Introduction:
This past Thursday marked a day set aside in American culture for the giving of thanks. In our cultural decline, the idea of Thanksgiving holiday has become a matter of contention and with good reason. The whole idea of giving thanks is overtly religious and deeply offensive to pagans. Thanksgiving Day is one more reminder in the conscience of the culture that our existence and wellbeing is dependent on God. Thanksgiving says much about God and us.
An axiom of Scripture is that God’s creatures owe Him thanks. The fact that God created us puts us in a position of dependence. The fact that God gives His creatures good things like the ability to know joy, experience pleasure, have relationships, and enjoy the abundance of nature tells us the kind of God that God is. We owe thankfulness to Him because He is kind. Jesus said, He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil (Lk.6:35).Paul in preaching to pagans at Lystra spoke of the kindness of God as a witness to God’s character. He did not leave Himself without a witness, for He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17).
You must realize that if for a moment this Thanksgiving you knew joy or satisfaction or gladness or had enough to eat or looked across the table at your family and felt affection in your heart, that was the infallible witness of God’s kindness whose intention in it is to call you to repentance. Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? You must realize that when you harden your heart and refuse to embrace the goodness of His grace, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Rom 2:4-5).
As sinners we are not only unthankful, we are incapable of the thankfulness due to God. In describing the universal sinfulness of man, Paul said, For although, they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Rom. 1:21).
There is something that looks like thankfulness among humans. People will confess to being thankful while living a completely self-absorbed, selfish, self-centered, greedy life. On closer examination, the object of their thanksgiving is lacking. They are thankful to themselves, good fortune,ambition, strong initiative,etc. They have created gods that are strikingly similar to themselves—gods that think like them, act like them, share the same values, etc.
I have had people come to me and confess their thankfulness to God telling me that they have everything they have ever wanted. They list off a string of things for which they are thankful. The whole world and all the people in it are for them. In all of the God talk, two things are strangely absent.
a. Humility
True thankfulness is rooted in humility. It is not merely focused on the things that make up the American dream. Real thankfulness comes from a heart that knows disappointment, pain, need, fullness, victory, and joy and sees that all of comes from the loving-kindness of God.
b. Acknowledgement of the grace of God
People will read a grocery list of things for which they are thankful,and strangely lacking will be any acknowledgement of the grace of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ through whom all good things come to us. Unthankfulness has a preoccupation with the gifts and a settled ignorance of the Giver.
Paul said that one of the characteristics of the last days is ungratefulness (2Tim. 3:2. We live in culture that is permeated with un-thankfulness. In my view,our cultural decline in thankfulness is consistent with our cultural understanding of the grace of God.
The ground of all true Thanksgiving is God, particularly God in covenant love redeeming His people. Psalm 30 is a psalm of thanksgiving. Psalms of thanksgiving are the sequels to the laments. Thanksgiving psalms are generally structured by an opening section that states the psalmist’s intention of giving praise to God; a central section that recounts his trouble, prayer, and deliverance; and a final section of thanksgiving. (Futato, Joy Comes…, 81-2).
Like all other parts of Scripture, all psalms must be read in the light of the overall structure and message of the Psalter, as well as in light of storyline of the Bible. The Psalms, like the whole of the Bible, are firmly rooted in the redemptive activity of God. The Psalms, moving from lament to praise and praise to lament to the ultimate end of praise, teach us that resident in the severest trial, the harshest chastisement, and sweetest victory is the loving-kindness of God working to redeem His people. Stuck like a post firmly planted in the mud of our messy lives is the redemptive resolve of the Sovereign God who cannot be hindered.
Such redemptive determination is the ground that will ultimately and always evoke thanksgiving in the redeemed. In the hardest times, He is redeeming us; in the happiest times, He is redeeming us; in the saddest times, He is redeeming us. He is not afraidto make you question His love and care, to ponder the reality of your own standing with Him, and to turn your life on its head, yet all of this, every bit of it, works for your redemption. Hear the testimony of Paul from prison living in the reality of an uncertain future: I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance…(Phil. 1:19).
Psalm 30 opens and closes with the invocation of the covenant Name of God (v1a and v12b). Within the boundaries of the covenant realities of God’s redemptive commitment to His people, the psalmist recounts with thanksgiving the working out of God’s loving- kindness in his life. The psalm seems to have 5 stanzas. We will conflate them into 3 sections. In verses 1-3, the psalmist gives a summary of thankfulness for God redemptive mercy in his life. In verses 4-10, he relates a fuller account the merciful chastisements of God. In verses 11-12, the psalmist returns to thanksgiving based on redemptive grace. As the psalm moves from beginning to end, it increases detail and intensity. The more details the Psalmist gives, the more brilliantly the loving-kindness of God is displayed.
The psalm opens with a historical superscription that has received all kinds of creative answers. Obviously, David was not alive at the dedication of the temple. He could have written the psalm for that purpose, knowing that the temple would be built by Solomon. The content of the song itself does not seem too dedicatory. In fact, the psalm recounts some kind of affliction David experienced from which God graciously delivered him. Additionally, the said affliction seems to have been the gracious discipline of God directly related to some sin. Of course, a psalm of thanksgiving marking restoration could well be used on dedicatory occasions as was this Psalm in Jewish tradition.
Some commentators, however, point out that the word translated temple is the same word used for palace or house. The superscription could point to the dedication of David’s palace or the tent David sat up in Jerusalem to house the ark. A plausible scenario for the historical background of the psalm can be made from the events related to the establishment of the Davidic kingdom. The psalm, along with its placement in the Psalter, lends itself to such argument.
Book one of the Psalter relates God’s establishment of the Davidic kingdom. Some key events in 2 Samuel related to the establishment of David’s rule are the taking of the Jebusite stronghold, the building of David’s palace, and the bringing of the ark to Jerusalem. Listen to the historical summaries of 2 Samuel. They are not related chronologically, but theologically by the Holy Spirit. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years (2 Sam 5:5). After taking the Jebusite stronghold, the text says, And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts was with him (2 Sam 5:10). Hiram king of Tyre sent materials for David’s house and the text says, David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel (2 Sam. 5:12). If an Israelite built a house, the law demanded its dedication (Deut. 20:5).
The very next verse (2 Sam 5:13) says that David took concubines and wives from Jerusalem. The law forbade the king to do such things (Deut 17:14-17). God was establishing David’s kingdom, then David decided to try his hand at it. Is this historical note an indication that pride was displacing the humility of dependence on God? The following chapter in 2 Samuel relates the ark fiasco, where David attempted to bring the ark to Jerusalem, moving it in the same fashion as the Philistines had moved it. David was angry because the Lord burst forth against Uzzah, and David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” (2 Sam 6:8, 9).
David’s kingdom was established not by the strength and military genius of David, but by the power of God. David was not establishing his kingdom, but rather God was establishing His. David shows us how easy it is to be overcome with pride right in the middle of God’s best work in our lives. We tend to side with David in this affair. David was trying to do something for the Lord and got chastised for it. Should God not appreciate David and His efforts? The ark had been in the house of Abinadab for the past 20 years, ever since the Philistines decided they didn’t want it (1 Sam 7:1-2).
First, God was not limited in the ways He could put the ark in Jerusalem. He was certainly not dependent on David. Yet, He had been very clear in His prescription for moving the ark. The kingdom was united under David, vassals were sending tribute, the Jebusites were defeated, the palace was built, and the Philistines were defeated. David, perhaps, thought he was doing a good job. The problem is this story is not about David, but about God. Second, God is who He is, we are who we are, and the difference must be firmly rooted in our minds. God was establishing David, not the other way around. God was making His Name great, not David’s.
Learn this: We pray because God moves us to pray; we give because God has given; we believe because God has given us faith; we are not building this church, God is. We are thankful because God has moved toward us in loving-kindness. These things must be kept straight in our hearts and minds. God is not thankful to have us. We are thankful that He has us. The root of thankfulness is the free grace of God.
Psalm 30 clearly opens this truth to us.
1. The foundation of all thankfulness is God’s covenant love and mercy. Vv1-3
In 12 verses, David uses God’s covenant Name 9 times. David is saying clearly that everything that comes to us comes by the tender mercies of God only on the basis ofHis loving-kindness. There is no room for boasting.
David might have despaired of the mercy of God. Often people have a truncated view of God’s mercy. The thought is that God delights in destroying people or that He is paying us back for our sins. David knew God better than that. He threw himself on God’s mercy and cried out for help.
In verses 1-3, David extols or exalts or lifts high the covenant Name of God, outlining in summary fashion 3 reasons for His exaltation of God.
a. God drew David up and by doing so shut the mouths of his enemies. V1
The contrast between God and David is clearly established in this imagery. God is raised high,and David needs to be lifted up. God is the only One who can do for David what David needs. In fact, God is the One who lowered him down. He lowered him to lift him.
To be drawn up is a passive experience. This is the language of drawing a bucket up out of a well. A bucket cannot draw itself up. Whatever the nature of David’s calamity, God stepped in when there could be no doubt about who was doing what and changed David’s circumstances.
David’s enemies could not gloat over his defeat. God saved him from being shamed. The Philistines would have gloated endlessly over David’s downfall. Enemies from all around would have rejoiced in his demise. Even those in his own house were salivating for his position.
Learn this about the enemies of God’s people. They think they are God’s servants sent to pour out wrath on their victims. They do not want merely to see you suffer in the present; they want to take your future. They feel justified in their activity by the facts that they seemingly do not incur God’s displeasure and they reap the praise of men.
Learn this enemies of God’s people. Sin is never justified, and the lack of immediate chastisement is simply an indication that you don’t know God.
b. God healed David v2
We are not told the nature of David’s illness, but we are told later in the Psalm it was directly related to David’s sin. God made him whole.
c. God saved David from death v3
David was as good as dead. He was numbered among the dying, but God restored him to life.
The basis of God saving David was loving-kindness. David’s realization of the mercies of God evoked heartfelt thanksgiving. David learned some important lessons about the covenant love and ways of God that spilled out in a combination of public confession and thanksgiving.
2. Thankfulness comes when we realize the redemptive nature of all of God’s dealings with us. Vv4-
There are some things that God teaches us about His mercy and its operation in our lives that we need to share among the people of God.
a. David called on God’s people to give thanks for the redemptive nature of God’s work in their lives. Vv4-5
David discovered something so wonderful about the covenant love of God that he not only gave thanks, but called on all of God’s people to give thanks at the realization of this truth, namely the redemptive nature of all of God’s dealings with us.
What a discovery of grace! I never want to be in the crowd of gloaters who are so quick to point out people whom they think are getting what they deserve. I would much rather be among those God is pulling out of the pit because at least I know He dealing with me as a son. He is acting redemptively in my life. I will tell you what God is doing in me. He is saving me from hell. If God never troubles you, and you always feel justified in your estimate of others, that may be an indication that you are an enemy of God and not a son. You may be gloating over those with whom God is dealing in mercy.
Notice the contrasts in these verses: anger and favor, moment and lifetime, weeping and joy, night and morning (v5). Notice also the fact that God’s redemptive activity in His people is consistent with His holiness (v4).
1.) Momentary anger and lifelong favor—chastisement
If our historical scenario can be applied (and interpretatively it make no difference— the point still stands as illustration), David was sincerely endeavoring to serve God. He infered, then, from his crisis that God was not pleased. His affliction gave him pause to consider his ways and discover his sin (c.f. vv6-7).
Here is wonderful news: God’s anger is brief, but His grace and loving-kindness are forever. Some people live as if under a perpetual cloud of divine displeasure. As I have said before, this malady has more to do with your understanding of God and His redemptive dealings than with sin. Discover from this psalm the truth of momentary anger and eternal favor.
If God is ever displeased with you, it will be but brief, then comes gracious relief. God chastises us not so that we may somehow make satisfaction for our sin by suffering. Christ is God’s satisfaction full and complete. Regardless of what some teach, there remains no more satisfaction for sin to be made. It remains only to be applied. Rest in Christ and in the Holy Spirit’s application of His grace to you.
This begs the question, if Christ has made full and complete satisfaction why does God yet chastise and discipline us?
That we are liable to the disciplining providences of God, affliction, and death does not lessen the completeness of the satisfaction that Christ made for us, but these are continued as part of the covenant of redemption for our eternal good and God’s glory. Not all discipline is due to sin. Yet, all discipline is for our holiness. God has called us to suffer and in it be conformed to the likeness of His dear Son. I thank God for this Psalm and texts like Hebrews 12:7-11. (Bates, Harmony of Divine Attributes, 230-235
It may prove helpful at this point to contrast the dealings of God with His people and with pagans. The cause of our experience of discipline is God’s loving-kindness. The cause of the pagan’s experience of God’s displeasure is pure wrath. God’s discipline of us is measured in proportion to our strength for our good. God’s wrath against sinners is measured in proportion to the nature of their crime according to the law. The intention of God in disciplining us is for our holiness so that we will not be condemned with the world (Heb. 12:7-11; 1Cor 9:32). The intention of God in judging sinners is for the vindication of His Name in their destruction. (Bates)
But what about death? The fact that we die does not lessen the satisfaction that Christ made for us. Death to the unbeliever is the king of terrors, satisfaction to justice, and a curse. Yet, because Christ died and rose for us, the nature of death has changed. Now we hear from Scripture Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord (Rev 14:13). Drawing a conclusion from Isaiah 25:8, Paul said, Deaths is swallowed up in victory. O death where is your victory? O death, where is you sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:54-57). One day we will give that nod to the law, but not as those who have no hope. Paul said, All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all things are yours,and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Cor 3:21-23). (Bates)
See the brief and temporary nature of discipline and the permanence of joy.
2.) Weeping for a night and joy in the morning—consolation
Here is the point: God’s discipline is not for our destruction, but rather for our instruction. God’s displeasure and the resulting weeping are not the permanent experience of His people, but are as brief as the night and with the morning give way to joy.
b. David confessed the nature of His sin vv6-7
V6 God’s chastisement of David brought clarity to his sin so that he could confess it and turn from it. God established David’s kingdom. You would think it would follow that David would trust God. Not so. David began to trust in what God gave him rather than the God who gave it.
Prosperity has slain more good men than anything else. A couple of things seem to happen to us when we prosper. First we become self-reliant and proud. How is it that the easier life becomes the less we trust God, and the more we trust ourselves? How is it that prosperity breeds self-reliance rather than thankfulness. We forget that we are what we are and have what we have by the grace of God. We start to think that we have prospered because of our ability, our ingenuity, our intelligence, and our shrewdness. Soon follows a judgmental attitude. We reason that the reason everyone does not prosper is simply because they are inferior, lack in intelligence, and lack ambition.
I experienced this living in other cultures. I reasoned that the people among whom I lived were peasants because they would not stand up. After all, government governs by the consent of the governed. When they tried to stand up, however, General Lebed and the14th Russian Army slaughtered them. We prosper in this country not because our generation has stood for anything!
A second thing that seems to happen to us is a theologizing of our prosperity. This is a kind of prosperity insurance. We tend to judge the blessing or non-blessing of God on the basis is prosperity. Thus there resides in all of us a little health/wealth theology. We say things like, God sure has blessed us. God has blessed our country. These statements are generally in reference to prosperity. I just want to raise a question, What of our brothers and sisters around the world who will lie down in need tonight? Are they blessed?
I will concede that God has blessed us materially. I will not concede that He has not blessed our brothers and sisters who are sick and without medical care, who are hungry and have malnourished children, who are persecuted and killed for the faith. We forget that our gathering here stands on the blood of saints that not too many years ago in the history of Christianity were drowned because they were baptized or burned at the stake because they had a Bible.
With the concession, I must make an assertion that God has not blessed us materially so that we can have stuff and get fat and indulge ourselves more and more. We are so numb from overexposure that we don’t feel the pleasure of good food or a hot shower or a glass of clean water. We have an accountability. God has blessed us materially to take the gospel to the nations and to bless our faith family everywhere. Sell what you have, give it away. Get a job so that you can give. Sloth is sin. Don’t live in sloth while our brothers and sisters starve and 1.5 billion people perish without the gospel.
V7 David recognized that his strength was the grace and mercy of God. In loving-kindness God established David. David was king of the hill. He took the Jebusite stronghold that His forefathers could not take. He built a palace. He went for the ark, and God broke out on the ark party just like He broke out on the Philistines (c.f. 2Sam 5 and 6).
God hid his face from David, and David was dismayed. David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” (2 Sam 6:8, 9).
Learn the lesson of David. We take the good things that God gives and straightway develop a self-reliance that denies our need of God. We may think that God needs us here, that through our gifts and talents we benefit Him. We may feel that we have arrived at a place in our careers where we can look back and say, Look at what I have accomplished. I am quite a human specimen. Realize that if God for 1 second turned his favor from you, your life would crash. How quickly we can move to self-confidence to complete dismay.
c. David’s concern for God’s Name among God’s people vv8-10
When David was confronted with his pride—his attributing to his own self-effort what God had clearly done by grace—he cried to the LORD for mercy. David’s prayer is enclosed by two pleads for mercy and 3 uses of the covenant Name of God (vv8,10).
One might at fist glance look at David’s prayer and conclude that God needs people to praise him (v9). When the context is considered, it becomes clear that David is not pleading God’s need (indeed God has no need), but his own need of mercy.
Notice in v8, David uses the second person to address the LORD, and then he uses third person to address the people of God concerning God. David is concerned for the name of God among God’s people. He realizes that if he is dead, he will not be able to tell of God’s faithfulness. Nothing is to be gained by his death. There would be no glory for God in it and no good for God’s people.
David’s prayer is not some manipulative effort by David to say to God, I know your concern for your name. You need me to praise you. NO. His prayer is and expression of his concern for God’s name. The fact that God’s anger is momentary and His favor is lifelong needs to be told. The fact that weeping is brief and joy is constant needs to be told. The fact that God is merciful and full of loving-kindness needs to be told.
In David’s prayer is the realization that due to loving-kindness of God killing us brings no glory to God. What brings glory and praise to God is the fact that we deserve hell, but He in loving-kindness out of pure grace in spite of our sin and rebellion has looked on us with favor. God is much more glorified in showing loving-kindness to sinners than He is in putting them in hell.
The nature of God’s redemptive activity in our lives calls forth thanksgiving among the people of God.
3. Thankfulness comes from the realization that God’s loving-kindness turns things around for His people vv11-12.
In these verses, the psalmist picks back up on the initial praise of the first stanza.
Now the intensity is much greater because we have learned from the details of God’s dealings with David that God’s purpose is to discipline us in loving-kindness.
Look at the extent of the reversal. Again by way of contrasts, the psalmist helps us to see the extent of God’s redemptive activity. God turned the psalmist from mourning to dancing, from the sadness of sackcloth to the garment of gladness, and from silence to praise.
David removed his kingly garments and put on the garments of a commoner and danced with all of his might before the LORD (2 Sam 6:14).
God gave David joy and gladness so that David with the totality of who he was in the realization of God’s loving-kindness might give thanks for ever.
Conclusion:
Our lives are lived in the contrasts set forth in this Psalm—we are either going down into a pit or are being brought out of one. We are in the night of discipline or the light of God’s favor. We are raising our flags on the mountains of our accomplishment, or we are confounded by the triviality of things. We are mourning our losses, or we are dancing in the joy of thanksgiving (Goldingay, BCOT, p. 433). The point though is not the contrasting experiences that we have. We are not victims caught in an endless cycle of ups and downs. The point is that God is taking us somewhere. The point is that God is doing something in us.
All of God’s activity in our lives is redemptive and flows through His loving-kindness. It all works for our salvation.
The psalmist through God’s loving-kindness has called us to give thanks because God’s work is merciful, even if it is severe. We need God’s gracious work in ways that we cannot see until God’s good purpose is accomplished in us. God is making us thankful.
We are coming the Lord’s table to give thanks because it is through the complete satisfaction that Christ has made that all God’s work in us is loving and kind.