[0:00] Please take your Bibles and open them up to Psalm chapter 30. Psalm chapter 30 this morning, if you don't have a copy of God's Word that you brought with you,! feel free to use one in the seat back nearby. There should be one close by to you. But our aim every time I come up here or Treg comes up here or anybody stands up here is to open up God's Word and see what's there and then to explain it and apply it with his help.
[0:26] And so if you would, turn to Psalm chapter 30. We're concluding our series in the Psalms that we've been in the Psalms for the past several weeks over the summer. And we're concluding it here with chapter 30. And it's fitting that we end here with this theme of David praising and worshiping and giving thanks to the Lord for what he's done.
[0:48] So if you would, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word once you've found that in your Bible. Psalm chapter 30. Let's stand together. Listen along as I read. Psalm chapter 30 is a psalm of David, a song at the dedication of the temple.
[1:09] Psalm chapter 30.
[1:39] Psalm chapter 30.
[2:09] Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
[2:26] O Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Father, we praise you for this word. And we have much to thank you for, Father.
[2:41] And we have much to praise you for. And so we pray now that as we open up here to Psalm chapter 30 and hear this psalm of thanksgiving together, we pray that our hearts would be filled with thankfulness and move to praise you as you deserve.
[2:55] We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. Amen. If you ever want to be encouraged, spend some time reading some of the conversion stories of some of the great saints of Christian history.
[3:12] As I read through Psalm 30 this week, I was reminded of Charles Spurgeon's conversion and the story, his testimony of God saving grace in his life. And I want to read it to you. It's a little bit long, so be forewarned.
[3:25] But I want you to hear it from his own words. This is his account of how he came to know the Lord. He writes, I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God and sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning while I was going to a certain place of worship.
[3:46] I turned down a side street and came to a little primitive Methodist church. In that chapel, there may have been a dozen, maybe 15 people. And I had heard of those primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people's heads ache.
[3:59] But that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved. He said the minister did not come that morning. He was snowed up, I suppose. And at the very last minute, a thin-looking man, a shoemaker, a tailor, something of the sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.
[4:14] And he goes on to describe how this man probably wasn't too bright. He wasn't educated, wasn't that smart. And so he says he was obliged to stick to his text for the simple reason that he had very little else to say.
[4:27] The text was this. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Isaiah 45, verse 22.
[4:38] He says he did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text. So the preacher began thus.
[4:49] This is a very simple text indeed. It says, look. Now, look and don't take a great deal of pain. It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It is just look. Well, a man needn't go to college to learn to look.
[5:03] You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn't be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look. Even a child can look. But then the text says, look unto me.
[5:17] I, he said in broad Essex, many on ye are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there. You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Jesus Christ said, look unto me.
[5:30] Look unto me, he said. I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto me. I am hanging on a cross. Look unto me. I am dead and buried.
[5:41] Look unto me. I rise again. Look unto me. I ascend to heaven. Look unto me. I am sitting at the Father's right hand. Oh, poor sinner, look unto me. Look unto me.
[5:53] Look unto me. As Spurgeon says, when the man had managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. And then he looked at me under the gallery.
[6:05] And I dare say, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. And just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew my heart, he said, young man, you look very miserable. Imagine that.
[6:18] Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow struck right at home. He continued, and you will always be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't obey my text.
[6:35] But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved. And lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a primitive Methodist could do.
[6:46] Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look. Look. Look to Jesus. You have nothing to do but look and live.
[6:59] Spurgeon says, I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said. I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought. I had come in waiting to do 50 things.
[7:12] But when I heard that word, look, what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh, I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away. There and then, the cloud was gone. The darkness had rolled away.
[7:25] And that moment, I saw the sun. And I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ and a simple faith which looks alone to him.
[7:39] Oh, that somebody had told me this before. Trust Christ and you shall be saved. Don't you love to hear testimonies like that? This is a testimony.
[7:51] It's a story of somebody who has been rescued by a gracious God. He's been plucked up out of the pit. Our psalm this morning, Psalm chapter 30, is a testimony a little bit like this.
[8:05] No, this isn't David's conversion story. But it's a testimony nonetheless. It's a story of the Lord rescuing David from some deep distress. And here we see, just as with Spurgeon, the response of somebody who has experienced the saving grace of God.
[8:21] What is it? It's praise, worship, thankfulness, exaltation. So we see it here in our passage.
[8:32] Let's take a look. And we'll see it in three parts this morning. This will be our outline if you're taking notes this morning. First, we see we are called to praise a God who delivers.
[8:46] We are called to praise God who delivers. Look there with me to verse 1. David says in verse 1, David gives three reasons here why he will praise the Lord.
[9:15] First, he praises him because the Lord drew him up. He protected him from his enemies. He did not let his enemies rejoice over him. That's one. He praises him, second, because the Lord heard his prayer.
[9:29] David cried out for help. And the Lord healed him. That's two. And he praises him, third, because the Lord brought up his soul from Sheol. That's the grave.
[9:40] So whatever this distress was, we've seen time and time again as we've gone through the Psalms this summer. It seems like David was again near to death. But here the Lord intervened, rescued him, and restored him to life.
[9:57] The Lord has acted in David's life in such a way as to bring this physical deliverance to David. And it may be that you have experienced a similar type of deliverance before.
[10:08] In fact, I know that many of you have shared with me stories, times, where the Lord has delivered you from some physical threat. Maybe it's a diagnosis that had you scared and worried, but the Lord intervened and healed.
[10:23] Maybe you had no clue how you were going to make ends meet for the month, and yet somehow, sovereignly, there's this mysterious, in his own timing, in his own way, he provides exactly what you need at the right moment.
[10:34] Or maybe you have enemies like David had, trying to tear you down. Co-workers, neighbors, friends, family members. It looks like they are going to succeed, but at the last moment, their plans fall apart.
[10:46] The Lord delivered from these physical threats. But we know, don't we, of course, as wonderful as physical deliverance is, that is a fraction of the greatness of the spiritual deliverance that God has brought us in Christ.
[11:05] This salvation, this deliverance that David is experiencing here, it finds its ultimate fulfillment, its true fulfillment, in what God has done for all his people in Christ.
[11:19] If you are in Christ by faith, what's happened to you is that you have been delivered, you have been converted spiritually, in a way that far surpasses any physical healing, monetary provision, relational restoration, any sort of physical deliverance that we might desire.
[11:41] The testimony of a Christian is what we read in Ephesians chapter 2. We were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked, Paul says. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
[12:11] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
[12:25] By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
[12:45] Church, the gospel is the good news that our God, in sending forth his Son to live for us, and to die for us, and to rise for us, to say to us, look unto me and be saved.
[13:04] God has raised us up with him above our enemies. They will not rejoice over us. He has heard our prayers for mercy.
[13:14] He has healed us spiritually. He has resurrected us spiritually. He has rescued us from the pit of death. He's restored us to life in Christ.
[13:26] That's the testimony of a Christian. I wonder if you can see yourself here in David's experience of deliverance. David has been delivered, and this personal, individual deliverance, it leads to personal, individual praise, exaltation.
[13:46] He praises the Lord who delivered him. I wonder, does your heart praise God this morning for the gospel of Christ? Does your heart want to extol the Lord for what he's done for you in sending Christ for you?
[14:01] Do you have a testimony of his deliverance? David does. But it doesn't stop at the individual level, does it? Look there to verse 4. David's personal experience spills over into corporate praise.
[14:19] Look there to verse 4. David turns his attention now to the community of God's people. He doesn't just keep this experience to himself, does he? He instructs them, verse 4, Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints.
[14:36] Give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
[14:48] You know, there's a reason why God's people are commanded to gather together, as we're doing right now, this morning. There is a reason why we're not just to remain as individual, isolated, free agent Christians, but we are called to come together with God's people to join in with the church and to worship the Lord together.
[15:11] And we see it in Hebrews chapter 10. He says, Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds.
[15:22] That's the command. Let us consider how we might stir one another up to love and to good deeds. How can we do that? Well, he tells us, Now, someone asked me this week, what's the point of gathering together with the church?
[15:47] What's the point of joining a church? Why can't we just be on our own, individual Christians? What's so bad about being a Lone Ranger Christian? Our gathering together has this horizontal, one another dimension to it.
[16:05] Yes, of course, there's a personal, vertical, individual element to it. Yes, of course, if God's worked in your life, you individually respond with praise. But that individual praise spills over into horizontal, corporate worship.
[16:22] where we gather together and encourage one another and share God's work in our life with one another. We share our testimony with one another. We sing together.
[16:32] We lift up our voices together and praise him as one body. We gather to stir one another up and encourage one another. I wonder if when you come together, when you come to church, is that on your mind?
[16:53] Do you come together with the purpose of encouragement? Do you come looking for reasons, looking for ways to encourage your brother, your sister in Christ?
[17:05] Do you come ready to sing loudly? Do you come ready to share what God has done in your life? Do others around you know your testimony? Your story is not just for your own individual benefit.
[17:19] It is for corporate up-building. The praise of God's people. David here praises the Lord who delivers and then he calls God's people to join him in that praise.
[17:32] That's the popular message. But here in verse 6 through 10, second, David's going to give us a less popular reason to praise the Lord. Okay? That's the, everybody might agree with that one.
[17:44] Here's a little less popular. Second, we are called to praise God who disciplines. We are called to praise God who disciplines.
[17:57] Look there, starting in verse 6. It's like David sort of has a flashback here to what happened before this deliverance at the beginning of the psalm.
[18:07] It's like he starts off the psalm saying, praise the Lord, he's brought me up, he's saved me, but now, let's back it up a little bit. Let me tell you where I was. Let me tell you what was going on in my heart before he did that rescuing in my life.
[18:22] Look at verse 6. He says, As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. I shall never be moved.
[18:34] By your favor, O Lord, you had made my mountain stand strong, but you hid your face and I was dismayed. You hear the tone of David's heart here?
[18:47] David apparently was puffed up with pride. Do you hear what he said? I shall never be moved. He was prosperous and successful. He thought that all of his success was stable.
[18:59] He put his confidence in himself and as a matter of discipline, the Lord hid his face. You know, there's some conversation, some debate on the background of this psalm, but I wonder if you realized something peculiar about the heading at the top of the psalm.
[19:15] Do you notice this? Look back there at the top of the psalm. The context that we're given is it says, A Psalm of David, a song at the dedication of the temple.
[19:26] Now, what's so strange about that? Think about it for a minute. If you know your Bible, you might recognize that what's so strange about that is that David wasn't around for the dedication of the temple, was he?
[19:41] David, as a matter of the Lord's discipline in his life, because he was a man of blood, we're told, he was not permitted to build the temple.
[19:53] Solomon, his son, would build it. So what's going on here? Well, my belief is actually what our friend Spurgeon believed about this psalm, which is that David was writing this psalm prophetically for that moment of the dedication of the temple.
[20:10] And he's writing this psalm not for his own sake, but for his son Solomon to teach Solomon and us that there is great benefit in the discipline of the Lord.
[20:23] As if to say, don't be prideful like me. I wasn't permitted to build this temple because of my sin. Don't fall into the same patterns of sinful boasting and pride as I did.
[20:35] And if you do, don't despise the discipline of the Lord because look at where it ultimately brought me. It brought me to this place of humble thanksgiving, a humble praise, a humble prayer.
[20:51] You realize it is good for God to discipline his children. And the end result of that discipline is praise.
[21:04] Has the Lord ever humbled you? Has the Lord ever brought you low? Has the Lord ever taken something away from you in order to reorient your trust around him and not his gifts?
[21:25] If so, as painful as that is, praise God. What a kindness that is for him to do that for his children.
[21:38] Y'all may know there's a trend called gentle parenting. Y'all ever heard that term? This is kind of an aside here. As I understand it, gentle parenting is instead of speaking in the negative, right, like stop doing that.
[21:53] Don't hit your brother. Don't run in the street. Instead of talking like that, that's too harsh. That's too negative. Instead of doing that, they try to replace it with the positive. Let's hug our brother, right?
[22:06] Now let's say nice, run in the yard instead of the street, please. And it's a teamwork based approach. So you and your kid are equals and you work together to keep each other happy.
[22:17] You don't always have to take the lead as the parent. Sometimes a kid can take the lead and you just, you work together. I'll tell you, I got, in my limited experience as a parent, y'all can probably affirm this too, no is a perfectly appropriate word a lot of the time.
[22:34] Amen? Right? No is a good word to teach your children a lot of the time and it is okay if your child is not happy for a moment if that temporary discipline redirects them to something that is actually good for them.
[22:55] You understand? Some people think that God loves us so much he would never take anything from us. He's not a God of no, he's a God of yes.
[23:09] He'd never do anything to make us upset. He'd never do anything to hurt our feelings and make us sad for a moment. Friend, that could not be further from the truth. God loves you so much that he is willing to do whatever it takes to fix your heart's affections entirely on him.
[23:34] He loves you so much that he will refine you often through trial. He loves you so much that he will sanctify you.
[23:45] He will make you like Christ often through the most challenging moments of your life. He loves you so much that if there's pride in your heart like there was in David's heart here he will turn his face away and humble you so that you call out to him in faith for mercy.
[24:04] He loves you so much that as a loving father he will discipline his children for sin in their life. Hebrews chapter 12 tells us my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be wary when reproved by him for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.
[24:28] It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. If you are left without discipline in which all have participated it is a different time back then then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
[24:46] Besides this we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness.
[25:06] For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
[25:18] David here is disciplined for his pride. Hear the posture of his heart. I shall never be moved. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved.
[25:31] I wonder if you have that same posture towards anything in your life. what is it that you're tempted to put your pride, put your trust in rather than the Lord?
[25:43] Some of us may be tempted to trust in our bank account, our 401k. We say in our prosperity I shall never be moved. This will always be there. You remember the 2018 crash?
[25:57] How many people thought they were secure only to have everything wiped out almost instantly? Some of us trust in political stability. My candidate's in office everything's okay, everything's stable, everything's great, I will never be moved, give it time.
[26:13] Every four years there's a shake up isn't there? Maybe you're tempted to trust in the life that you've built for yourself, your job, your home, your family.
[26:25] Jobs can be lost, homes can be destroyed, families can be destroyed. Let's be reminded church that we are called as God's people to put our whole trust in something, in someone that cannot be taken away from us.
[26:46] We are called to humbly put our full faith in the Lord. God disciplines the one he loves and the result of that discipline in our life is that he strips away every idol of the heart as painful as it may be and leads us to cling to him.
[27:05] Look there to verse seven. David says that God hid his face from him and he was dismayed. So the result, he cries out to the Lord in faith.
[27:19] He prays this prayer of desperation. He throws himself into the arms of the Lord, which is exactly where he needs to be. To you, O Lord, I cry and to the Lord I plead for mercy.
[27:31] 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? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me.
[27:43] Here's a dangerous prayer to pray. Okay? You ready? Lord, do whatever you have to do to make me like Christ. Be careful praying a prayer like that.
[27:56] Lord, take whatever you have to take to lead me to cling to you in full dependence. Lord, shatter the pride of my heart so that I love you and trust you and honor you and depend on you and worship you as you deserve.
[28:17] Have you ever prayed a prayer like that? David desires to praise the Lord as a result of the discipline in his life. That's exactly what he does here at the end of our psalm, verses 11 and 12.
[28:31] Here we see our final call, third. We are called to praise God who deserves all praise. Look at the fruit of this discipline in David's life.
[28:45] He praises the Lord who has turned his mourning into dancing. He praises the Lord who has loosed his sack cloth and clothed him with gladness that his glory may sing God's praise and not be silent.
[28:59] O Lord my God, he says, I will give thanks to you forever. This is a picture of total praise, isn't it? This is praise that involves all of David.
[29:11] That's what it means when he says, my glory will praise you. This is his entire self inside and out, body and soul. This is the response of worship that involves all of him.
[29:25] He's moved internally to thankfulness. How is that demonstrated? He sings and he dances. He's clothed internally with gladness.
[29:37] How is that seen? He changes his clothes. He takes off his sackcloth. There's an internal and external element of worship here. It is all encompassing, body and soul.
[29:49] It's all of him. When I make my coffee in the morning, I boil water in a kettle. I pour it in. I know the water is hot inside when the lid on the outside starts to dance.
[30:05] There's some steam coming out. Then what's inside doesn't pour itself out until the whole body is bent over. There's a necessary demonstration. The external has to work with the internal for the whole thing to work.
[30:17] You and I are made body and soul. God made us this way, body and soul.
[30:28] Both body and soul are meant to engage the Lord in worship. Sometimes just the external expression is empty.
[30:39] Sometimes it's just a show. I'm not saying do that. Sometimes if the insides are boiling over with thankfulness to the Lord, you can't help but just do something with your body.
[30:54] I wonder if you sit in silence when you come and gather with God's people or if you use your voice and you sing out loudly with thankful hearts to God.
[31:05] Do you ever lift your hands in worship? I know that might seem strange at first. It might feel a little strange at first. It might feel unnatural. Do you ever get down on your knees and pray?
[31:19] Or lay flat, outstretched, don't fall asleep, be careful. Do you ever lay yourself out and pray to the Lord? Do you ever nod your head as you hear God's word preached?
[31:30] Do you ever say amen when you hear something you agree with? All of this is okay, church. We are made body and soul. That internal thankfulness ought to boil over and spill out of us.
[31:44] David here responds with singing and dancing and thankfulness to the Lord. He responds by worshiping that involves all of him. Not only this, he responds with praise for all to hear.
[32:01] My glory will sing your praise and not be silent. His praise is an audible praise, isn't it? Others can't actually hear it. Others can hear him singing of what God has done.
[32:16] We've seen this application a few times already, haven't we? God's people are called, commanded even, to sing praise to the Lord.
[32:28] God's people are commanded to sing. Why do we come and we sing songs every Sunday? It's not just because that's what we like to do, although we do like to do it. It's because God has commanded us to sing.
[32:40] Not everybody needs to sing into a microphone, right? Amen? But we are all commanded to sing. Paul tells us in Ephesians, we're called to address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[33:07] That internal thankfulness is expressed, it's heard, it's out loud, it's boiled over and spilled out together in singing.
[33:19] It's praise for all of him, it's praise for all to hear and lastly, verse 12, we see this is praise for all time, he says in verse 12, O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
[33:34] here's the good news church, no matter what comes into your life, no matter what trial, no matter what hardship, no matter what discipline, no matter how low you are brought, no matter what threat, no matter what danger, no matter what sickness or temptation, God's redeemed people will spend the rest of eternity giving thanks to the Lord for who he is and what he's done for us in Christ.
[34:09] Do you look forward to that? This gathering is a foretaste, is a sample of what eternity has in store for God's redeemed people.
[34:22] Paul tells us in chapter 2 of Philippians that Jesus though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
[34:47] Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
[35:08] How much do we have to be thankful to the Lord for, for what he's done in Christ? Christ is the one who went down to the pit and was raised up for us so that all who call to him in faith, though we may fail like David, though we may temporarily be disciplined for our sin, all who are united to Christ by faith, have the promise of everlasting life, eternal joy, glory.
[35:41] This great reversal that David experiences from mourning to dancing, from sackcloth to gladness, from weeping in the night to joy in the morning, that is true for all who trust in Christ.
[35:55] Christ, how do we respond to a hope like this, church? We respond with total praise, because he deserves all praise and glory forever and ever.
[36:11] Amen. Charles Spurgeon wrote about that day of his conversion. He said, that happy day when I found the Savior and learned to cling to his dear feet was a day never to be forgotten by me.
[36:27] I listened to the word of God, and that precious text led me to the cross of Christ. I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable.
[36:38] I could have leaped, I could have danced, and there was no expression, however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour. He says, I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and have called out with the wildness of those Methodist brothers, I am forgiven.
[36:56] I am a monument of grace. I am a sinner saved by blood. My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces.
[37:06] I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my goings established.
[37:20] between half past ten o'clock when I entered that chapel and half past twelve o'clock when I was going back home, what a change had taken place in me, simply by looking to Jesus.
[37:35] I had been delivered from despair and I was brought into such a joyous state of mind that when they all saw me back at home, they said to me, something wonderful has happened to you. I was eager to tell them all about it.
[37:46] Oh, there was joy in the household that day when all heard that the eldest son had found the Savior and knew himself to be forgiven.
[37:57] That's Spurgeon's story. Friend, do you have a story like that to tell? Has the Lord delivered you?
[38:10] If so, friend, give thanks, sing, and rejoice, and if not, friend, look unto Christ. Look unto Christ. Look unto Christ and give him all praise.
[38:25] Let's pray. Father, we have so much to be thankful for for your work in our life. We thank you for delivering us.
[38:37] We thank you even for disciplining us at times. Lord, we confess that you are worthy of all praise and yet our efforts to praise you are often so feeble and half-hearted.
[38:49] Lord, would you work thankfulness in our hearts for who you are and what you've done. I pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.