Biblion Bible Commentary
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Weeping May Stay for the Night
Psalms 30:1-12
1 A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David. I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me. · WEB
A man recovers from an illness that nearly killed him and admits what his prosperity had persuaded him of.
I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up, and have not made my foes to rejoice over me Psalms 30:1.
A thanksgiving after a serious illness. Yahweh my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me. Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol Psalms 30:2–3 — the language of someone who expected to die and did not.
For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning Psalms 30:5.
The verse works by asymmetry. A moment against a lifetime, a night against a morning — not a denial that the anger and the weeping are real, but a statement about their duration relative to everything else. The word rendered stay is the ordinary word for lodging overnight: grief is a guest with a departure date.
As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved" Psalms 30:6.
The confession, and it is the most useful sentence in the psalm. In good times he had concluded that good times were the permanent state of affairs. He does not say he had become wicked; he had simply become certain, and the certainty is what the illness corrected.
You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you hid your face, I was troubled Psalms 30:7.
He now sees that the mountain had been standing on something. What he had taken for his own stability turned out to be a favor, and the discovery came the moment it was withdrawn.
What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth? Psalms 30:9.
The same argument as the sixth psalm, quoted back as the words he used while ill. The dead do not praise, so keeping him alive is presented to God as the better investment. It is not a sophisticated prayer and the psalm records it without embarrassment.
You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness Psalms 30:11.
The change is described as clothing, which is something put on a person from outside. And the purpose clause is the last word: to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent Psalms 30:12. He got what he argued for — the dust cannot praise, and he is not dust yet.
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