**Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.** Psalm 30:4,5
I love the Psalms because David shows himself as completely real. He doesn’t hold back any area of his life from us. He is raw and transparent about how he processes life and how he has grown his faith in God.
In verses 4 and 5 David shows us his life of contrast. The inner battle that he continually fights.
One minute he is celebrating and encouraging others to sing and give thanks for all that the LORD has done and then he suddenly remembers God’s anger, and the times that David wept during his darkest days…..in the middle of both he reminds us that when God is on our side, his favor or grace is apparent and it gives life. And though we can walk through difficult days in tears from pain or loss or simply confusion….JOY comes in the morning…
David understands that life is not a perfectly scripted play of ease and romance and happiness. Life is challenging and hard and ever changing. One day can be full of victory and the next day can be full of tragedy. We can’t have one without the other.
No one escapes the hard times, and no one only has bad days. Life is good, and then it isn’t.
David gets all that. He is willing to be open and vulnerable and he reminds us that life is a battle for all of us. There are ups and downs, good and bad, happy and heartbreaking moments. He understands that sometimes we feel inadequate, frightened, overwhelmed and helpless. Then there are those spectacular moments of deep understanding. Or days of continual blessing when everything goes right. Even days when we feel invincible!
I believe that is why David stays close to the LORD. He needs a safe place and someone solid who is not affected by this life and all of its changes. He needs someone who will be there at his side for everything. The good and the bad. Someone who cries with him in his grief over losing a son and celebrates with him on the day he is crowned king. He needs answers for his doubts and he needs tempering when he gets too full of himself. He finds all that in his God.
All of us live a roller coaster life with its ups and downs and scary curves. But we don’t have to face it alone. David knew that. So he wrote the Psalms so we could.