As I was sitting down to write this week’s blog, I turned on the Wednesday prayer meeting on Facebook live just as John West got up to share part of Psalm 30, which happened to be the Psalm we read in our Life Journal Reading Wednesday. (I had just finished a meeting and was not able to attend the prayer meeting in person.)
Psalm 30 verse 11-12 reads, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
What an amazing promise! What amazing truth! As John emphasized at the prayer meeting, many of us have felt as if we were dressed in sackcloth; covered with mourning and sorrow, burdened down and apprehensive about the future.
But the Lord has turned our mourning into dancing! The Lord has clothed us in gladness! The Lord has empowered us to sing praises to Him and not be silent. The Lord has changed our misery into thanksgiving… Forever!!
The Lord inspired King David to write this Psalm for the dedication of his house—we do not know if it was for David’s palace, or David’s tent of meeting where the Ark was relocated, or what. But I am fairly certain David thought of this psalm as he stood on the threshing floor located on Mount Moriah…
You will recall that later in life, David had made a huge mistake. He had conducted a census of the Nation not because God had told him to do so, but rather because he was putting his trust at that moment in horses and chariots and soldier counts… Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7).
I believe David had forgotten, for a moment, this psalm, which God had inspired him to write earlier in life. David did exactly what he said Israel would never do—put their trust in chariots and horses and soldiers.
As you know, there was a plague, and David could see the Angel who—until God spoke and said “no more”—was about to unleash destruction on Jerusalem. This Angel was station at Araunah’s threshing floor. David, as you recall, rushed there to worship the Lord.
David was offered the threshing floor for free, but he refused to worship the Lord at no cost to himself. Worship costs. David, of all people knew it.
David took his trust, his sight, and his heart off chariots and horses. He worshipped the Lord in genuine repentance, offering costly sacrifices that included his trust, sight, and heart. No doubt, David began to feel his mourning lift, and a desire to dance overtake him again. No doubt he felt the sackcloth he had worn to the threshing floor become pure gladness and joy.
David had known; David had seen; David had written about all these things under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Yet life… Life in a fallen world has such a way of making us forget… of making us turn inward… of leading us to forget the very truths that set us free in the first place. Perhaps the events of the past three months have done so for you. Perhaps other circumstances have battered you to the point of sackcloth and mourning.
But hear the Word of the Lord in Psalm 30. It’s time to dance! It’s time to rejoice! It’s time to sing praises to the Lord… Forever!!!