The Psalms: Psalm 30

 Have you ever met someone who never said “thank you”? Maybe its a family member that you spent hours of time with - helping them clean their house or work on a special project - only to receive no thanks in return. Or someone in the community you went out of your way to help - only to have them act like they were doing you the favor. When you pour your heart out for someone and they cannot even utter simple words of thanks - how did it make you feel?

I’ve been spending a lot of time this week pondering how God must feel when we fail to praise God for all the ways that he has blessed us. For the times we have treated him, as others have treated us - without a single note or statement of thanks. 

Psalm 30 is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise to God. It speaks of King David, who was in distress, physically ill, and being surrounded by his enemies. And David is praising God for hear his prayer and respond. In other words, God delivered him in so many ways. 

And so, David is telling the faithful people of God to tell God’s story. To proclaim how God had delivered them as well. And to sing God’s praises. 

David spills forth praise for God - for his encouragement, the fact that God provided light during difficult times, that God rescued David when he could see no other way out. He praises God that the enemies that surrounded him did not have the final word - that they did not overcome him. And so David’s praise is filled with relief and recognition of God’s help and faithfulness. 

But in the midst of this wonderful Psalm of praise, I’m left with many questions, my friends. 

First, I wonder what David’s song was in the midst of what he was experiencing. When he was sick and hurting. What was his prayer like then? As I was reflecting on that question there is a song that kept playing through my mind - maybe you know it - by Casting Crowns - “I’ll Praise You in this Storm.”

“I was sure by now

God, You would have reached down

And wiped our tears away

Stepped in and saved the day

But once again, I say, "Amen" and it's still rainin'

Well, as the thunder rolls

I barely hear Your whisper through the rain

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives

And takes away”

Friends, it is really easy to praise God when you’ve made it through to the other side, but what prayers are you praying in the middle of it all? What is your song when it seems like the foundations are crumbling in? What are you saying and believing about God in those moments?

Because the truth is God is God even in the hard moments. Even when things don’t go the way that we want. And God is still worthy of praise - even if it is through all of the tears. 

As a pastor, I have sat at the side of more deathbeds and conducted more funerals then I can count. And friends, some of those death were peaceful and some of those deaths were hard. But when we come together as a community and sing the hymns of the faith - “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, “How Great Thou Art”, “It is Well with My Soul” - they aren’t just hymns of comfort. They are hymns of proclamation - that even as we are in this moment that we would rather not be in, even though we have lost someone we dearly love - this is still our song of praise. Because God is with us, even in the hardest mounts of life. 

I also have to wonder if we truly praise God when the answer to the prayers that we are praying is either “no” or “not yet”. I love the lyric to the Garth Brook’s song, “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.” But the truth is, we often get caught up on the “sometimes” of it all. Or we praise God, but only in retrospect - after time, like Garth Brooks, when we can look back and see how different our lives would have been if that prayer would have been answered in the way that we want it, in that moment. 

But if God is God and God is worthy of praise, no matter what, then our praise raised to God isn’t conditional to getting a “yes” answer to pray or having enough distance and time to recognize that our ways are not the best ways. And friends, that is especially hard when you are walking through the valley of the shadow or feel like the world is pressing in upon you from every side. 

But as a wise woman in this parish often reminds us, we need to trust who God is and what he says and what he does. There are times that the way that God answers “yes” to our prayers is gently followed by a “but not in that way.” Yes, I will bring healing, but that healing will be on the other side of eternity. Yes, I will give you healing, but it will come a little farther down the line. Yes, I will give you release, but it will come in the form of drawing closer to me. 

God has not forsaken us or left us, if we do not get our prayers answered just as David did in this Psalm. God is always with us. Even when we cannot sense it in the moment. And prayer does not fail even if we do not get the exact answer we desire. Because prayer is just as much about changing us, changing our hearts, and drawing us into the presence of God then anything else. 

Lastly, I wonder what story we are telling about God’s deliverance in our lives. Do we even remember God’s deliverance enough to tell the story? Or over time does it get warped more into a story about us then about God. About what we have done or made it through, more than what God has done and brought us through? Our purpose, is to live a life that praises God. And friends, if we are not connecting our life to the greater story of God’s grace and mercy, then we are missing a divine opportunity. We worship a God who morning by morning new mercies we see. Morning can be yes, the next day, or it could be the next moment. But are we telling the story of God with as much passion and faith as David is in this particular Psalm?

Now, let be clear, that does not mean we lie. We live in a world where when someone asks us how we are, our automatic answer is “fine.” Friends, we are not always fine. Sometimes the greatest praise we can raise to God in the moment is “my heart is breaking, but God is with me, through it all.”

Friends, praise is easy when everything is going well. But we are invited to praise God in all circumstances. To bear witness to God, even when the rest of the world cannot see. So let this be the song of our hearts:

“And I'll praise You in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in Your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise You in this storm”

Amen.