Psalm 30:1 – I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.
4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may last through the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 When I was prosperous, I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.
8 I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink into the grave?
Can my dust praise you?
Can it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”
11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever!
In this passage we can find parallels between David’s prayer and our relationship with God. Verse one leads us to believe that David had been in distress, nearly overwhelmed by his enemies. I doubt that any of us have been out battling Philistines, but I believe that we can relate to this feeling! There are times in our lives when it seems as if the world is closing in on us. We are told in verses two and three that when David cried out to God, God rescued him. When we are faithful and cry out to God, God is there. We may not recognize it at first, but like David in verse four, we can come to a place where can praise God for bringing us through our trials.
In verse six, David admits that there was a time when he believed that he had achieved his success on his own. He felt good about what he had accomplished. He forgot the one who gave him life, and gave him the gifts to achieve success. Here is a danger we must watch out for – thinking that we are self made. God is the one who gives us our abilities. When we are successful, we can be satisfied with our hard work, but we must not forget the one who has given us our abilities to work hard. David recognizes in verse seven that it was God who gave him success, but he also admits that he felt secure as a mountain! In other words, he lost his focus on God and felt it was all his own doing that brought him his success.
Then in verse seven, David admits that he was shattered when God turned away. I believe it was David who turned away, having found satisfaction in himself and not in the Lord. How often we find it difficult to keep nurturing our relationship with God when all is well. We forget who it is that has guided us along the path that brought us success. James tells us: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights (James 1:17 NIV). Our successes in life, and what we have achieved, are gifts from God. When we lose focus on the giver, we sometimes lose the gifts!
In verses eight through ten, David recognizes his mistake, and cries out once again to God. Having returned to God, David says that his mourning has turned into joyful dancing. God wants us to dance! God wants us to enjoy life, and even to enjoy our successes in life, but God wants us to maintain focus on the one who has made our success possible.
Today and every day, let us be quick to praise God (verse 12), so that we will never lose focus on the giver of all good and perfect gifts!
Posted by Ramón Torres
I must remember that my dance is in the presence of The Lord because of The Lord, not on my achievements or circumstances of the world. Jesus said that in the world, there will be trouble, so if only dancing due to worldly delights, my dance is just periodic when it could be consistent with The Lord.