New Here?Weekly Word
Sean Roberds | Nov 30, 1999
You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Psalm 30:11-12
I think the Psalms are a wonderful prayer book to teach us how to pray honestly with God. In the Psalms we find words of thanksgiving, praise and comfort but we also discover questions, pain and distress. The writers of the Psalms come to God with their whole hearts, sharing all the feelings they feel inside to a God they trust is listening. We could learn a lot about prayer from the honesty of the psalmist.
My guess is that most of us are honest with God in the privacy of our prayers. One on one, we have no problem taking our heartaches, disappointments or questions to God. We even confess our sins openly to God when no one else is watching. However, the Psalms were not private prayers. They were the order of worship and the hymn book of the people gathered together worshiping God. They praised God together, they sang hymns of thanksgiving together, they extoled God with one voice raised in worship. Yet they also gathered together to cry for help and screamed together How Long Oh Lord! They raised questions and shared the feelings of abandonment, together, in worship to God.
Sometimes we feel as if we have to put on a brave face when we come to worship. We have to project a facade that all is good in our lives and we have nothing but praise to give. What the psalmist can teach us is how to let go of the need to appear strong by finding true strength in a community of worship that express our honest feelings. When we cry together, lament together and raise heartfelt questions together as a form of worship we will also learn what true praise, thanksgiving and worship feels like.
This week’s Psalm, Psalm 30 says, “Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”(vs. 4-5) These are words of a community that understands hard questions, heartache and tragedy and how to openly express those feelings to God. After expressing their true feelings in front of God they now feel a natural move to offer praise and thanksgiving. Because they have been honest in their worship, their Souls can not be silent in praise and their thanksgiving last forever. (V.12)
We have much we can learn from the community who gave us the Psalms!
Psalm 30
1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. 2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. 5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." 7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. 8 To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: 9 "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!" 11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
