Psalm 30 – By His Favor, Our Lives Become Strong
By Bunni Pounds
*This blog is part of our weekly, virtual Bible Study through the book of Psalms. For information on how to participate, please visit this page.
When we feel that our life has gone down into a pit – this is not the END of our story.
In God’s heart – there is always redemption!
To understand the pain within David’s life, yet the ultimate redemption – we need to start with the end of the story first. This Psalm was written as a dedication of the house of David.
Reminder that David ended up in the palace. He ended up as King in a place of authority after years in the wilderness – on the back side of the desert.
I guarantee that David didn’t understand what God was doing in those moments where he felt rejected. He had been called out of a crowd, his head had been anointed with oil by Samuel, yet nothing moved him into the place of authority for years and years.
I can just hear the heart of God beating one refrain – “I want to get all the glory! Just wait. Watch and see what I will do.”
David started to finally understand the situation from God’s perspective and in Psalm 30, he tells us the goal of God in the last verse of the chapter:
“To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” (verse 12)
David came to understand that God was trying to strip him of all his glory until “his glory” would acknowledge that only God could have gotten him into the place as King. God was trying to make him a dependent King – not one that lived in self-sufficiency. That process couldn’t be done overnight. It was a stripping away of his own strength into a place of weakness.
“I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” (verse 1-3)
One of the worst feelings in life is when you think your “foes”, or your enemies are laughing and rejoicing over your downfall. I have been there. It is not a fun place.
But God can heal us from even experiences like this and bring our souls up from the grave. It can be a long process but if we allow God to go deep in our hearts – we can overcome.
After my race for Congress in 2018 – I felt defeated and my dreams were shattered, but God had another dream for me. What the enemy meant for evil – God turned it for good. We wouldn’t be blessing you right now through Christians Engaged if I hadn’t gone through that experience. I would still be behind the scenes running campaigns.
When we received our letter of denial for our 501(c)(3) status for Christians Engaged from the IRS the middle of May 2021, we could have just stopped in defeat and said, “we tried to make a difference” and then stopped. But God had a plan for us to fight, a national story, and a victory in 21 days that we didn’t see coming.
“For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.” (verse 5)
“Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong…” (verse 7a)
We look at the momentary pains of life and see pain alone, but that is not what God sees. He sees a storyline of Him walking with us, strengthening us, making us more like Him, and building our influence for His glory.
God’s favor over my life is FOR LIFE – my mountain is strong because of Him. That is so encouraging. It is not about my “failure” or the pain I experienced in my past – it is about my strong LIFE and my future.
“Joy comes in the morning….”
David then declares the full picture of God that there is no glory in his life staying in the pit. That is not what God had planned. He had a bigger plan.
“What profit is there in my blood,
When I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?”
God wanted the glory not from leaving David in the pit and in the dust – but pulling him out so he could declare His goodness.
Recently I was listening to a speech by my friend Scott Turner where he detailed out his life working at Spring Creek BBQ as a young person, making it through high school, playing college football, then landing several jobs in the National Football League, to business, to being a state representative, to being a central part of the Trump administration as the executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council.
Scott recounted his story listing out what seemed many times like failures – yet God had plans for him. I was encouraged that God is not done with any of our stories.
Until the moment we take our last breath – God is weaving our story with His story for His ultimate glory. We never know where the next turn will come and what He will do in the future – but we know that His ultimate goal is to redeem us and place us on a landing pad where we can give Him even more glory.
“To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” (verse 12)
Our job is the rejoice and give Him thanks forever on the journey. It doesn’t matter where we live, what we do, and how large our influence is – what matters most is that we are faithful, content, and praising Him through it all.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:12-15)
Our responsibility is to work out our own lives – not worry about others and let God works His will for us – doing all of that without complaining.
It is not always easy to take that heart posture, but it is life giving and freeing.
President John Quincy Adams, our sixth President said - “Duty is ours, Results are God’s”.
Walking beside Members of Congress for years – I have seen the same thing – how much they are overwhelmed with their inability to make change on their own. There are so many problems and so many battles to fight – how do they focus and choose one thing to work on? They just must be faithful with what they dedicate to work on. Simply put – they need intervention like everyone else in the affairs of men.
I am sure anyone who has ever been President – the leader of the free world – has still come to realize that they ultimately are still not in charge. There is only so much one human can do – but God can move the mountains and bring change. That is our hope and our peace.
If we commit to just walk with Him and let His favor cover all parts of our lives – He can do so much with these few days, we have.
It is ultimately His story that He is writing for His glory – we just get to walk with Him each day, give Him thanks, and see what He does with our lives. It is an exciting adventure that we get to see manifest before our eyes in the days and years to come.
By His favor – our lives and our “mountains” become strong as He pulls us from the pit and moves us to the palace - to give Him all the glory and thanksgiving that is due His name.
He is not done with my story or yours.