My favorite psalm
I don’t normally do “Bible study” posts. I feel like other people are much better at them than I am, so why punish my readers. But today, I’m going to make an exception.
My one-year Bible reading plan for the last two days took me through Psalm 30. I was very happy to see this as Psalm 30 is my favorite psalm. Here it is in its entirety (TNIV):
For the dedication of the temple. Of David.
- I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
- LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.
- You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.
- Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
- 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.
- When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”
- Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.
- To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:
- “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
- Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.”
- You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
- that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. LORD my God, I will praise you forever.
It’s interesting to me that this Psalm is explained as a commemoration of the dedication of the temple, and yet, it says very little about the temple. The only allusion to the temple comes in v. 4, “וְהֹודוּ לְזֵכֶר קָדְשֹֽׁו“. Literally, “And give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.”
My NRSV HarperCollins Study Bible notes inform me that the introductory line “is a secondary superscription indicating that the psalm came to be used at the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) after the cleansing of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 BCE.” So my question isn’t, “Why was this Psalm written for the dedication of the temple?” It’s, “Why did later believers come to associate this with the commemoration of the temple?” I’ve long felt that the psalm’s primary message is one of personal despair and salvation from that. I can see why the purification of the defiled temple at Jerusalem became a symbol of personal deliverance for them.
This psalm clicked with me when I was reading through the Bible in my late teens because I felt that it beautifully captured my own struggle with suicide, low self-esteem, and abuse at home, and how God rescued me from all that by leading me to loving Christians who taught me my inherent worth as a human being made in the image of God and a believer adopted as a daughter of God through Christ. The deliverance aspect of the psalm sang to my heart. I remember remarking that I felt like it had been written just for me.
Going back and looking at the psalm again, I’m intrigued by the fact that it does not just attribute salvation to God, but it also attributes the affliction that came before salvation to God (v. 7). I’ve often struggled with how my own conversion narrative does not seem to jive with evangelical testimony expectations. When I first said “the prayer” at age 10, I was so young and knew so little of religion and the world. Sure, I was sincere, but what did I really know about discerning truth? I wouldn’t even say I fully understood sin or its consequences. I said what the adults wanted me to say, said that Jesus had saved me from my sins. But what had he really saved me from?
By the time I re-dedicated my life to Christ at age 16, I had truly known pain and despair, had truly felt what it was like to go to sleep and not be sure I was going to finish out the next day. The second time I asked God to save me, I actually had something in my life that I knew I needed to be saved from.
This post isn’t really intended to make any conclusions about the problem of evil. My reflections this year have led me to see that when I thought I was so alone and lost, God was there with me the entire time; that there was a purpose in my suffering. And that’s a thought that fills me with joy.
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