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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 30:1 A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David. I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. Psalm 30:1-12 THE title of this psalm is apparently a composite, the usual "Psalm of David" having been enlarged by the awkward insertion of "A Song at the Dedication of the House," which probably indicates its later liturgical use and not its first destination. Its occasion was evidently a deliverance from grave peril; and, whilst its tone is strikingly inappropriate if it had been composed for the inauguration of temple, tabernacle, or palace, one can understand how the venerable words, which praised Jehovah for swift deliverance from impending destruction, would be felt to fit the circumstances and emotions of the time when the Temple, profaned by the mad acts of Antiochus Epiphanes, was purified and the ceremonial worship restored. Never had Israel seemed nearer going down to the pit; never had deliverance come more suddenly and completely. The intrusive title is best explained as dating from that time and indicating the use then found for the song. It is an outpouring of thankfulness, and mainly a leaf from the psalmist’s autobiography, interrupted only by a call to all who share Jehovah’s favour to help the single voice to praise Him ( Psalm 30:4-5 ). The familiar arrangement in pairs of verses is slightly broken twice, Psalm 30:1-3 being linked together as a kind of prelude and Psalm 30:8-10 as a repetition of the singer’s prayer. His praise breaks the barrier of silence and rushes out in a flood. The very first word tells of his exuberant thankfulness, and stands in striking relation to God’s act which evokes it. Jehovah has raised him from the very sides of the pit, and therefore what shall he do but exalt Jehovah by praise and commemoration of His deeds? The song runs over in varying expressions for the one deliverance, which is designated as lifting up, disappointment of the malignant joy of enemies, healing, rescue from Sheol and the company who descend thither, by restoration to life. Possibly the prose fact was recovery from sickness, but the metaphor of healing is so frequent that the literal use of the word here is questionable. As Calvin remarks, sackcloth ( Psalm 30:11 ) is not a sick man’s garb. These glad repetitions of the one thought in various forms indicate how deeply moved the singer was, and how lovingly he brooded over his deliverance. A heart truly penetrated with thankfulness delights to turn its blessings round and round, and see how prismatic lights play on their facets. as on revolving diamonds. The same warmth of feeling, which glows in the reiterated celebration of deliverance, impels to the frequent direct mention of Jehovah. Each verse has that name set on it as a seal, and the central one of the three ( Psalm 30:2 ), not content with it only, grasps Him as "my God," manifested as such with renewed and deepened tenderness by the recent fact that "I cried loudly, unto Thee, and Thou healedst me." The best result of God’s goodness is a firmer assurance of a personal relation to Him. "This is an enclosure of a common without damage: to make God mine own, to find that all that God says is spoken to me" (Donne). The stress of these three verses lies on the reiterated contemplation of God’s fresh act of mercy and on the reiterated. invocation of His name, which is not vain repetition, but represents distinct acts of consciousness, drawing near to delight the soul in thoughts of Him. The psalmist’s vow of praise and former cry for help could not be left out of view, since the one was the condition and the other the issue of deliverance, but they are slightly touched. Such claiming of God for one’s own and such absorbing gaze on Him are the intended results of His deeds, the crown of devotion, and the repose of the soul. True thankfulness is expansive, and joy craves for sympathy. So the psalmist invites other voices to join his song, since he is sure that others there are who have shared his experience. It has been but one instance of a universal law. He is not the only one whom Jehovah has treated with lovingkindness, and he would fain hear a chorus supporting his solo. Therefore he calls upon "the favoured of God" to swell the praise with harp and voice and to give thanks to His "holy memorial," i.e. , the name by which His deeds of grace are commemorated. The ground of their praise is the psalmist’s own case generalised. A tiny mirror may reflect the sun, and the humblest person’s history, devoutly pondered, will yield insight into. God’s widest dealings. This, then, is what the psalmist had learned in suffering, and wishes to teach in song: that sorrow is transient and joy perennial. A cheerful optimism should be the fruit of experience, and especially of sorrowful experience. The antitheses in Psalm 30:5 are obvious. In the first part of the verse "anger" and "favour" are plainly, contrasted, and it is natural to suppose that "a moment" and "life" are so too. The rendering, then, is, "A moment passes: in His anger, a life [i.e., a lifetime] in His favour." Sorrow is brief; blessings are long. Thunderstorms occupy but a small part of summer. There is usually less sickness than health in a life. But memory and anticipation beat out sorrow thin, so as to cover a great space. A little solid matter, diffused by currents, will discolour miles of a stream. Unfortunately we have better memories for trouble than for blessing, and the smart of the rose’s prickles lasts longer in the flesh than its fragrance in the nostril or its hue in the eye. But the relation of ideas here is not merely that of contrast. May we not say that just as the "moment" is included in the "life," so the "anger" is in the "favour"? Probably that application of the thought was not present to the psalmist, but it is an Old Testament belief that "whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth," and God’s anger is the aversion of holy love to its moral opposite. Hence comes the truth that varying and sometimes opposite Divine methods have one motive and one purpose, as the same motion of the earth brings summer and winter in turn. Since the desire of God is to make men partakers of His holiness, the root of chastisement is love, and hours of sorrow are not interruptions of the continuous favour which fills the life. A like double antithesis moulds the beautiful image of the last clause. Night and morning are contrasted, as are weeping and joy; and the latter contrast is more striking, if it be observed that "joy" is literally a "joyful shout," raised by the voice that had been breaking into audible weeping. The verb used means to lodge for a night, and thus the whole is a picture of two guests, the one coming, sombre-robed, in the hour befitting her, the other, bright-garmented, taking the place of the former, when all things are dewy and sunny, in the morning. The thought may either be that of the substitution of joy for sorrow, or of the transformation of sorrow into joy. No grief lasts in its first bitterness. Recuperative forces begin to tell by slow degrees. "The low beginnings of content" appear. The sharpest cutting edge is partially blunted by time and what it brings. Tender green drapes every ruin. Sorrow is transformed into something not undeserving of the name of joy. Griefs accepted change their nature. "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy." The man who in the darkness took in the dark guest to sit by his fireside finds in the morning that she is transfigured, and her name is Gladness. Rich vintages are gathered on the crumbling lava of the quiescent volcano. Even for irremediable losses and immedicable griefs, the psalmist’s prophecy is true, only that for these "the morning" is beyond earth’s dim dawns, and breaks when this night which we call life, and which is wearing thin, is past. In the level light of that sunrise, every raindrop becomes a rainbow, and every sorrow rightly-that is. submissively-borne shall be represented by a special and particular joy. But the thrilling sense of recent deliverance runs in too strong a current to be long turned aside, even by the thought of others’ praise; and the personal element recurs in Psalm 30:6 , and persists till the close. This latter part falls into three well-marked minor divisions: the confession of self-confidence, bred of ease and shattered by chastisement, in Psalm 30:6-7 ; the prayer of the man startled into renewed dependence in Psalm 30:8-10 ; and the closing reiterated commemoration of mercies received and vow of thankful praise, which echoes the first part, in Psalm 30:11-12 . In Psalm 30:6 the psalmist’s foolish confidence is emphatically contrasted with the truth won by experience and stated in Psalm 30:5 . "The law of God’s dealings is so, but I-I thought so and so." The word rendered "prosperity" may be taken as meaning also security. The passage from the one idea to the other is easy, inasmuch as calm days lull men to sleep, and make it hard to believe that "tomorrow shall" not "be as this day." Even devout hearts are apt to count upon the continuance of present good. "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." The bottom of the crater of Vesuvius had once great trees growing, the produce of centuries of quiescence. It would be difficult to think, when looking at them, that they would ever be torn up and whirled aloft in flame by a new outburst. While continual peril and change may not foster remembrance of God, continuous peace is but too apt to lull to forgetfulness of Him. The psalmist was beguiled by comfort into saying precisely what "the wicked said in his heart". { Psalm 10:6 } How different may be the meaning of the same words on different lips! The mad arrogance of the godless man’s confidence, the error of the good man rocked to sleep by prosperity and the warranted confidence of a trustful soul are all expressed by the same words; but the last has an addition which changes the whole: "Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." The end of the first man’s boast can only be destruction; that of the third’s faith will certainly be "pleasures for evermore"; that of the second’s lapse from dependence is recorded in Psalm 30:7 . The sudden crash of his false security is graphically reproduced by the abrupt clauses without connecting particles. It was the "favour" already celebrated which gave the stability which had been abused. Its effect is described in terms of which, the general meaning is clear, though the exact rendering is doubtful. "Thou hast [or hadst] established strength to my mountain is harsh, and the proposed emendation (Hupfeld, Cheyne, etc .), "hast set me on strong mountains," requires the addition to the text of the pronoun. In either case, we have a natural metaphor for prosperity. The emphasis ties on the recognition that it was God’s work, a truth which the psalmist had forgotten and had to be taught by the sudden withdrawal of God’s countenance, on which followed his own immediate passage from careless security to agitation and alarm. The word "troubled" is that used for Saul’s conflicting emotions and despair in the witch’s house at Endor, and for the agitation of Joseph’s brethren when they heard that the man who had their lives in his hand was their wronged brother. Thus alarmed and filled with distracting thoughts was the psalmist. "Thou didst hide Thy face," describes his calamities in their source. When the sun goes in, an immediate gloom wraps the land, and the birds cease to sing. But the "trouble" was preferable to "security," for it drove to God. Any tempest which does that is better than calm which beguiles from Him; and, since all His storms are meant to "drive us to His breast," they come from His "favour." The approach to God is told in Psalm 30:8-10 , of which the two latter are a quotation of the prayer then wrung from the psalmist. The ground of this appeal for deliverance from a danger threatening life is as in Hezekiah’s prayer, { Isaiah 38:18-19 } and reflects the same conception of the state of the dead as Psalm 6:5 . If the suppliant dies, his voice will be missed from the chorus which sings God’s praise on earth. "The dust" ( i.e. , the grave) is a region of silence. Here, where life yielded daily proofs of God’s "truth" ( i.e. , faithfulness), it could be extolled, but there dumb tongues could bring Him no "profit" of praise. The boldness of the thought that God is in some sense advantaged by men’s magnifying of His faithfulness, the cheerless gaze into the dark realm, and the implication that to live is desired not only for the sake of life’s joys, but in order to show forth God’s dealings, are all remarkable. The tone of the prayer indicates the imperfect view of the future life which shadows many psalms, and could only be completed by the historical facts of the Resurrection and Ascension. Concern for the honour of the Old Testament revelation may, in this matter, be stretched to invalidate the distinctive glory of the New, which has "brought life and immortality to light": With quick transition, corresponding to the swiftness of the answer to prayer, the closing pair of verses tells of the instantaneous change which that answer wrought. As in the earlier metaphor weeping was transformed into joy, here mourning is turned into dancing, and God’s hand unties the cord which loosely bound the sackcloth robe, and arrays the mourner in festival attire. The same conception of the sweetness of grateful praise to the ear of God which was presented in the prayer recurs here, where the purpose of God’s gifts is regarded as being man’s praise. The thought may be construed so as to be repulsive, but its true force is to present God as desiring hearts’ love and trust, and as "seeking such to worship Him," because therein they will find supreme and abiding bliss. "My glory," that wonderful personal being, which in its lowest debasement retains glimmering reflections caught from God, is never so truly glory as when it "sings praise to Thee," and never so blessed as when, through a longer "forever" than the psalmist saw stretching before him, it "gives thanks unto Thee." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

I will extol Thee, O Lord; for Thou hast lifted me up. Psalm 30 A Psalm of deliverance A. Maclaren, D. D. The title of this psalm is apparently a composite, the usual "Psalm of David" having been enlarged by the awkward insertion of "A Song at the Dedication of the House," which probably indicates its later liturgical use, and not its first destination. Its occasion was evidently a deliverance from grave peril; and, whilst its tone is strikingly inappropriate if it had been composed for the inauguration of temple, tabernacle, or palace, one can understand how the venerable words, which praised Jehovah for swift deliverance from impending destruction, would be felt to fit the circumstances and emotions of the time when the Temple, profaned by the mad acts of Antiochus Epiphanes, was purified and the ceremonial worship restored. Never had Israel seemed nearer going down to the pit; never had deliverance come more suddenly and completely. The intrusive title is best explained as dating from that time and indicating the use then found for the song. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David W. Jay. It was doubtless very different from the cottage he occupied when he was a shepherd. But there was no impropriety in this change. As a king he was obliged to do many things from a regard to his station rather than from personal choice. Yet he was godly there as in his former abode. Hence, entering his new house, he consecrates it to God. Let it be our concern that our dwelling may be the house of God while we live, and the gate of heaven when we die. David was a poet, and he here elaborates his deliverance from a dangerous disease. I. DAVID'S MIND BEFORE HIS AFFLICTION — he had thought and said, "1 shall never be moved. Hence the need of affliction. II. UNDER IT. He cried to the Lord. III. AFTER THE AFFLICTION Renewed consecration to God. Hence his vow to build a house for the Lord. ( W. Jay. ) Mercies remembered H. M'Neile, D. D. St. James says, "Is any merry? let him sing psalms" — that is, in everything acknowledge God. A true saint in prosperity gives God thanks for His mercies. Therefore when all are in prosperity, it is easy to distinguish the true from the false, because they take directions outwardly and manifestly different. The Church in her joy praises God, the world in its joy praises man. This psalm is a beautiful specimen of church music considered in its highest character, as aiming at the praise of God. It was sung in immediate connection with the dedication of the house of David. Such a dedication was, amongst Israel, deemed a thing of great solemnity and importance ( Deuteronomy 12 .). And now, entering in his new abode, David looks back upon the mercies of God. I. THAT HIS ENEMIES HAD NOT BEEN ALLOWED TO REJOICE OVER HIM. He had many enemies, and there are few of us who are without them. If we are in good reputation and esteem, we have reason to thank God as David did. II. GOD'S HEALING GRACE. "Thou hast healed me." Who has not such mercy to record? III. THE MANY DELIVERANCES HE HAD EXPERIENCED. "Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave." And such deliverance, both of body and soul, we have known. And on such an occasion as entering a new home, how good it is, as did David, to remember God's mercies in the past. IV. AND WE SHOULD SEEK TO ASSOCIATE OTHERS IN OUR PRAISE. "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His; and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness ." It is His holiness which is the security of yours. And His anger, how momentary that compared with his life-long favour! V. THE ANSWER TO HIS PRAYER. "Thou hast turned," etc. ( H. M'Neile, D. D. ) Christian elevation T. Adam. Though believers in Christ may not be lifted up like the psalmist in a temporal point of view, yet they are all, like him, lifted up in a spiritual point of view. 1. Above all danger from the wrath to come. 2. To the enjoyment and possession of spiritual life. 3. To a place in God's graciously adopted family. 4. Above all fatal evil from enemies, whether of a temporal or spiritual description. 5. To the hope of a safe death, a blessed resurrection, and a joyful eternity. ( T. Adam. ) The first and the final stage in true worship Homilist I. The first stage — GRATITUDE. 1. He points to God's mercy as having come to him in various ways. (1) As an extrication from difficulties. (2) As a protection from enemies. (3) As a restoration to health. (4) As preservation of life. 2. The gratitude from which true worship springs implies the beliefs (1) That the favours received are utterly undeserved. (2) That they were intended to serve us. II. The final stage — ADORATION. 1. On account of the holiness of God's character. In heaven His character attracts all eyes, absorbs all thoughts, transports all souls, inspires all anthems. Let us aspire to this highest stage of worship. 2. On account of the eternal flow of His love. Suffering is always — (1) Brief. (2) Preliminary. ( Homilist ) Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His. Psalm 30:4, 5 Singing saints Singing has a curative effect upon many of the maladies of the soul; I am sure that it lightens the burdens of life, and I was about to say that it shortens the weary way of duty if we can but sing as we travel along it. This holy employment is pleasant and profitable, and it is preparatory for another world and a higher state. I. THE PECULIAR FITNESS OF THE EXHORTATION TO OUR PRESENT ENGAGEMENT. You are to come to the table where you remember your Saviour's death, where you are to feed upon the memorials of His passion. Come thither with a heart prepared for song. "Oh!" says one, "I thought I had better come with tears." Yes, come with tears; they will be very sweet to Christ if you let them fall upon His feet to wash them with your penitential streams. "Oh, sir!" says another, "I thought that surely I must come with deep solemnity." So you must, woe be unto you if you come in any other way; but do you know of any divorce between solemnity and joy? I do not. 1. We celebrate a work accomplished. Talk of the labours of Hercules? What are these compared with the toil of the Christ of God? Talk of the conquests of Caesar? What are these beside the victories of Christ, who hath led captivity captive, and received gifts for men? 2. We celebrate a result realized, at least in a measure. I know that the bread and the wine are symbols of the flesh and the blood, but I know also that they are something more; they are not only symbols of the things themselves, but also of that which comes out of those things. The very setting-up of the communion-table, and the gathering of men and women to it that they may spiritually feast upon their dying Lord, is a reason for thankfulness. 3. There is this reason why some of us should sing unto the Lord, for here is a blessing enjoyed. 4. This communion reminds us of a hope revived. "Till He come." Every hour brings Him nearer. II. THE SPECIAL SUITABILITY OF THE SUBJECT FOR OUR MEDITATION. "Give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." 1. Think of Divine holiness vindicated. God is just, yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. We are going to commune with a God who, even that He might commune with us, and indulge His love to His chosen, would not break His own law, or do that which, on the strictest judgment, could be regarded as unjust. I do rejoice in that unquestionable fact, and my heart is glad as I remind you of it. 2. Let us give thanks at the remembrance of Christ's holiness declared. It is a happy occupation to look upon the perfect character of our dear Redeemer. 3. I think also that it will be quite congruous with our present engagement if we think of God's holiness as the guarantee of our salvation. It is upon the righteousness of God that we rest our hope, after all. If God can lie, then not one promise of His is to be trusted. If God can do an unrighteous thing, then His covenant may be flung to the winds. But God is not unrighteous to forget the work of His dear Son, and "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love." 4. At this table we may give thanks that the holiness of God is our mark, the object for us to aim at — aye, and that to which we shall one day attain. He does not begin to make a vessel unto honour, and then cease His work; but He perfects that which He begins. III. The text is very appropriate for the communion, because of THE SUITABILITY OF THE PEOPLE of whom it speaks, for they are the same people who ought to come to this table. 1. Those who come to this table should be saints. A "saint" is a holy person, one who aims at being holy, one who is set apart for the service and glory of God. These are the people who are to give thanks at the remembrance of God's holiness, because God has made them holy, too. They are partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust, and so they are saints, and they are the people who ought to come to the table of the Lord. 2. They are not only saints, but they are "saints of His." That is to say, they are God's saints; they are saints of His making, for they were great sinners till He made saints of them; and they are saints of His keeping, for they would soon be sinners again if He did not keep them. They are saints enlisted in His service, sworn to serve under His banner, to be faithful to Him unto death. They are "saints of His," that is, they are saints whom He purchased with His precious blood, and whom He means to have as His for ever because He has bought them with so great a price. They are saints who shall be with Him in that day when He shall appear with all His holy ones. 3. They are God's thankful saints. The communion is a eucharist, a giving of thanks from beginning to end. 4. They should be singing saints. People express their praise and delight spontaneously concerning far less things than the joys of God, and the privileges of His people; therefore, "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The duty of gladness H. W. Beecher. When people want to make things attractive in farming, they give exhibitions of their products. The women bring their very best butter; the men bring the noblest beets and vegetables of every kind; and from the orchard they bring the rarest fruits; and when you go into the room where all these things are displayed, they seem to you attractive and beautiful. It seems to me that this is the way a Christian Church ought to represent the Christian life. You ought to pile up your apples and pears and peaches and flowers and vegetables to show what is the positive fruit of religion. But many people in the Christian life do as farmers would do who would go to a show, and carry — one pigweed; another thistles; another dock; and another old, hard lumps of clay; and should arrange these worthless things along the sides of the room and mourn over them. Christians are too apt to represent the dark side of religion in their conversation and meetings. ( H. W. Beecher. ) At the remembrance of His holiness. The holiness of God C. Bradley, M. A. This sentence occurs again at the end of the ninety-seventh psalm, and is in reality one of the most elevated sentences Holy Scripture contains. Here is a sinful creature adoring the Lord not for His mercy but for His holiness, and calling on others to do the same. What cannot the grace of God do in a sinner's heart? I. THE HOLINESS OF GOD. It affirms that in God all good is present and all evil absent. He calls His saints on earth holy, but they are so only by comparison with their fellow-men: and the holiness of the angels is not only limited, but, as all creature holiness, it is derived, it has its origin not in themselves, but in God. He alone is holy in Himself. And now consider — II. THE EFFECT THIS WONDERFUL HOLINESS SHOULD HAVE UPON US. We are called upon "to sing unto the Lord and to give thanks." Now this implies — 1. A happy confidence in the Lord's mercy. For none can ever thank the Lord for His holiness till he is able to take a firm stand in His mercy. His holiness looked at alone is appalling to us. We can scarcely bear to hear of it. But when we are in Christ, resting on Him, then we can look calmly upon His holiness. Embraced in His mercy, the soul feels as Noah, shut in the ark — safe, though destruction be all around. 2. A delightful admiration of God's holiness. God delights in it Himself. Nearly fifty times He calls Himself "the Holy One." And the angels and saints in heaven glory in it. See the trisagion, "Holy, holy, holy," etc. And we are called upon to share in this delight. The communion service bids us say, "Therefore with angels and archangels," etc. Happy are we if we can understand such language and really join in it. 3. A grateful sense of his obligations to the Divine holiness. What delight to turn from the dreary sinfulness of men, to the holiness of God. The thought of it is as an oasis in the wilderness. And it sheds a radiance on all His other attributes. What would any of them be apart from this? And what holiness we have is an emanation from His, and, because of His, will be perfected. Therefore let us live in remembrance of it. ( C. Bradley, M. A. ) In His favour is life. Psalm 30:5 Life in the favour of God W. Gregory. The return of God's favour to an afflicted soul is like life from the dead, — nothing is so reviving. All our bliss is bound up in God's favour; and if we have that, we have an infinite treasure, whatever else we may want. I. ILLUSTRATE THE SENTIMENT OF THE TEXT. 1. Our natural life is from God's favour. In Him we live, move, and have our being; He secures us from innumerable evils; He gives us bread, and water, and clothing, and health, and strength, and intellect. 2. Our spiritual life is from the favour of God. 3. Our eternal life is from the favour of God. By that favour we become entitled to heaven by the merits and righteousness of Christ; by that favour we are meetened for heaven through regeneration and sanctification; by that favour we are brought to heaven, through all the trying pilgrimage of life. O what views will the redeemed spirit have of the favour of God then! II. SOME PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS. 1. How vain it is to expect happiness from worldly prosperity without the favour of God! What does it avail, if the whole universe smile on a man, if he be under the frown of God? 2. How fearful are the afflictions of life without the favour of God. How keen must be the strokes of the Divine rod to him who views them as the strokes of an enemy. 3. If the favour of God is life, then what vast multitudes are dead. They can find time for their games, sports, recreations, and worldly pursuits; but no time to seek the favour of God and the salvation of their souls! And how inexcusable are such persons. Beggars, when they might be the favourites of heaven; preferring sickness to health, blindness to sight, danger to safety, and the anger to the favour of God. 4. If in God's favour there is life, what a dreadful place hell must be. 5. If in God's favour there is life, what a blessed and glorious place must heaven be. ( W. Gregory. ) Where is life W. J. Stuart. There are many different opinions as to the place of true enjoyment. Some think it is in animal gratifications; others in material possessions; mental acquirements; personal refinements; social positions; and some even in present creature pleasures. The psalmist though it to be in the favour of God. And he was right. Until man is in friendship with God he will never be happy. I. WHAT SORT IS IT? Not the creative favour of God, which has made us men , not brutes; not His providential favour, which has supplied our various needs — but His saving favour ( Ephesians 2:4-7 ). That the psalmist had this favour of God in view, is evident from ver. 8. II. THROUGH WHAT MEDIUM DOES GOD EXERCISE HIS SAVING FAVOUR? Jesus Christ ( John 17:2 ; Acts 4:12 ; Romans 3:25, 26 ; 1 John 5:11 ). Jesus is to the regeneration of man what the atmosphere is to the fruitfulness of the earth — the medium through which the water of the ocean and the warmth of the sun act with generating power. III. WHERE IS THIS FACT REVEALED? ( Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 ; Luke 24:27 ; John 5:39 ). This invests the Scriptures with indescribable grandeur, inestimable worth, exclusive authority, and final appeal in everything pertaining to human redemption. IV. To WHOM IS IT PROCLAIMED? ( John 3:16 ; Luke 2:10 ; Matthew 9:13 ; Titus 2:11-14 ). To limit Gospel invitations to a favoured few is unscriptural. V. WHAT WILL BE HAD BY SUITABLY REGARDING God's proclamation of His saving favour? "Life." That is, restoration to the moral likeness of God, reinstatement into right relations with God, and introduction into the real friendship of God. Viewed in regard to the law of God, it is called justification ( Galatians 3:6-14 ); the character of God, sanctification ( Ephesians 5:25-27 ); the person of God, fellowship ( John 17:21 ; 1 John 1:3, 6, 7 ). All living is death which is not in God, nor like Him , nor according to His will. VI. BY WHAT EXERCISE OF THE MIND do we obtain the blessed issues of God's saving favour? Believing. ( W. J. Stuart. ) Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. Sorrow succeeded by joy J. Summers. Day and night constitute the sum of human existence; they are emblematical of joy and sorrow. In figurative language, hope and joy are invariably clad in a vesture of light, whilst fear and grief are robed in sable. The language of our text cannot be applied to the trials and afflictions of the ungodly, but we would notice some of those occasions of weeping which may reasonably be expected to terminate in joy. Of this nature are — I. THE TEARS THAT FLOW FROM CONVICTION OF SIN and penitential sorrow. II. The grief that arises FROM CONSCIOUS BACKSLIDING or from the upbraidings of a tender conscience. There is no feeling more oppressively painful than that of being a conscious traitor: and the anguish of the backslider is closely allied to this. Of whatever nature his sins may be, his profoundest grief will arise from their opposition to the Divine nature. "Against Thee, Thee only," etc. III. Those that arise FROM THE SENSE OF SPIRITUAL DESERTION. There are times when we "walk in darkness and have no light," and we receive no communications of grace to raise our drooping spirits. The light of God's countenance is withdrawn. But this loneliness of soul, this desolation of spirit, shall be removed, and the light shall again shine. IV. THOSE CAUSED BY TEMPORAL AFFLICTIONS, such as loss, bereavement, death. Conclusion. 1. Let the sentiment of the text preserve you from a gloomy despondency. 2. Disarm death of its terrors. 3. Let each individual ask himself, if he be interested in the truth of my text? Will the source of your weeping become a spring of joy? Can you reasonably expect it should be so? It all depends on your being at peace with God. How is it with you? ( J. Summers. ) The two guests A. Maclaren, D. D. There is an obvious antithesis in the first part of this verse, between "His anger" and "His favour." Probably there is a similar antithesis between "a moment" and "life." For, although the word rendered "life" does not usually mean a lifetime, it may have that signification, and the evident intention of contrast seems to require it here. So, then, the meaning of the first part of my text is, "the anger lasts for a moment; the favour lasts for a lifetime." The perpetuity of the one, and the brevity of the other, are the psalmist's thought. Then, if we pass to the second part of the text, you will observe that there is there also a double antithesis. "Weeping" is set over against "joy"; the "night" against the "morning." And the first of these two contrasts is the more striking if we observe that the word "joy" means, literally, "a joyful shout," so that the voice which was lifted in weeping is conceived of as now being heard in exultant praise. Then, still further, the expression "may endure" literally means "come to lodge." So that Weeping and Joy are personified. Two guests come; one, dark-robed and approaching at the fitting season for such, "the night." The other bright, coming with all things fresh and sunny, in the dewy morn. The guest of the night is Weeping; the guest that takes its place in the morning is Gladness. The two clauses, then, of my text suggest substantially the same thought, and that is the persistence of joy and the transitoriness of sorrow. The whole is a loaf out of the psalmist's own experience. I. THE PROPORTION OF JOY AND SORROW IS AS ORDINARY LIFE. Now is it true — is it not true? — that, if a man rightly regards the proportionate duration of these two diverse elements in his life, he must come to the conclusion that the one is continuous and the other is but transitory? A thunderstorm is very short when measured against the long summer day in which it crashes; and very few days have them. It must be a bad climate where half the days are rainy. But then, man looks before and after, and has the terrible gift that by anticipation and by memory he can prolong the sadness. The proportion of solid matter needed to colour the Irwell is very little in comparison with the whole of the stream. But the current carries it, and half an ounce will stain miles of the turbid stream. Memory and anticipation beat the metal thin, and make it cover an enormous space. And the misery is that, somehow, we have better memories for sad hours than for joyful ones. So it comes to be a piece of very homely, well-worn, and yet always needful, practical counsel to try not to magnify and prolong grief, nor to minimize and abbreviate gladness. We can make our lives, to our own thinking, very much what we will. Courage, cheerfulness, thankfulness, buoyancy, resolution, are all closely connected with a sane estimate of the relative proportions of the bright and the dark in a human life. II. THE INCLUSION OF THE "MOMENT" IN THE "LIFE." I do not know that the psalmist thought of that when he gave utterance to my text, but whether he did it or not, it is true that the "moment" spent in "anger" is a part of the "life" that is spent in the "favour." Just as within the circle of a life lies each of its moments, the same principle of inclusion may be applied to the other contrast presented here. For as the "moment" is a part of the "life," the "anger" is a part of the love. The "favour" holds the "anger" within itself, for the true scriptural idea of that terrible expression and terrible fact, the "wrath of God," is that it is the necessary aversion of a perfectly pure and holy love from that which does not correspond to itself. So, though sometimes the two may be set against each other, yet at bottom, and in reality, they are one, and the "anger" is but a mode in which the "favour" manifests itself. Thus we come to the truth which breathes uniformity and simplicity through all the various methods of the Divine hand, that howsoever He changes and reverses His dealings with us they are one and the same. You may get two diametrically opposite motions out of the same machine. The same power will send one wheel revolving from right to left, and another from left to right, but they are co-operant to grind out at the far end the one product. It is the same revolution of the earth that brings blessed lengthening days and growing summer, and that cuts short the sun's course and brings declining days and increasing cold. It is the same motion which hurls a comet close to the burning sun, and sends it wandering away out into fields of astronomical space, beyond the ken of telescope, and almost beyond the reach of thought. And so one uniform Divine purpose, the favour which uses the anger, fills the life, and there are no interruptions, howsoever brief, to the steady continuous flow of His outpoured blessings. All is love and favour. Anger is masked love, and sorrow has the same source and mission as joy. It takes all sorts of weathers to make a year, and all tend to the same issue, of ripened harvests and full barns. III. THE CONVERSION OF THE SORROW INTO JOY. A prince comes to a poor man's hovel, is hospitably received in the darkness, and, being received and welcomed, in the morning slips off the rags and appears as he is. Sorrow is Joy disguised. If it be accepted, if the will submit, if the heart let itself be untwined, that its tendrils may be coiled closer round the heart of God, then the transformation is sure to come, and joy will dawn on those who have done rightly — that is, submissively and thankfully — by their sorrows. It will not be a joy like what the world calls joy — loud-voiced, boisterous, ringing with idiot laughter; but it will be pure, and deep, and sacred, and permanent. A white lily is better than a flaunting peony, and the joy into which sorrow accepted turns is pure and refining and good. But you may say, "Ah! there are two kinds of sorrows. There are those that can be cured, and there are those that cannot. What have you got to say to me who have to bleed from an immedicable wound till the end of my life?" Well, I have to say this — look beyond earth's dim dawns to that morning when the Sun of Righteousness shall arise. If we have to carry a load on an aching back till the end, be sure that when the night, which is far spent, is over, and the day, which is at hand, hath broken, every raindrop will be turned into a flashing rainbow when it is smitten by the level light, and every sorrow rightly borne be represented by a special and particular joy. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) Weeping and joy R. B. Brindley. The following are suggested by this passage. 1. God is love. David inscribed over the portal of his house, "His anger is but for a moment," etc. Did he not thus in broken and imperfect symbols speak out this truth of all truths that has been revealed from Calvary and the Ascension Mount, and which has been given to us that we may herald it to the world? "Herein is love, not that we loved God," etc. It is in the light of that revelation of love, that we are to read the riddles of our existence. It is in the light of that revelation, and that alone, that the clouds of our forebodings and our despondencies can be put to flight. God's government of the world, His providential ordering of the whole of the human race and of each individual life is for our everlasting good, and it is in accordance with His own nature of love. In that government nothing is forgotten; in that loving plan no heart has been left desolate. There is no deviation in the path of His intended progress; there is no friction in the Divine workings; for all things work together for good unto them that love God. 2. Another thing suggested by this passage is, that not only is His Divine anger consistent with Divine love, but given the fact that this love of God is love to free beings, to beings who are sinning continually, we may say that anger is absolutely essential to righteous love. God is the eternal righteousness as well as the eternal love. Calvary is the transcendent revelation to the world of the Divine love, but it is also the transcendent revelation of Divine righteousness. Because God is righteous God is angry. He is angry with the wicked, with corruption, impurity, cruelty, selfishness, falsehood, injustice, oppression, envy, hatred, murder, strife. What parent that truly loves his child will let that child flagrantly and persistently sin and not punish him? The rod is often a fitter emblem of love than a kiss. 3. These two visitors, Weeping and Joy, come instrumentally in the hands of God to the homes of a world that is being governed and directed by a righteous love. I do not say that Weeping is the messenger of God's anger, and that Joy, on the other hand, is the messenger of His love. They are both messengers of His will; they both subserve His redemptive purposes; both of them alike may be messengers of His anger, as both of them alike may be messengers of His love. But although we should regard them as symbolic figures severally of anger and of love, the experiences of human life, when the house is hushed with grief, when the heart is low, followed — as, blessed be God! they are followed — by days of gladness, by giving "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" — all this experience of life should remind us that in the lines along which God is working, the secret principles of His government by that which is good and by that which is painful, through Weeping and through Joy, through this strangely mingled experience of human life, He is slowly working out that great purpose and toward that great end, the eternal good of all His creatures. God's anger is special treatment for a critical hour; it is the probing of the wound; it is the changing, as it were, of the motive power in the secret nature of the soul; and it is only that we may remember that the Father of Spirits, in subjection to whom we live, is also the Ancient of Days and the Eternal Righteousness. But the Divine anger is transient. Anger will not keep; it is impossible that righteous anger can be kept; it is like the coal dropped hot from the furnace that cools every moment. Such is the anger of a righteous, loving being. It is not hatred and enmity and jealousy, but it is anger, a frown which, when the child sees, passes into a smile of paternal tenderness and love. ( R. B. Brindley. ) A lyric of deliverance R. C. Cowel. I. THE DIRGE OF GRIEF — "Weeping... night." See how sorrow and night are linked. Life is this night. 1. A brief night. 2. A wild night sometimes. 3. A sorrowful night ofttimes. 4. But a night fringed with light, on this side and on that; and so the dirge has its consoling strain. II. THE LYRIC OF DELIVERANCE. — "Joy... morning." See how gladness and light are joined together. 1. In the morning of clearer knowledge. 2. In the morning of purer character. 3. In the morning of eternity. ( R. C. Cowel. ) The joy of Easter Canon Liddon. The associations we have with Easter are very various, but, for most of us, it represents more than anything else a great revulsion of feeling. The change from Good Friday to Easter Day is much more abrupt than any in the Christian year. It is like the sharp descent from the clear cold air of the Upper Alps into the rich and sunny plains of Italy, and it reminds us of earthly vicissitudes like that of the sovereign, who being imprisoned and expecting immediate execution, is placed by a sudden revolution on the throne of his ancestors. David's words do not exaggerate the Easter feeling. The words describe the experience of David on more than one occasion. He had known one peril and then great deliverance. And such a morning as the text tells of was that first Resurrection morning for the disciples. We may say they ought not to have been in such heaviness because Jesus had so plainly and repeatedly told them of what would take place. Of His death and resurrection He had told them again and again. And yet, when they saw Him dead upon the Cross they were filled with an almost unimaginable disappointment. How is this to be explained? Human nature is naturally an optimist. Face to face with forecasts of trouble, it resists their reality and their force, it makes the best of them it can. They will not see what they do not wish to see. And so it was with our Lord and His disciples. Hence Peter's word, "Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee," — as though the prophecy of His Passion had been an utterance of morbid pessimism. And thus it was that when the last tragedy took place it found them unprepared. This was the heaviness which the first disciples had to endure. But what a joy came to them in the morning, as first on one and then on another there fell the rays of the rising Sun of Righteousness I And such a morning it will be when the Christian, having passed the gate of death, attains to a joyful resurrection. And ours will bear the pattern of our Lord's. True, for Him there was no such interval between death and resurrection as there must be for us: and for Him there was no corruption, whilst for us there will be. But at length soul and body shall be joined together again and for ever. That the soul survives the body might be inferred from the law of the conservation of force or energy in the physical universe. For is there no energy but that of the substances which are known to chemistry? Are not thought, will, love, truly energies: as much so as any that we can identify with chemical elements? But how and in what shape does this spiritual energy survive? It must

30:1-5. The great things the Lord has done for us, both by his providence and by his grace, bind us in gratitude to do all we can to advance his kingdom among men, though the most we can do is but little. God's saints in heaven sing to him; why should not those on earth do the same? Not one of all God's perfections carries in it more terror to the wicked, or more comfort to the godly, than his holiness. It is a good sign that we are in some measure partakers of his holiness, if we can heartily rejoice at the remembrance of it. Our happiness is bound up in the Divine favour; if we have that, we have enough, whatever else we want; but as long as God's anger continues, so long the saints' weeping continues. 30:6-12 When things are well with us, we are very apt to think that they will always be so. When we see our mistake, it becomes us to think with shame upon our carnal security as our folly. If God hide his face, a good man is troubled, though no other calamity befal him. But if God, in wisdom and justice, turn from us, it will be the greatest folly if we turn from him. No; let us learn to pray in the dark. The sanctified spirit, which returns to God, shall praise him, shall be still praising him; but the services of God's house cannot be performed by the dust; it cannot praise him; there is none of that device or working in the grave, for it is the land of silence. We ask aright for life, when we do so that we may live to praise him. In due time God delivered the psalmist out of his troubles. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when employed in praising God. He would persevere to the end in praise, hoping that he should shortly be where this would be the everlasting work. But let all beware of carnal security. Neither outward prosperity, nor inward peace, here, are sure and lasting. The Lord, in his favour, has fixed the believer's safety firm as the deep-rooted mountains, but he must expect to meet with temptations and afflictions. When we grow careless, we fall into sin, the Lord hides his face, our comforts droop, and troubles assail us.