Psalm 30
Pentecost 6 (Narrative Lectionary 3 – Summer)
June 30, 2013
Grace, Mankato, MN
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)
If you look at Psalm 30 in the Bible, you’ll see that one of the superscripts, or headings, says that this is a psalm of David. This doesn’t necessarily mean that David wrote it or even used it, but that the Davidic kings used it in their ceremonies. However, following the suggestion of Shauna Hanna, this isn’t David’s psalm; it’s Jen’s Psalm. By most accounts, Jen and Nick were making a good life together. Both had good jobs, Nick was doing well sober, they had two beautiful daughters, and they were very involved in their church and community. Then the bottom dropped out when Nick was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer. About 18 months later, barely 50 years old, Nick was gone and Jen had lost her soul mate.
Psalm 30 is classified as a song of thanksgiving. There aren’t very many of these, only about a half dozen, but they are powerfully important psalms. Even a quick reading shows it’s more than a song of thanksgiving. There are the praise elements we identified in Psalm 100, a cry for help as in Psalm 13, and even the assertion of trust we heard last week in Psalm 23. To put it into Walter Bruggemann’s typology, this is a psalm of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation all rolled up into one.
In one sense, Psalm 30 is a song of thanksgiving that can only be sung on the backside of a difficult life event. It is sung by a seasoned believer who has come through the orienting, disorienting, and reorienting experiences in life and has seen God’s hand through them all. Before Nick’s diagnosis, Jen and Nick had their share of challenges, but life was generally good. Yet, none of us fully appreciate how good our lives are until something devastating happens. So, looking back, Jen can value the life they had together, even the time through Nick’s illness.
But, Jen can certainly relate to the psalmist’s cry for help, the disorienting effect that Nick’s illness and death had on her and their daughters. Everything changed, everything revolved around caring for Nick and eventually preparing for his death and life afterward. Even in the depths of despair, Nick and Jen grew closer to God and to each other, something they didn’t think possible. There were many tears of pain and anguish, but times of blessing as they were surrounded in love. People brought food, the church choir sung to them on Christmas, and Nick’s Confirmation small group that he mentored paid him a visit. Through it all they somehow managed to trust in and hold onto God as they held onto each other.
As you can imagine, it was incredibly hard for Jen when Nick passed away and especially hard for her to be in worship. Yet, as time went on and she looked back, Jen was able to begin to sing a song of thanksgiving to God, not for Nick’s death but for how God was working in the whole experience. Worship was still hard, but Jen was convinced that God was going to use her and her experiences for something good. Jen found herself having a deeper compassion for ill and elderly people. She helped to start a grief support group and some Blue Christmas services at her church. Jen changed jobs and went back to school. Jen has been brought to a place of new life, not because of her effort, but because of God’s presence and blessing.
Many of you know that my family and I have been going through a similar time as we have been involved with my father-in-law’s health. It has been disorienting to have moved him to a long term care facility and then of course, his entrance into hospice and death. Yesterday, as we gathered to commend him to God, we were able to sing a song of thanksgiving, not for his death but for his life and what he meant to us, and for God’s gracious promises of new life that awaits us all.
Of course, Psalm 30 is not just Jen’s psalm, it’s our psalm. It is, in fact, the very structure of our lives. Each day we take some of our life for granted and often our lives change, sometimes drastically. Each of us are in different places right now: some are doing just fine, some are desperately crying for God’s help, and some are singing songs of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance. Wherever we are, Psalm 30 reminds us of the promise we have in Jesus Christ, a promise that God is always with us, working in our lives to bring about new life, even in the midst of death. For our God is the one who turns our mourning into dancing. Our God takes off our sackcloth and clothes us with joy. Our souls will praise God and not be silent and we will give God praise forever. Amen.
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