When we sing (or read) Psalms, we usually think about how those are the words that the Lord has given us to be able to use as we pray those words back to Him, expressing in His own God-breathed words, whatever joys or sorrows, praises or confessions, hurts or delights we might be dealing with at the moment in our own personal experiences. That’s why Calvin (and others) have called the Psalms “the anatomy of the soul.” There is no human experience to which the Psalms fail to speak to counsel, comfort, guide, and strengthen.
We ought also to consider how those Psalms became the words of the human author who first wrote them. We know the names of some of those authors, as they are named in the lines preceding the lyrics of the Psalm, occasionally even with the name of the original Hebrew tune or even the circumstances of their composition. And we know that about half of the Psalms were written by David, the Shepherd/King. The books of Samuel and Kings give us many of the stories that lay behind those Psalms of David, as with Psalm 3 written as he was fleeing from his son Absalom and the military coup that had driven him from his palace, or with Psalms 51 and 32 written after the terrible adultery and murder conspiracy over Uriah and Bathsheba.
But shouldn’t we also think about what the words of each Psalm would have meant to the Lord Jesus as He prayed and sang them so many times during His years of earthly ministry? When we do that, they take on an incredibly different, richer meaning. It isn’t just remembering that as God Himself, the second person of the blessed trinity, He was actually and ultimately the author, through His Holy Spirit inspiring (“breathing out”) the words these human authors wrote. Here are a few examples to contemplate.
When Jesus prayed Psalm 2, what was He thinking about when He came to the words about God having said to Him, “You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth Your possession”? Might that Psalm have come to Jesus’ mind when Satan tempted Him by offering Him the nations, so that He could resist by remembering that the Father had already promised Him the nations!? Or when Jesus came to the final stanza of the Psalm. “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”
How about Psalm 23? Surely He thought about those lines when He told people what the Apostle John recorded in chapter 10, “I am the good shepherd.” In other words, Jesus was saying that He was the shepherd that David had written about while shepherding his sheep on those Judean pastures. And who was Jesus referring to when He sang, “The LORD is My Shepherd?” His Father was the Shepherd to the Son, the Father as the Son’s Shepherd, who had promised to go with Jesus even through the valley of the shadow of death when He came to the cross and the grave.
We naturally think of Psalm 22 when we consider Jesus on the cross, for He uttered (perhaps sang?) those very words at Calvary, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” But there is also Psalm 88, the darkest Psalm in the entire Bible. Those words would have been fitting from the cross, wouldn’t they? “For My soul is full of troubles, and My life draws near to Sheol .… You have put Me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon Me, and You overwhelm Me with all Your waves …. O LORD, why did You cast My soul away? Why do You hide Your face from Me? …. You have caused My beloved and my friend to shun Me; My companions have become darkness.”
In so many Psalms of lament, we can rightly claim those words to express our anguish before the Lord, not only when we are suffering physical pain, but also when we are enduring rejection and persecution for our faithfulness to the Lord. But Jesus prayed those same Psalms as He endured suffering and rejection to an infinitely greater degree than we ever will. And it’s because He has suffered those pains before us, as at the end of Psalm 88 which ends in such profound darkness, that we will not have to endure our darkness without Him, but will have the close companionship of the one who has been tempted in every way like we have (Hebrews 4:14-16), but will carry us to the triumph over them that He has attained.
Psalm 30 has been the inspiration for many sermons, Bible studies, prayers, and articles, not to mention hymns! It was written by David, clearly at a time when he had been delivered from some great danger by the Lord. It has been traditionally understood to have been composed by David for the dedication of the temple, which, of course, did not come about until by his son, Solomon, after David’s death. As he praised God, he recognized that his good fortune had not come by his own hand but by God’s grace. He would have recalled God’s grace in having delivered him from the wild animals that attacked his sheep, from the sword and javelin of Goliath, from the spear of a deranged King Saul, and from the coup instigated by his son Absalom. All of these were instances of his being delivered by the grace of God. Every Psalter will include this one along the other 149. But so will many hymnals have it represented, even if not in metrical form, but just in a paraphrase or with lyrics based on key familiar phrase in the Psalm. In it we find such memorable lines as these.
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. (vs. 5)
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? (vs. 9)
You have turned for me My mourning into dancing; You have loosed my sackclothAnd clothed me with gladness. (vs. 11)
We find the Psalm beautifully translated in the 1912 “Psalter” with the opening phrase as “O Lord, by Grace Delivered.” This study is another attempt to encourage pastors to lead their churches to sing regularly through the Psalms, God’s inspired hymnal for more than 3000 years. It is encouraging to learn that more and more are doing so, many adopting the practice of singing at least one Psalm every Lord’s Day morning. As one person has written, Psalm-singing is not a “dying” practice, but a “reviving” one; one that not only is being revived, but that will revive the church and the souls of her members.
On February 22, 2019, “The Gospel Coalition” published a brief article by Keith Getty about why the church should sing the Psalms. How wonderful that the premier hymn-writer of our generation has lent his whole-hearted support to the singing of Psalms in our worship today. Here is an abbreviated version of the ten reasons he gave as to why it’s important to sing these Psalms.
- The Bible Tells Us to Sing Psalms
That’s the strongest argument of all! God wants us to sing them. - Psalms Are the Word of God
What a special moment that should be when we sing the very words God gave us. - Psalms Are the Songs Jesus Sang
And not only in His earthly ministry, but right now, as in Hebrews 2:12. - Psalms Give Us a More Authentic Picture of God
They contain the widest presentations of the attributes of God in all Scripture. - Psalms Are Christological
Only when we see Christ in them do we understand them, and they reveal much about Him. - Psalms Speak to the Depth and Breadth of Human Emotion
They give us words to pray and praise in every situation we could experience. - Psalms Transform Family Worship
They make our family time truly worship, focusing on Him through His self-revelation. - Psalms Will Unify Our Church Families
Singing them will focus on what we all have in common, in contrast to our individualism. - Psalms Will Revolutionize Your Church Family
How wonderful when an entire church is learning the Psalms, focusing on God in worship. - Psalms Are Missional
They are filled with calls to bring all the world, every nation, into the presence of the Lord.
Psalm 30 is a great example of how the Old Testament is filled with grace, contrary to those who suggest that the Old Testament is all Law and it’s only in the New Testament that grace is highlighted. The ancient heading of this Psalm indicates that it was a Psalm of David “at the dedication of the temple.” If that is accurate, then it is a song he wrote in anticipation of the joy of building a temple for the Lord, filled with references to the grace and goodness of the Lord which had been so wondrously displayed during his life. ‘
While David was not allowed to build the temple (a privilege given to his son, Solomon), we can sing the Psalm today with joy over the temple, not one that we have built, but which God has built! We remember how in the books of Samuel and Chronicles that David wanted to build a house for the Lord, but it was the Lord’s plan to build a house for David and his descendants. That was not to be a house made with hands in Jerusalem. No, the temple that God has built is the one about which Jesus spoke, saying that if the temple of Jerusalem was torn down (which it was in 70 A.D.) then He would raise it up in three days, which He did in His resurrection after three days. In other words, Jesus is the temple in which we are welcome to come into the presence of God through the intercession of Jesus, as a result of His broken body and shed blood offered and received as a propitiatory and reconciling sacrifice.
So we can sing David’s Psalm today, celebrating the Lord’s grace made available to us in a temple greater than anything David could have imagined, the temple of the Lord Jesus Himself! And shouldn’t this be among the greatest themes that we love to sing … the marvelous grace of God that has delivered us from the guilt and power of sin, and brought us into His loving presence with a guarantee of His deep love for us forever?
As with so many hymns, this is directed to the Lord in worshipful gratitude. Before we sing, we should always look first to see the Scriptural source, and then to make sure we are aware of the one to whom we are speaking, whether to other saints, to the lost, to our friends, to ourselves, or … as in this case … to the Lord, who is present to hear us as we sing to Him.
Stanza 1 praises the Lord for what He has done for us in the past, delivering us from our foes. Like David, we should frequently recall those occasions where the Lord has not only delivered us from those who have opposed us, perhaps by slander or rejection, but has also healed us from serious illness, and even from death at a time of especially life-threatening illness.
O Lord, by grace delivered,
I now with songs extol;
my foes You have not suffered
to glory o’er my fall.
O Lord, my God, I sought You,
and You did heal and save;
You, Lord, from death did ransom
and keep me from the grave.
Stanza 2 calls on other believers to join us in remembering these mercies from our great Jehovah. His grace is powerfully magnified when we remember that though we deserved His wrath, we only experienced His loving anger for a moment when He came to us with strong discipline for our own benefit. But those brief times are vastly outweighed by the far more numerous occasions when His favor sustained us through dark nights and brought us repeatedly to the joy of morning light.
His holy name remember;
you saints, Jehovah praise;
His anger lasts a moment,
His favor all our days;
for sorrow, like a pilgrim,
may tarry for a night,
but joy the heart will gladden
when dawns the morning light.
Stanza 3 returns to speaking directly to the Lord Himself, remembering how the Lord had moved in mysterious ways in our lives in the past (as William Cowper expressed it in his hymn) when He seemed to have hidden His face from us at a time when we were sorely troubled. But in reality, He was at work even then, as much as in our prosperous times, always hearing us, watching over us, and working for His glory and our eternal good. What a wonderful testimony in those final two lines: “I cried to You, Jehovah, I sought Jehovah’s grace.” And it was there!
In prosp’rous days I boasted;
unmoved I shall remain;
for, Lord, by Your good favor
my cause You did maintain;
I soon was sorely troubled,
for You did hide your face;
I cried to You, Jehovah,
I sought Jehovah’s grace.
Stanza 4 is almost a Psalm of lament, thinking about our pitiful condition in this sinful, fallen world. We want to serve the Lord, but could not have done so if the Lord had allowed us to perish. When David wrote of our dust not being able to praise Him, it’s not that the shepherd / king didn’t believe in life beyond the grave. We know that from Psalm 23 where he wrote that he was confident that he would dwell in the house of the Lord forever. It was for him, as for us, that we want to have many days of life, not to enjoy the pleasures of this earthly existence, but that we might have more years to declare His truth. And so we sing, asking that in His mercy, the Lord would sustain us as our divine helper in all that we seek to accomplish for Him.
What profit if I perish,
if life You do not spare?
Shall dust repeat Your praises,
shall it Your truth declare?
O Lord, on me have mercy,
and my petition hear;
that You may be my helper,
in mercy, Lord, appear.
Stanza 5 expresses the joy that lies at the heart of this Psalm of gratitude. Recognizing that God has turned his grief to gladness (what a contrast!) and has replaced his sorrow with praise, David sings a new song, promising that he will not remain silent, but will faithfully proclaim God’s goodness in His grace to others, singing His praise forever!
My grief is turned to gladness,
to You my thanks I raise,
who have removed my sorrow
and girded me with praise;
and now, no longer silent,
my heart Your praise will sing;
O Lord, my God, forever
my thanks to You I bring.
And so we conclude this study by remembering again that Jesus not only wrote this (and all of the Psalms), but that He also sang this (and all of the Psalms). His testimony would have been of the Father’s grace that carried Him through the ordeal of the cross’s dark night when the Father actually did hide His face from His beloved Son, and which brought our Savior to the morning light of resurrection Sunday’s dawn.
This metrical Psalm is in a rhythmic pattern that has been used for many texts. Common meter doubled (C.M.D.) is represented frequently in the metrical indexes of hymnals. The tune NOEL is one of those which has been used for this text of Psalm 30. It is often found as well with one of the Christmas season texts, such as “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” or “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” and for that reason bears the name that it has.
The tune NOEL was composed in 1874 by Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900). He was born of an Italian mother and an Irish father who was an army bandmaster and a professor of music. Sullivan entered the Chapel Royal as a chorister in 1854. He was elected as the first Mendelssohn scholar in 1856, when he began his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied at the Leipzig Conservatory (1858-1861) and in 1866 was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Early in his career Sullivan composed oratorios and music for some Shakespeare plays. However, he is best known for writing the music for lyrics by William S. Gilbert, which produced popular operettas such as “H.M.S. Pinafore” (1878), “The Pirates of Penzance” (1879), “The Mikado” (1884), and “Yeomen of the Guard” (1888). These operettas satirized the court and everyday life in Victorian times.
Although he composed some anthems, in the area of church music Sullivan is best remembered for his hymn tunes, written between 1867 and 1874 and published in “The Hymnary” (1872) and “Church Hymns” (1874), both of which he edited. He contributed hymns to “A Hymnal Chiefly from The Book of Praise” (1867) and to the Presbyterian collection “Psalms and Hymns for Divine Worship” (1867). A complete collection of his hymns and arrangements was published posthumously as “Hymn Tunes by Arthur Sullivan” (1902). Sullivan steadfastly refused to grant permission to those who wished to make hymn tunes from the popular melodies in his operettas.
There are no You Tube videos of this being sung, but here is a link to the appearance of the words and music in the 1990 “Trinity Hymnal.”
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