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Psalm 30

    

                  Thanksgiving for Deliverance



1    A psalm.  A song for the dedication
     of the temple.  Of David.

     I

2    I praise you, LORD, for you raised me up

          and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.

3    O LORD, my God,

          I cried out to you and you healed me.

4    LORD, you brought me up from Sheol;

          you kept me from going down to the pit.a

     II

5    Sing praise to the LORD, you faithful;

          give thanks to God's holy name.

6    For divine anger lasts but a moment;

          divine favor lasts a lifetime.

     At dusk weeping comes for the night;

          but at dawn there is rejoicing.

     III

7    Complacent, I once said,

          "I shall never be shaken."

8    LORD, when you showed me favor

          I stood like the mighty mountains.

     But when you hid your face

          I was struck with terror.b

9    To you, LORD, I cried out;

          with the Lord I pleaded for mercy:

10   "What gain is there from my lifeblood,

          from my going down to the grave?

     Does dust give you thanks

          or declare your faithfulness?

11   Hear, O LORD, have mercy on me;

          LORD, be my helper."

     IV

12   You changed my mourning into dancing;

          you took off my sackcloth

          and clothed me with gladness.c

13   With my whole being I sing

          endless praise to you.

     O LORD, my God,

          forever will I give you thanks.
		  Cross references
a Ps 28, 1; Jon 2, 7.
b Ps 104, 29.
c Is 61, 3; Jer 31, 13.
                         Notes
Ps 30: An individual thanksgiving in four parts: praise and thanks for deliverance and restoration (2-4); an invitation to others to join in (5-6); a flashback to the time before deliverance (7-11); a return to praise and thanks (12-13). Two sets of images recur: 1) going down, death, silence; 2) coming up, life, praising. God has delivered the psalmist from one state to the other.

30, 1: For the dedication of the temple: a later adaptation of the psalm to celebrate the purification of the temple in 164 B.C. during the Maccabean Revolt.

30, 3: Healed: for God as healer, see also Pss 103, 3; 107, 20; Hos 6, 1; 7, 1; 11, 3; 14, 5.

30, 4: Sheol...pit: the shadowy underworld residence of the spirits of the dead, here a metaphor for near death.

30, 7: Complacent: untroubled existence is often seen as a source of temptation to forget God. Cf. Dt 8, 10-18; Hos 13, 6; Prv 30, 9.

30, 10: in the stillness of Sheol no one gives you praise; let me live and be among your worshipers. Cf. Pss 6, 6; 88, 11-13; 115, 17; Is 38, 18.

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