So we'll be looking at Psalm 30 and then I'll be gone and then we've got the Christmas season coming up. So we'll be back in Habakkuk, I guess sometime in the new year. We'll look forward to that. Let's hear now God's word then from Psalm 30. The Psalm of David. a song at the dedication of the temple. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord, my God, I cry to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 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. As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. you hid your face, I was dismayed. To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. 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? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever. The word of God, let's pray and ask his blessing as we seek to hear it and respond to it. Great God, we do thank you. for this song, we thank you for this instruction in song that teaches us of your goodness and calls on us, Lord, to be full of hope that leads us, Lord, to praise you and thank you because you are a God that rescues us from sorrow. Lord, we ask this morning that this truth would be written firmly upon our hearts. Lord, help us not to confess this in a merely shallow way, but to dig into it, to believe it deep down, to know it, and to be truly led then, even in sorrow, to great confidence in you and great joy in what you've done. We do ask this in Jesus' name, amen. As we are walking through life, there are things that are constantly happening to us that we can't explain. This is particularly the case, of course, when it comes to difficult and sad tragedies. God allows certain things to happen, And the only honest response we can have to that is, I don't know why. We simply don't know. It leaves us confused sometimes. It leaves us bewildered. As we've been looking in the book of Habakkuk, there are times where he lets evil seem to be winning the day. And he tells us flat out, what I do is gonna be surprising to you. You can't read my providence. So a lot's gonna happen, a lot of difficult things are gonna happen that we simply can't explain or understand. But in the midst of all of that, in the midst of all of that bewilderment, in the midst of all of that confusion, this truth of Scripture is constantly shining bright. Through the Word of God, we are told over and over again that death and sorrow are not where the story ends. As difficult as things might get at times, as confusing, as painful as they might get, Death and sorrow are not where the story ends, because we serve a God who will not abandon us in death and will never abandon us in sorrow. And there is so much we do not know, but that we know. We serve a God that will not abandon us in death or in sorrow, and that's what this psalm is driving home this morning. And I wanna start this morning just by noting that clear fact. I want us to start this morning just by getting serious and honest and looking directly at that psalm, and as easy as it is to state it, to really focus ourselves on grabbing onto it. When in sorrow, we can know that joy is coming. when in sorrow, we can know that joy is coming. And I want you to just be serious for a moment with me about seeing this, not just referenced in the psalm, but absolutely guaranteed in this psalm. I want you to see this as a promise in scripture that wasn't just true for David. It's not just something that has happened to a few individuals, but it is a guarantee for all God's people. And I'm wanting you to be serious about noticing this because To handle sorrow properly, to handle pain properly, you need to really be preparing for it. You know, if you're going through a very difficult time and we didn't get serious about the need to really focus in on this truth, It would be difficult for you to really embrace the message of this psalm because you're in the midst of pain. And in the midst of pain, in the middle of difficulty, isn't it hard to hear someone come along and just sort of casually say, oh, well, it'll get better. The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar. Shut up! You're just being flippant about that. It's easy for you to say that because you're not in the middle of this pain. So if you are in the middle of difficulty, the proper tone we need to take in looking at this psalm is great seriousness. It's not just a flippant song from a musical. It's the eternal truth of God's word. If you're not in the middle of difficulty, You need to get serious and energetic on focusing upon this truth because you need to be preparing yourself for when you will be one day in the middle of pain and difficulty. In other words, you've got to get this truth ingrained down deep within you. You've got to train your spiritual reflexes so that when you hit times of difficulty, you automatically respond by grabbing on to the truth of this scripture. And that's the way it works. Two of my daughters just advanced in jujitsu. They're now gray belts. And it's difficult to advance in belts in jujitsu. It takes a whole lot of work. And what it essentially comes down to now is that if you mess with them, you will be entering a world of pain. That's what the colors of the belt signify. It's just gray pain at this point. It's just a little ambiguous pain, but the pain will still be there. But in order to advance in jujitsu, and the whole sort of philosophy of the training is about practicing certain moves. And even in the test, I watched them being tested yesterday, and the instructor would say, all right, I want to see that again, but go slower. Because he wanted to make sure that every movement of their arm and their legs was in just the right place. And they were doing it very slowly. And you think, well, you're never gonna take a guy down moving that slowly. Well, true, but the point is, you practice the right movements. and you practice them so much that the right movements become reflex so that when an attack happens, you automatically do these things. And that's what we need to be doing when it comes to our spiritual lives as well. Don't skip over a psalm because you think, I don't need this right now. Don't tune out of this message because you think, I don't need this right now. No, now is the time to train, to get your reflexes honed. So let's just look at the basic fact that this psalm displays for us, and it displays it very clearly. When in sorrow, the Christian can know that joy is coming. Look at the first couple verses. David celebrates this. I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. Now notice there, it's a psalm that's very personal for David, and it even contains testimony of something that happened specifically to David in his life. But he is calling on all people to sing this along with him. All of God's saints, all of God's people are to take this song up. That's indicated, first of all, by the little title we have at the top. A Psalm of David, a song at the dedication of the temple. You see that? A song at the dedication of the temple. So when we read this, we are to think of it in terms of the life of David and of being true for him. But what David wrote this psalm for was for a public worship service. It wasn't just about him. It's not just something true for him. It's something that is true for every believer. We can take up this song and say, I can praise God because he has lifted me up. He's lifted me up. And that makes verses 4 and 5 not just general sorts of proverbs, not just things that might be sometimes true, but things that are always true for every believer. Read 4 and 5 again with me. See, there's the corporate dimension again. and give thanks to his holy name, 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." That is always true. It's not just the case that sometimes, yeah, you're sad at night, but don't worry, the sun will come up tomorrow. Oh, it hasn't come up for you yet? Well, hang in there. Not yet? Maybe you should talk to your doctor about some more medication. You know, maybe it's just, you're an exception. I don't know what to say to you. The word of God tells us, no matter what, no matter how long the night might be, it is always the case for the believer, for the saint, that while weeping tarries for the night, while weeping hangs around in times of darkness, joy will come with the morning. It's guaranteed when in sorrow, know that joy is coming. It's always true. It's always true. And there are three things in this psalm, that's the basic point of the psalm. that you just need to grab onto, but there are three things in this psalm that magnify the beauty and the certainty of that truth. And that's what I want us to unpack now. Having seen that basic fact, though weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes in the morning. Though you may be in difficulty now, joy is on the way. Let's look at three things that magnify the beauty of that truth and also, really drive home the certainty of it. And that first thing, the first aspect that's, the first thing in this psalm that does that is the cause of David's suffering. If we look at the psalm and we notice the specific cause for David's suffering, we're gonna see that that really magnifies this truth for us, the certainty of of the truth that the weeping may tarry for the night, joy comes in the morning. Because what is the cause of David's suffering? It's not in this psalm that wicked people were against him. There are many other psalms where that's the case. It's not in this psalm something mysterious, some mysterious event that has just really thrown him off balance and is of great sorrow to him. It's not something in God's normal, natural providence, something that everyone faces, maybe the death of a father or something that is awfully sad, but this is something sadly, but truly sort of regular in life. No, what David is suffering, or the reason for David's suffering in this psalm is his sin. That's the reason for his suffering, his sin, his guilt. And more specifically, we could say the reason for his suffering is God's discipline for his sin. So notice verse six and seven. He says, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. He's laying out the fact there that there was a time where he looked out on all his accomplishments, and for David they were many. This was a man that was a very successful king. He lived a very successful life. And he looks out and he thinks, man, my position is so secure. I am so strong. I've got it together so well that I could never be moved. A lot of times we've been in that kind of situation, haven't we? Where things are just going so well, like you're just firing on all cylinders. I mean, you're knocking it out of the park every time you're up for bat. It's only been a week that that's happened, but a week is enough to where your pride flares up and you think, wow, yeah, man, I've really turned a corner. I've really turned a corner. I'm a new me. And your flesh takes hold of that and pride develops. And David was in that situation. I shall never be moved. I've got this thing. And he said, by your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain sand strong. God was the one that put him in that position, but then what? You hid your face, I was dismayed. What we have there with very poetic terseness is David conveying to us the fact that he had been swollen with pride And in response to his pride, the Lord had hidden his face and led him to fear and terror. The Lord's hand of discipline was against him. The Lord's hand of discipline was against him. Now let's remember and let's be clear that not all sorrow, not all suffering is due to God's discipline. and we shouldn't live life as we face something difficult, just try to line it up. Okay, what sin did I commit such that this is going on? We often face sorrow in God's providence because he's setting it up to display his glory. So you remember the story of the blind man in John 9. This man's blind and people asked him, who sinned that this man turned blind? Was it his own personal sin or was it his parents' sin? And Jesus said, neither, that's not what's going on. This man was born blind so that God could show off his glory through him. And sure enough, Jesus comes and he heals the man. But Christ explicitly says it wasn't because of sin that this happened here. We are guaranteed in the scriptures that if we live righteous lives, we will face persecution and suffering. So not only is it not the case that we can't take a difficulty we're facing and trace it back to a personal sin, it's often the case that we can take a difficulty we're facing and trace it back to a particular point of obedience even. Because if you live a godly life, you will face persecution. But having said that, it's also the case that God disciplines his people. It is the case that we commit sin and God disciplines us. He brings in difficulty. As David describes it, he hid his face such that David was dismayed. David was brought, according to his own reckoning, apparently to the point of death. But here's what we need to note. Here's why David conveys all this to us. God's discipline was aimed at his good, was aimed at David's good. God disciplined him, but not as a way to inflict judgment upon him. God disciplined him for his good. So we read, So in response, verses 8 and following, The point of the discipline was to bring David to a place where he's no longer relying on himself, but he is crying out to God for mercy. He is recognizing his utter need and dependence upon God, and God responds, by fully providing for that need. You have turned for me my mourning into dancing. You have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness that my glory may sing your praise. The whole point of the suffering and difficulty brought on by the discipline of God. It was aimed at David's good. It was to lead him to real joy, joy in the Lord that springs from dependence upon God. and looking to him for mercy. God disciplines us for our sin, but that discipline is always, always a manifestation of his grace to us. It's not him pulling back. It's him stepping in. It's him embracing us with his favor and with his love. Now this is such an important doctrine to understand, to be convinced of, that let's look at another passage that displays it, displays God's fatherly discipline as a manifestation of grace. It's found in Hebrews 12. And I just want to read a passage from Hebrews 12, and I want you to listen for how the author of Hebrews portrays God's discipline of his children. Let's see if you can pick up on how God's discipline of His children is always an exercise of His favor and His love towards them. So, Hebrews 12 beginning at verse 3, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The point is clear, isn't it? When God disciplines you, the reason he's disciplining you is not because you've fallen out of his favor, it's because you are in his favor. It's because he loves you as a father. That's why it's a manifestation, even a proof that God treats us with grace. Because discipline, it's God's favor in the face of our failure. And that's what grace is. Grace is God showing us favor in response to our failure. Grace is not just God giving us more than we deserve. It's not just unmerited favor. It's not just undeserved favor. It's favor in the face of our failure. It's Him giving us favor when we deserve the opposite of that. And that's what's displayed in His discipline of us. It's proof of his fatherly love. He's not stepping away from you. He's stepping toward you in favor to do something good for you. So let's think about this and how this drives home and makes certain for us that when we are in sorrow, joy is on the way. It teaches us that even when suffering for our sin, even when suffering for our sin at the hands of God, even when our suffering is directly related to our guilt and our rebellion, we are assured that God is using that for our good. He's not abandoning us in the sorrow that our sins deserve. He's rather using that to draw us closer to himself and to lead us to joy. So if that kind of suffering is guaranteed to lead to joy, you understand the logic here? If that kind of suffering, the kind of suffering that is the result of my sin, If the kind of suffering that is the result of me failing to live like I should, if because I'm attached to God as a son to a father, if that suffering is guaranteed to lead to joy, then all other kind of suffering is certainly guaranteed to lead to joy. If crying out to God under his discipline, he's guaranteed to respond to mercy and raise me up, if that's guaranteed, then whatever I'm suffering under, Oh, it's definitely guaranteed that he's going to raise me up. There's no way, in other words, to face any kind of suffering. You're never gonna face any kind of suffering, even suffering that is your own fault. You're never gonna face any kind of suffering as a Christian that is not guaranteed to end in joy. And that's what's proven here with David. It was even my fault because of my sin, but God used it to raise me up to joy and to glorify his name. Two more things that lead us to the certainty of this promise. And we're going to hit these quick. We spent the most time on that first one. Let's hit these others quick. When in sorrow, you can know, you can know, you can know that joy is coming because even when your sorrow is the result of your own sin, God guarantees to be at work leading you to joy. Secondly, something else we find in this psalm is not only the cause of David's sin, it's the nature of David's appeal. The nature of David's appeal gives us even greater certainty that we're gonna be led ultimately to joy. Notice David's appeal there in verse nine and 10. He says as he's under this suffering, 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? Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me. O Lord, be my helper." Notice the nature of David's appeal there. He's basically saying to God, God, your honor is at stake. Your glory is at stake here. He's appealing to God's honor as a redeeming God, and he's saying to him, are you going to get glory by leaving me in the dust? Rhetorical question. The answer is no. God, that's not how you glorify yourself with regard to your people. If you were to leave me in the dust, it would not bring you glory. It would be a shame upon your name. Now this is an amazingly powerful thing because when we read in the Bible, and we read in our own catechism, what is made absolutely clear, the ultimate end of all things, the whole point of any and all things existing, the only ultimate reason for anything happening is what? The glory of God. God will stop at nothing to glorify himself and nothing will stop God from glorifying himself. God will be glorified. And what David does here is he recognizes that God has attached himself to his people. God has promised redemption. So there's no possible way that God, having attached himself to his people and promised redemption, could ever leave them in the dust because then it wouldn't be to his glory. But he knows God is gonna glorify himself. So in his appeal, he says, God, this is not the way you're gonna receive glory, leaving me in the dust. The dead don't praise you. And here's the thing, David is absolutely right. And this is proven in scripture, this is proven in scripture to be fail-safe logic when it comes to pleading with God. It always works. It always works. You think back to a time when the nation of Israel had just been rescued from Egypt. God had saved them in the Exodus and he brought them to Mount Sinai and he was revealing himself to them. Moses was up on the mountain receiving instructions and you remember what happens. Moses took a little too long up there The people got distracted and they made a golden calf. and they started worshiping false gods. They started praising this golden calf as the god or gods that had brought them up out of Egypt, and it turned into all kinds of wickedness and debauchery. They'd just been rescued, and then they erupt into that wicked sin and rebellion against God, and so God tells Moses, oh, this has happened down there, and I'm gonna wipe the people out. And Moses responds with the same logic we find here. He says, wait, wait, God. If you wipe them out, the Egyptians are gonna say, the Egyptians are gonna say the only reason you rescued them was to slaughter them in the desert. You can't have that. God, this will make you look bad. Don't do it. And what is God's response? You're right, Moses. I will have mercy on them." Now, did God really need correction there? No. He's teaching us something though. The same thing happens again in Numbers chapter, what is it, 14, 15, 16, when the people rebel after the spies go in to the land. I'm embarrassed now. It's in the middle of a sermon. My mind is a little, I should know this. I should know this. Middle of numbers. It's in there. The spies go in to spy out the land in 13, so it's 14. Yeah. And they bring back this report. They're like, oh yeah, the land is great guys, but the people there are massive. Most of the spies say we don't have a chance. The entire nation, except for a few, freak out. They say, oh no, why did God bring us out here? Let's all go back to Egypt. And God says, I'm gonna wipe them out. They're rebelling against me, and Moses again addresses God, and he says, all the nations are gonna say, you were not able to rescue this people. And God says, you're right. Did God need correction then? No, but he's teaching us something. He's teaching us the fact, amazing as it is, that he has so bound himself and his own reputation to the destiny of his people that if his people fail to be rescued, he fails to get glory. If his people fail to be rescued, he fails as God. Is there any way for God to fail as God? No. So here's the point. He will not, he cannot fail then. Whatever your suffering, he cannot fail. to raise you up and bring you to a place of joy where you are celebrating his goodness. Will the dust praise you? No. And so God raises David up. It's gonna happen. Joy is coming. The third proof, and we're closed with this. The third thing about this psalm that reinforces the certainty of this truth is the way that it points ahead to David's greater son, Christ Jesus. Whenever you read the Psalms and you hear of someone being rescued from the pit, someone being drawn up from Sheol, you probably think to yourself, right, that sounds like resurrection. You're absolutely right. Where else in the Bible does resurrection occur? In fact, what's the true resurrection that occurs in the Bible? Where is it the case where most literally someone was drawn up from Sheol? It's connected with David, of course. It's David's greater son. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the New Testament, we even have writers of the New Testament taking Psalms of David where he talks about being rescued from the pit and applying them directly to Christ. And we've got to read this psalm this psalm this way. The thing that brings us the most glorious guarantee that if you're suffering now, joy is on the way. The thing that brings the greatest guarantee of that is the resurrection of Jesus. And this is what really needs to train, really needs to train your spiritual reflexes. When you hit suffering, when you hit suffering, have your heart trained to look back at what has occurred with Jesus. When you hit suffering for whatever cause or reason, if it's your own sin, if it's someone else's sin against you, if you're wondering why God would you allow this to happen now, whatever it might be, have your reflexes trained to say, okay, I don't know what's going on here, but I remember what happened with Jesus. And that means everything. When you're facing suffering because of your sin, and it's not a mystery, you just know, this is because of my sin, have your reflexes trained to look back and say, I know God's not gonna abandon me because of what happened to Jesus. Because Jesus truly went down to the pit for my sin. He didn't just experience the fatherly discipline of God for this sin that I've just committed. Jesus actually experienced the judgment of God for this sin that I committed. And that's why I can know that this suffering now is not judgment, it's fatherly, gracious, loving discipline that's gonna lead to my joy. because Jesus already suffered it. And what was the end result of Jesus suffering it? His glorious resurrection. Jesus died for your sin and he was also raised to newness of life and you with him. So his resurrection guarantees yours. He's gonna turn your mourning into dancing. Hear the words of Jesus himself. I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice. and no one will take your joy from you." Let's pray together. Gracious Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord, that Whatever we are experiencing right now, we are people that, as David ends this psalm, we are people that will give thanks to you forever, without end. Whatever sorrow we are experiencing now, we know that joy is coming and that our joy ultimately is eternal. is to the praise of your glorious grace, because our glory brings you glory, and our salvation is a display of your greatness and goodness. Lord, help us to cling to these words of Jesus and to know, oh, they are guaranteed, they are true, because he is the one that suffered for us and was raised to new life, and we with him. May we know that though we have sorrow now, our hearts will rejoice and no one will be able to take that joy from us. Glorify yourself, Lord, in our discipline. Glorify yourself, Lord, in our exaltation. Glorify yourself in rescuing us from sorrow, and we do pray it in Jesus' name, amen.