1 A Psalm; a song of the dedication of the house of David.
2 I extol thee, O Jehovah, for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not caused mine enemies to rejoice over me.
3 O Jehovah, my God, I have cried for help unto thee, and thou healest me.
4 Thou, O Jehovah, hast brought up my soul from Sheol; thou hast kept me alive from going down to the pit.
5 Sing praises unto Jehovah, ye his holy ones, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
6 For a moment [is] in his anger, a life [is] in his favor; weeping remaineth in the evening, but in the morning rejoicing.
7 And I, I said in my prosperity I shall not be moved for ever.
8 O Jehovah, in thy favor thou hast established strength for my mountain; thou hast hidden thy face: I have been confounded.
9 Unto thee, O Jehovah, I call, and unto Jehovah do I supplicate.
10 What gain [is] in my blood, in my going down to the pit? Shall dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?
11 Hear, O Jehovah, and be gracious to me; O Jehovah, be a helper unto me.
12 Thou hast turned my lamentation into a dance; thou hast loosed for me my sackcloth, and thou girdest me with joy:
13 So that glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. O Jehovah, my God, I will give thee thanks for ever.
Notes on Psalm 30
Death however is beyond the powers of nature. There all ends, now that sin is come in, and with consequences yet more awe-inspiring and agonizing to the spirit. Hence the danger, for man who trusts human thoughts, of utter moral degradation in present enjoyment, with nothing but the darkness of despair before him. It was not so with the godly Jew who clung to God in hope of Messiah, though he too shrank back from death before the Cross; he had not passed that way heretofore. Yet it was his shame to doubt resurrection, whether of just or unjust, though his longing was for His reign Who annuls the power of death. Even the book of Job clearly reveals the two resurrections, separate in time as well as character, as may be seen in chapters 14 and 19. Altogether different and far superior is the ground of the Christian who in the death and resurrection of Christ reads his justification, is dead and risen with Christ already, and awaits with joy His coming to present him with Himself in the Father’s house. Here it is but the deprecation of death, while the Jew learns the deliverance of Jehovah to be better than any prosperity He gave, or the strength He established in His favor for His mountain: a lesson of enduring praise.