Psalms 30 and 31
HIS dedication song of the house (Psalm 30) looks to the gathering in of all the people of God. It is a song of deliverance when the godly Jews
shall have been delivered from all their enemies. God has brought them up from death, has quickened them from among those that go down to the pit. It is a time for rejoicing, singing psalms unto the Lord, and giving thanks in remembrance of His holiness.
Short was God's displeasure with His people,—'Tor a moment is passed in His anger, a life in His favor; at even, weeping cometh for the night; and at morn there is rejoicing" (verse 5, New Translation).
With another hope, in Christ, the Christian adopts this language; as the hymn says,—
This life's wild, wintry blast
Soon will be over, past;
We shall reach Home at last,—
Heaven is our Home.
The great apostle in Romans 8:31-3931What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31‑39); and 2 Corinthians 4:16-1816For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16‑18) makes little of the trials of the present time, in view of the glory to come for those who are Christ's. So the Remnant of the Jews, trusting in God, will rejoice exceedingly, when their brief days of trial are over.
Verses 6, 7, 8 show the worthlessness of worldly prosperity,—if God hide His face, security and peace are gone. By Him the mourning is presently turned into dancing; the sack-cloth of the days of deep trial is loosed, and there is in its place a girding with gladness, singing, instead of silence.
Psalm 31 was used by the Lord at the end of His suffering on the cross (verse 5; Luke 23:4646And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:46)), but we could not say that all of the psalm applied to Him; it could not be true of Him that is said in verses 9 to 12, for example. It is another prayer of the godly Jews in the coming day. To God they look for deliverance in an outpouring of heart that shows great depth of suffering.
In verse 19 the subject is no longer myself and my troubles, but the goodness of God laid up for them that fear Him, and which He has wrought for those that trust in Him.
Verse 20 seems to look on to the time when the godly Jews would have to flee from Jerusalem to be cared for by God, after the pattern of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. (See Matthew 24:1616Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:16) and following).
The closing verses encourage the faithful to love the Lord; He preserves them; let their heart take courage, for their hope will be brought to pass. The night of weeping will soon be past, and the unclouded morning appear.
Messages of God’s Love 7/13/1930