"Rejoicing Comes in the Morning" Psalm 30 [Matt's Messages] ~ Matt Mitchell

“Rejoicing Comes in the Morning”

Lanse Evangelical Free Church

February 28, 2021 :: Psalm 30

Psalm 30 is a fun one because it’s a joyful testimony song.

King David is overjoyed because God has blessed him, saved him, rescued him from a near-death experience.

So David is just full of overflowing joy that he wants to turn into maximal praise.

And he wants everybody else to join with him in praising God.

Not just because of what the Lord has done which is wonderful, but because of how the Lord did it which is even more wonderful, and also because of why the Lord did it which is even more wonderful–because this is what the Lord is like.

Psalm 30 reveals the gracious heart of God for His people.

King David rejoices in God’s gracious heart to flip our troubles up-side-down and bring about a dramatic turnaround, a spectacular reversal of our situation–for those who belong to Him.

I love it because Psalm 30 does not downplay or de-legitimize our sorrows, but it perfectly contrasts them with the lasting joy that the Lord always and ultimately brings for His people.

The key verse is verse 5:

“For [the LORD’s] anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”

David says, “That’s how it is with Yahweh! That’s how He is!”

Weeping is real and may stay the night as an unwelcome guest, but you can count on it, because of the LORD, rejoicing comes in the morning!

I don’t know about you, but I need to hear that these days!

So let’s look into Psalm 30 and make it our song today.

As I said, Psalm 30 is a testimony song by King David.

God’s been wonderfully good to him, and he has written a song to praise God for it. Look at verse 1.

“A psalm. A song. For the dedication of the temple. Of David.”

Now that word the NIV translates “temple” is literally “house.”

So this could be the LORD’s house, the temple which David got everything ready for to build but didn’t get to build himself. Maybe he wrote this song to be sung by Solomon and everyone when it finally got dedicated. That’s possible.

Or maybe because this is such a personal song, David wrote this for the dedication of his personal palace. We’re not sure.

It was definitely for singing, and not just for David because he specifically calls upon other faithful believers to join him in singing. We’ll see that especially in verse 4.

But the voice of this psalm is first person singular, “I, me, my, mine.”

This is David’s personal testimony, which is a testimony of praise. Second part of verse 1.

“I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. O LORD my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O LORD, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit. Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name.”

You can just feel the joy emanating from this guy, can’t you?!

David has been rescued, and he is reveling in it, and reflecting his praise to the One Who did it for him.

David recognizes that he was rescued by the LORD. He gives the LORD all of the credit, all of the glory.

And he’s so glad that his enemies did not get to rejoice. Verse 1 again.

“I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths [the Hebrew word is the word for pulling something up out of the water, like a bucket, David was saved from drowning so to speak and the LORD] and did not let my enemies gloat over me.”

“They thought I was going down for the count, but they were foiled and frustrated!”

The LORD had the last laugh. Verse 2 again.

“O LORD my God [note the personal relationship], I called to you for help and you healed me.”

Apparently, King David had been sick.

We’ve seen that sort of thing before. Remember Psalm 41, “The Song of the Sick King”?

It looked like David might die, and the vultures were circling.

But David prayed, and the Lord raised him up. Pulled him up. It was only a near-death experience. Verse 3 again.

“O LORD, you brought me up from the grave [he had just about died, one foot in the grave]; you spared me from going down into the pit. [Therefore we sing!] Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name.”

You see how he draws everybody into praising God with him?!

Praise like this is contagious.

I have three short points today of practical application from Psalm 30. Three things we ought to be doing ourselves as we model our lives off of this psalm. And the first is simply:

#1. EXALT THE LORD.

David would be so happy if we did that with him.

Exalt the Lord.

We don’t use that word “exalt” very often these days. To “exalt” means to lift someone or something up, to speak of something or someone very highly.

David says that he will exalt the LORD. He will give him high praise.

And he wants us to “Praise Him! Praise Him!,” too.

Have you ever had a near-death experience?

A couple of years ago, in like two days I lost control of my mini-van two times.

The first time, I was just driving down the road in icy conditions out on 53 right about at the stoplight at the Shortway, and I tapped the break and the van just did a 360 on me. Nobody was really coming, but it was really scary.

And then it was like the next day or right around there, I was coming down my own driveway which was icy, and something was coming down Maple towards the post-office, and my van would not stop. It would not stop.

And then right before the intersection, it stopped.

In times like that, we should exalt the LORD.

“Thank you, Lord! Praise you, Lord!”

And we should call upon others to exalt the Lord with us.

And, of course, how much more have we been saved than just from near-death experiences?

In Jesus Christ, we have been saved from a living-death experience.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins...[Spiritual death.] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved” (vv.1, 4-5, NIV84).

How much more should we who have been saved like that, exalt the LORD who has lifted us up from those depths? Brought us up from that grave?

And didn’t let our enemies (the world, the flesh, and the devil) gloat over us.

Exalt the Lord!

Because this is what He is like. Look at verse 5.

“Sing to the LORD, you saints of his; praise his holy name. [Why?] 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.”

This is what the Lord is like. This is how He is for His covenant people.

Yes, he disciplines us. Yes, he has a chastening kind of anger.

Apparently, we’re going to see that David knew that he had somehow brought this sickness on himself. It was a discipline from the Lord.

But as true as the Lord’s chastening anger is, it is temporary and fleeting, only as long as it needs to be for achieving His redemptive purposes.

This is what His deepest heart is like to His people: “His favor lasts a lifetime.”

Yes, we may weep. But that’s temporary and short-lived, as well.

“...weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

You can on it! Just like the morning.

If you belong to Yahweh, then rejoicing will inevitably come and will one day last forever. A morning that last a life time. A bright morning that lasts forever.

“[R]ejoicing comes in the morning!”

Ever had a long night? It seemed like it would never end?

But you knew it would. Morning always comes.

And that’s the metaphor here. Morning is certain and bright.

Now, the New Testament takes this even further. In the New Testament, the sorrow is not just temporary but the Lord even uses that sorrow to bring the lasting joy. Like the labor pains that issue into the joy of new birth.

The Lord Jesus said in John 16, “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief [The Cross], but I will see you again [after the Resurrection and then again at His return] and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (vv.20-22).

"[R]ejoicing comes in the morning!" Count on it.

And exalt the Lord.

Now, in verses 6 through 10, I think that David does a flashback. I think, here he takes us back to what got him into this trouble in the first place. The backstory of this testimony song. Look at verse 6.

“When I felt secure, I said, ‘I will never be shaken.’ O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.”

I think that David got presumptuous and over-confident in himself.

There is a right way to say, “I will never be shaken,” (when you are trusting in the Lord’s unfailing love) and a wrong way to say, “I will never be shaken.”

I think that David is saying that he got careless and complacent.

He decided that he was–on his own, in his own power, in his own position, in his own prosperity–unshakable.

I want to thank one of you who left a gift in my box at church this week.

These are some removable cleats for walking on ice. One of you, I don’t know who, it was an anonymous gift in my box, one of you took pity on me because of my stories about almost slipping and even actually falling and gave me these to put on my shoes to “get a grip out there” on the ice.

Thank you!

Now, what if I said, “Hey, I have these ice cleats now. I can walk anywhere. In fact, I can go running down Viaduct road when it’s a sheet of ice.”?

How do you think that’s going to go?

Beware of self-confidence instead of God-confidence.

Yes, He gives us stability. Verse 7 says that God had given David a mountain!

“O LORD, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm...”

We can stand firm, and that’s from the Lord.

Don’t be afraid of standing firm.

But don’t twist it and think you can stand firm on your own or even trust in God’s good gifts instead of God the good-gift-giver.

Don’t trust in the mountain. Trust in the one Who made the mountain stand firm.

If you don’t, then for a time, He may hide his face, which is a terrifying prospect.

And that’s, apparently, how David got into his predicament and almost died.

But then he did the right and only right thing to do; he cried out for help.

#2. CRY FOR MERCY. V.8

“To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:”

David repented of his smug self-sufficiency and humbly asked the Lord to restore him to health.

By the way, this is not saying that every time we are sick, it’s because we sinned.

It doesn’t work that way.

God doesn’t that work that.

Sickness is in the world because of sin, but not all sicknesses are because of our own particular sins.

But in this case David knew that his sickness, his being near death, had something to do with bad choices he had made, and he needed God’s own mercy and grace to raise him up again.

And he made a bold prayer when he did. Listen to this. Can you see yourself praying like this? V.9

Lord, “What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.”

That’s a gutsy prayer. Humility and gutsiness in the same prayer.

David says, “Lord, what good would it do for me to die right now? If you take me right now (and I know I deserve it), You will have one less worshiper above ground.”

But if You are merciful to me, I’ll praise you and I’ll proclaim Your faithfulness.

The grave won’t do that. But you can count on me to!

Can you see yourself praying that way?

Well, it’s here in the Bible to teach us.

Heather said to me that it’s kind of like what Paul was saying to the Philippians in chapter 1 of his letter when he said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to die or live because to die meant to be with Christ which is better by far, but it would help the Philippians more if he stuck around a little while longer. So he figured that the Lord would keep him alive a bit more at least for them (vv.21-26).

Here David is telling the Lord that it very well could be better for God’s own glory if He prolongs David’s life at this point.

If He doesn’t, David is a goner.

“Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.”

That’s what David said, and it’s a good prayer for us today, as well.

I think there are probably 50 times a week that we each could pray verse 10.

“Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help.”

Cry for mercy.

Because the Lord loves to give it!

The Lord is so merciful.

Remember Who He is?!

“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7).

He is the God of not just second chances but whole new situations.

He is the God of turnarounds.

He is the God of turnabouts.

He is the God of inversions.

He is the God of reversals.

He is the God who flips everything right-side-up.

That’s what He did for David. Verse 11.

“You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

#3. SING FOR JOY.

When the Lord does His thing and turns everything around, you’ve got to give Him praise.

“That my heart by sing to you and not be silent.”

How could we be silent when we’ve been given so much?

I love the metaphors here in verse 11.

“You turned my wailing into dancing;”

I don’t know? Maybe that wasn’t a metaphor. He might have been literally wailing, and now was literally dancing.

David danced before the Lord.

Don’t worry. I’m not going to show you what I think it looked like! I don’t have the moves.

But David danced, and he danced for joy.

And he says that the LORD removed his sackcloth which was this very coarse fabric associated with mourning and lament and grieving and repentance and sadness.

David says, “The LORD removed David’s sackcloth and He “clothed me with joy.”

What a beautiful picture! Clothes made out of joy.

Can you imagine?

David dancing in clothes of joy.

And singing all the while.

“O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever.”

Because the Lord deserves it. That’s what kind of God He is.

He is the God of turnarounds, and turnabouts, and spectacular reversals.

He is the God who flips everything right-side-up.

That’s what He was doing at the Cross and the Resurrection.

And that’s what He is doing in our lives today.

“[H]is anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.”