – see if your heart doesn’t overflow like David’s. When you sing let it not be simply words off a page or a screen, but the testimony of a grateful heart
Life is not a series of random events. God has been working among us all along, and is faithful to continue. David and Solomon led Israel forward by first looking backwards into God’s doings with appreciation. What a wonderful and healthy way to live. Life is good, because God is good!
run to Sunday!
