Ps 30:12 — Eternal Praise Sweetens Temporary Grief

    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.

Ps 30:12

If it was determined before time that our end would be to sing praise and give thanks to God for eternity, then nothing in time ought be able to rob us of our gladness—even if that gladness must be mixed with a momentary night of grief.

Ps 30:9 — Experiential Theology a Cure for Despair

    “What profit is there in my blood,

    When I go down to the pit?

    Will the dust praise You?

    Will it declare Your truth?

Ps 30:9

The theological knowledge of the end of our creation and redemption can sustain a man even in moments where he despairs of life. It is a means by which the Lord carries believers through the valley of the shadow of death. The theological must not be merely speculative but experiential.

Ps 30:4–5 — Heavenly Joy in the Midst of Earthly Weeping

    4      Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His,

            And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

    5      For His anger is but for a moment,

            His favor is for life;

            Weeping may endure for a night,

            But joy comes in the morning.

Ps 30:4–5

Even under that anger that is for a moment and that in that night when we endure weeping (v5), the believer who has the hope of joy mixed in with his grief is thereby enabled to sing praise and give thanks. He remembers Yahweh's Name; He does not have to wait for heaven to have it.

Ps 30:1–3 — "O Yahweh!" A Cry of Personal Intensity

    1      I will extol You, O LORD, for You have lifted me up,

            And have not let my foes rejoice over me.

    2      O LORD my God, I cried out to You,

            And You healed me.

    3      O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;

            You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Ps 30:1–3

The triple "O Yahweh" is both intensely personal and personally intense. Personal, intense dealings with God are the right response of those whom God lifts up, and whom God allows to call Him our own, and whom God resurrects unto everlasting worship of Him. Indeed, personally and intensely is how He deals with us.

Ps 29:11 — How to Be Strong and Blessed

    The LORD will give strength to His people;
    The LORD will bless His people with peace.
Ps 29:11

As a conclusion to the rest of this Psalm, v11 drives home that it is Yahweh, Who gives strength and blessedness to believers, and He does so by means of His Word in public worship. 

Ps 29:1–9 — Glorious Worship Is Scripture-Saturated Worship

    1      Give  unto the LORD, O you mighty ones,

            Give unto the LORD glory and strength.

    2      Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name;

            Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

    3      The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

            The God of glory thunders;

            The LORD is over many waters.

    4      The voice of the LORD is powerful;

            The voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

    5      The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars,

            Yes, the LORD splinters the cedars of Lebanon.

    6      He makes them also skip like a calf,

            Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild ox.

    7      The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.

    8      The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

            The LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh.

    9      The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth,

            And strips the forests bare;

            And in His temple everyone says, “Glory!”

Ps 29:1–9

After noting that God Himself is the glory of worship, the Spirit pours forth a "flood" of verses showing how very much the Lord has chosen His Word (His voice!) as the great display of that glory in worship. Glorious worship is Scripture-saturated worship.

Ps 29:2 — God's Holiness Is Itself the True Beauty of Worship

    Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name;

    Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Ps 29:2

The word 'beauty' has the sense of 'majesty'. God's holiness is itself the true beauty of the worship. God's glory (literally, "heaviness") is the weightiness of the worship. It is a misinterpretation bordering upon blasphemy to use this text and its parables to justify artistic adornments of the earthly circumstances of the worship of God.

Ps 28:7 — My Heart Trusted in Him, and I Am Helped

    The LORD is my strength and my shield;

    My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;

    Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,

    And with my song I will praise Him.

Ps 28:7

Yahweh's making the heart trust in Him is so much of a help that by this mechanism, one can come to greatly rejoice and to have heart and mouth opened with song of praise, even without a change in circumstances.

Ps 28:3 — The Hardest Speech of All: the Silence of God

    1      To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock: Do not be silent to me,

            Lest, if You are silent to me,

            I become like those who go down to the pit.

    2      Hear the voice of my supplications

            When I cry to You,

            When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

    3      Do not take me away with the wicked

            And with the workers of iniquity,

            Who speak peace to their neighbors,

            But evil is in their hearts.

Ps 28:1–3

The speech of those who are false in their hearts is a great trial. But the silence of God would be a greater trial still. Let believers supplicate Him that He be not silent.

Ps 27:10 — Our Perfectly Faithful Caregiver

    When my father and my mother forsake me,

    Then the LORD will take care of me.

Ps 27:10

Literarily, being forsaken by father and mother functions in this verse as an unthinkable impossibility, with the implication of how much more devotedly loyal to us and our care is Yahweh. But in a wicked world, where the unthinkable is often the experienced, how much more we need and ought to nestle safely into His care!

Ps 27:6 — The Purpose of Deliverance

     And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;

    Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;

    I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

Ps 27:6

The purpose of deliverance (cf. v5) is to offer sacrifice not of blood but of our joyous shouting and singing and praising to Yahweh. Have I been delivered? Then let my soul serve the purpose of that deliverance!

Ps 27:4 — The One Thing

    One thing I have desired of the LORD,

    That will I seek:

    That I may dwell in the house of the LORD

    All the days of my life,

    To behold the beauty of the LORD,

    And to inquire in His temple.

Ps 27:4

"What is the one thing for which we ultimately exist?" It's a what question with a Whom answer. We exist for Him, specifically to behold Him and consider Him. And for this, He has created especially corporate worship (e.g. "house" and "temple"). Everything else is a means unto that end.

Ps 27:1 — An Inextinguishable Life

    The LORD is my light and my salvation;
    Whom shall I fear?
    The LORD is the strength of my life;
    Of whom shall I be afraid?
Ps 27:1. 

Yahweh is not just light unto my eyes but the light of my eyes, which is to say that He ismy very life. And if He is my life, then who can extinguish it?

180626FW Psalm 87 - Rejoicing Over the New Birth

Family Worship teaching time, reviewing Psalm 87 from the Lord's Day morning service, and the Lord calling His people to be led by Jesus, their Forever-Priest, as they rejoice and sing over the new birth in their corporate worship

An Interview with God

    Also draw out the spear,
    And stop those who pursue me.
    Say to my soul,
    “I am your salvation.”
Psalm 35:3

When I am in trouble, and especially when I am under attack, I need the Lord to act upon more than my situation, to bring it to a close. I need the Lord to act upon more than those who attack me, to thwart them and to bring them to justice.

I need the Lord to act upon my own soul. I need for Him to remind me of what I know--that He is my salvation. I need this bedrock truth reaffirmed as the central operating principle of my life. I forget the gospel so easily. I feel the truth of the gospel so superficially.

And yet, it is the gospel that I need. How does the Lord "say to my soul"? How does He breathe out those words? He has done so already on the pages of Scripture (2Tim 3:16), which He has given me not only to read, and hear, but also to pray, and sing. And His Holy Spirit does the work of writing those truths upon my heart.

Oh blessed fellowship of divine conversation! This is what I need more than the removal of any distress or defeat of any enemy: an interview for my soul with the Living God.