Psalm 30: Diary of an Illness
1 A Psalm of David. A Song at the dedication of the Temple. I will extol thee, O LORD, for thou hast drawn me up, and hast not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried to thee for help, and thou hast healed me. 3 O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” 7 By thy favor, O LORD, thou hadst established me as a strong mountain; thou didst hide thy face, I was dismayed. 8 To thee, O LORD, I cried; and to the LORD I made supplication: 9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise thee? Will it tell of thy faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be thou my helper!” 11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 that my soul may praise thee and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee forever. Psalm 30:1-12
Psalm 30 is the diary of an illness. The short version is found in verse 2, “O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.” The long version adds additional details.
In verses 6 and 7 we see that the Psalmist once thought himself out of the reach of serious illness. He writes:
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” 7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; then you hid your face, and I was dismayed
Wealth is no gaurantee that we will escape illness. Elvis Presley was dead at 42. Michael Jackson at 50. Farah Facett at 62. As strange as it seems, not even health is a gaurantee of continued health. James Fixx trumpeted the health benefits of running. In 1977 when he published The Complete Book of Running it was the best selling hard-cover non-fiction book ever. Yet, on July 20, 1984, at age 52, Fixx collapsed while running on a tree-shaded road in Vermont. He was found lying beside the road, dead of a heart attack.
The Psalmist implies that not even those who feel especially favored by the Lord are exempt from illness.
In verse 3 we see that the illness was a serious one. So serious in fact that the Psalmist had already counted himself out. The day came when he said, “I am as good as dead.” But his judgment was premature. According to the Psalm, God “brought up (his) soul from Sheol, and restored (him) to life from among those gone down to the Pit.”
My friend Ron S_______ had such an illness. He was told he had a tumor in a kidney. He was told that the chances were very high that the tumor was cancer, and that such a cancer was often fatal. I saw him at Forsyth Hospital the morning of his surgery. He told me that he had enjoyed a good life, and that he had committed his cause to God. They took him to surgery. When they opened him up, they found nothing, no tumor and no cancer! The surgery was a difficult one. His recovery took many weeks. He did not mind. He felt that he had been spared a terrible fate. Like the Psalmist he could say:
The LORD brought up my soul from Sheol,
And restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
In verse 8 the Psalmist shares with us, the argument he put before the LORD when he cried out to him. He said:
9 “What profit is there (to you, O LORD) in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 10 Hear (my prayer), O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!”
This is a simple but interesting line of thinking. It is valid for all of us. The Psalmist tells the LORD that the LORD needs him, and the praise that he offers. He says that he is much better at praising God than the dust, which is silent.
Now when the Psalmist says that he is more capable of praising God than dust, he is thinking of some highly specific dust. He is thinking of the dust from which his body came and to which his body will return.
In the Bible, we human beings are often associated with dust and ashes. You have certainly heard the phrase “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” It is not found in the Bible. It is found in the burial service of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer from 1662.
We commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.
This prayer is not in the Bible, but it aligns perfectly with Biblical thinking. In Genesis 3:19 God curses the first man for his disobedience saying, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In Genesis 18:27, Abraham speaks to God saying, “I am but dust and ashes.” The book of Sirach is in the Apocrypha, which Anglicans read for edification, but not for doctrine. In chapter 17 verse 32 we read, “All men are but dust and ashes.” (Sir. 17:32)
I digress, the point is that when the Psalmist despaired of life, he put his case before God, and argued that only a living human being can praise God; and not the dust he leaves behind after his death.
In verses 4-7, the Psalmist praises God for his healing, and he urges other “saints,” meaning other members of the congregation, to join him in praising God.
He exhorts us saying:
4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
In Verses 11 and 12 he returns to the theme of praise. This time he makes it very personal. The Psalmist writes:
11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, 12 that my soul may praise thee and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee forever. Psalm 30:1-12
Once restored to health, the Psalmist was not about to forget God’s goodness. He made the case with God that he could praise him better in life than he could in the dust of death. Now that he has been restored to health he is intent on keeping up that praise as long as it is physically possible for him to do so. This echos Psalm 104:33:
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
The primary lesson here is that a life of praise, i.e. “gratefulness” in intimitately tied to good health. It is certainly tied to good spiritual health, and, increasingly, it is impossible to seperate our mental and spiritual health from physical health.