Psalm 30:5
‘O Lord, You have brought up my soul from the grave! You have kept me alive, so that I should not go down to the pit!… For His anger endures but a moment. In His favour, is life…. When I go down to the pit, shall the dust praise You?… O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You for ever!” Psalm 30:2-12.
Calvin comments: “In this Psalm, he (David) celebrates God’s favour to him — in restoring him…. Under this word, seems to be denoted a double blessing — both his restoration to life, and to his kingdom…. David had been brought as it were from the grave to the life-giving air…. He was preserved by the favour of God… When he was at the very point of death, he directed his supplications to God alone….
“The life of man is in danger in many other ways than merely from disease…. David was restored to life, whenever the Lord delivered him from any grievous and extreme danger…. ‘You have brought up my soul from the grave!’… He compared the darkness of that period, to a grave and pit into which he had been forced to throw himself hastily — to protect his life…. As one restored
to life…, he proclaims that he had marvellously been delivered from present death — as if he had been restored to life after he had been dead….
“‘Life’ is opposed here to ‘for a moment’ — and consequently signifies long continuance…. God’s anger is but of short duration, while His favour is continued towards us during the whole course of our life…. Whoever therefore directs his mind to meditation upon the heavenly life, will never faint under his afflictions — however long continued!…
“Deaths innumerable continually hover before our eyes…. ‘What profit is there in my blood?’…. The term ‘blood’ here signifies death, not life. As if David had said, ‘What profit will Your derive from my death?’… It would be unsuitable to the character of God to take him out of the world by an untimely death….
“By enquiring in the end of the verse ‘Shall the dust raise You?’ — he does not mean that the dead are altogether deprived of power to praise God…. If the faithful, while encumbered with a burden of flesh, exercise themselves in this pious duty — how should they desist from it, when they are disencumbered and set free from the restraints of the body?….
“‘My glory may sing praise to You!’ In this verse, he more fully expressed his acknowledgment of the purpose for which God had preserved him from death…. David adds immediately after, ‘I will celebrate Your praise for ever!’… His meaning therefore is — ‘O Lord, as I know that You have preserved me for this purpose — that Your praises may resound from my tongue. I will faithfully discharge this service to You, and perform my part even unto death!'”
After weeping, comes joy to those who live in God’s favour! Do you?
