Before we come to the Word of God, let us turn to Him in prayer. Let's pray. O Father, we pray now that your Word would be living and active unto us, sharper than any double-edged sword, that it would pierce even through bone and marrow and cut through the inner core of our hearts, to lay open and to expose before us our sin, and our frailty in order that we might turn to Jesus and find in him our all in all. It is in his name we pray, amen. Psalm 30, 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 cry. 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. Oh Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. This is the word of God. It wouldn't take me long to convince you that life has its ups and its downs. Life can be like a roller coaster much of the time. According to some, the secret to life is to have more ups than downs, or at least to end your life on an up rather than a down. Now that is somewhat self-deceiving, is it not, in light of the fact that the final fate of us all is death, the grave. There is nothing up about that. There is nothing particularly positive about going down into the grave in death, even if you should die with all the toys in the world, with all the money in the world, with fame and prosperity. Death is the equalizer of us all. We end with a down. David, the Psalmist of the Psalm before us this evening, teaches us that those who love the Lord, he teaches us that if we are those counted among the number, among Christ's sheep, teaches us that we, have the final note of this roller coaster of a life with all of its ups and downs with a last and ultimate up. For at the end of the day, we who are in Christ, though we may go down into the grave, we will be brought up into resurrection life. Look at verse one. As Paul, as David, excuse me, opens up, he opens up with praise. I extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up. You see the up that is here, the up note. Now you'll remember that throughout the Psalter, David has been under constant pressure and opposition. Have you faced pressures and opposition in your life as a believer? David is under the heavy hand of his enemies. Constantly, it seems. Have you found yourself under the constant hand of your enemies? The world, the flesh, and the devil. David is here, as he does throughout the Psalms, praying for deliverance. And we see time and again that the Lord comes through to answer David's prayer for deliverance. That's no less the case here in this Psalm. David opens with worship, with the exaltation of God. But why does he extol him? David says it. You have drawn me up. You see that? David has been drawn up. God's grace is for David. David has been delivered from his enemy. He has been given victory. For the Lord, as it says here in verse one, does not let my foes rejoice over me. That is the Lord has not let his enemies rejoice over his defeat and demise. David has survived the attacks of the enemy. But in verse two, David tells of a reason why God has helped him. He has helped him as a response to David's request for help. It is an answer to prayer. God answers prayer, do you see that? David cries to the Lord for help, and as we see in the other Psalms, the Lord goes so far even as to heal David. in the midst of his afflictions. Now in verse three, you'll see this peculiar language. Oh Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. It almost sounds here in verse three, that David is dead already. That David has already died. Now, obviously this is not a reference to his physical death. because he would not have been able to write the psalm if it was. But almost certainly he is associating language, imagery of death for his current difficult circumstances. It sounds as if here he has gone down to Sheol. Now, Sheol here is a reference to the place of the dead, to the grave, to the tomb. But we see that David has been delivered by God from this Sheol. He goes on at the end of verse three to talk about the pit. And the pit here is a synonym, a parallel word for Sheol. And David here is almost certainly invoking language that is associated with death to describe the despair of his life circumstances. It is almost as if he has died. But what is more, it is almost as if, as we go on to read here in verse three, that David has risen from the dead. Look at what it says. You have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have restored me to life. David here invokes the imagery of resurrection. in order to describe his circumstances of deliverance. God in his mercy has delivered David. Now, verse four starts sort of a new cycle. It's a cycle that is very similar to verses one through three, as we see verses four and following develop. In verse four, as in verse one, David begins with a word of praise. It's appropriate, is it not? He sings praises to the Lord. He worships God as he calls the saints, all those who are believers in the triune God, to join him in his worship. The saints here, all believers, are called by David to worship with him, the almighty God. But not only are we, with David, who are saints, we who are saints, that is to say we who are believers, set apart ones, holy ones in Jesus Christ. Not only are we these saints who are to give praises, but also, notice what he goes on to say in verse four, we are to give thanks as well. We are to thank the Lord, as David here is doing. Every saint knows the experience that David is going through. Every saint knows what it's like to have God deliver him or her from their sins, from their unbelief, from the world, the flesh, and the devil. So with David, we are called to give thanks to God. We are called to gratitude as believers, to be grateful to him in our praise, for what he has done for us in his mercy and grace. David expresses another common experience in verse five. Look at verse five, for his anger is but for a moment and his favor for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. What David here is talking about, almost certainly, when he talks about the anger of God, is not the divine wrath He's not talking about the divine wrath that comes in judgment upon unbelievers who are unrepentant. But the anger that is in view here is the anger of fatherly displeasure. It is the anger that God shows mercifully to his children. Not out of judgment, not out of condemnation, but as an act of a fatherly hand of discipline, you see. It is righteous anger that's in view here, but it's not just righteous anger, but it is anger that is coupled with fatherly love for his children. And David explains that this anger is but temporary. And you may have experienced times like this, where you have sensed God's fatherly displeasure upon you. Maybe David sees this as a response of God's providence for sin in his life. As we know, David wasn't perfect. David still had sin in his life, though he was a believer like we are. Though he was saved fully, all of his sins forgiven, and yet still fell into sin as we do at times, sadly enough. But that's what we seem to have in view here. And this anger of God's fatherly displeasure is only temporary, even though it may seem like it goes on for a long time. But compared to the time of God's favor, which is an eternal time, the times of God's fatherly displeasure are just temporary, short-lived. Because those times of weeping are only for a short period of time. Weeping may tarry for the night. It seems like forever, doesn't it? When you grieve at night, when you wet your pillow with your tears, it seems to go on forever. But you see, suffering, even though it may stick around for a little while, and maybe suffering even results in the sting of death, we know, though, how much greater is the defeat of death, the defeat of suffering. For while death may come, and with it, sadness and suffering, we know that joy eventually comes. Joy comes in the morning. But note the pattern. In this life, we walk through a valley of tears. In this life, we experience suffering and hardship. But that is only temporary. The morning will come, and the joy will replace the suffering. David here is repeating what he said in verse three. After death, in other words, there is resurrection. After much darkness, there is light. After temporary sadness, there is everlasting joy. You see, the life of the believer is a life that moves from suffering unto glory. This is the life to which we have been called in Christ. We don't suffer as an act of punishment for our sins. Jesus paid the punishment for our sins fully. But we suffer in this life in testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ. In times of oppression like how David suffered from his enemies who told lies about him. And as you, a believer, as you walk out in the midst of this world, you know what it's like, don't you? When you refuse to waver either to the right or to the left, when you are committed to the word of God, no matter what the culture says, no matter what pressures you receive at work, you know you're going to receive suffering, ridicule. People will despise you. But that's the calling to which the believer is called. Suffering, for now, not out of an atonement for our sins, Jesus did that fully for us, but suffering that leads eventually unto glory. The suffering is just temporary, but the glory, the joy is forever. And that's what makes the suffering, the difficulty for the time being tolerable, does it not? No, and it will be replaced by everlasting joy. Verse six gives more detail. concerning the sin that may have gotten David God's fatherly displeasure. As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. Perhaps this is a testimony to a time in David's life when he was haughty. Maybe you have had times in your life, I know I have, when you have been haughty. A time when you are confident because of your prosperity. And this is particularly a besetting sin of the young, is it not? Because when we're young, we think death is far from us oftentimes, not all the time, but many of us think death is far from us. That's down the road, many years from now. It seems like an eternity before I have to worry about those things. That's for old people, right? But you see, death can come at any time. And we ought not to depend upon our youth for not being moved. We ought not to depend upon our own strength, our own prosperity, our own resources. That's self-righteousness, you see. That's self-dependence, self-confidence, in the worst sense of that word. But what David here acknowledges is that he was prosperous, and it is, in fact, perhaps for this haughtiness this trust in his youth and his prosperity that God is correcting him, bringing a heart of providence into his life to teach him and to show him that he cannot be haughty. He cannot trust in his prosperity. That won't get him anywhere. And God often does this to us, doesn't he, in his mercy. I mean, this is a merciful act of God when he sort of corners us in his providence until finally he strips everything away. And after he strips everything away and we're standing there with nothing left in this world, we turn to him. And in our stubbornness, we finally realize, though we are slow to do it, that God is our strength, that God is our prosperity, not the things that we have or do or possess. Look at verse seven. By your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face. I was dismayed. David here recognizes that it was the Lord who gave the prosperity. He didn't earn it, it was the Lord who made his mountain strong. You see, since it is the Lord who gives, it is also the Lord who takes away. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. He's sovereign, he's God. It's his prerogative to do so. And so it is that as we see at the end of verse seven, that there was a time, there was a time when what was given to him was taken away. As it says here, you hid your face, I was dismayed. And so he did to David what we understand he oftentimes does to believers when they trust in themselves. God removes our strength. He removes our prosperity that we might turn and focus on him and not ourselves. See, God keeps us on our toes. In his providence, he reminds us not to become comfortable with this life, to become haughty in what we have or can do. David now goes on to describe a cry that he utters in response in verse eight. To you, O Lord, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy. David is down again. And so he cries. He's experiencing the dismay that comes from God hiding his face from him. And he cries out, he cries to the Lord in his distress. After all, he knows that only God can help him. Because in God's providence, the Lord has stripped David of everything. Until David now finally realizes that if he has any hope in this world, it must be found in the Lord and not himself. As he says here, to the Lord, I plead for mercy. I want you to remember that. I want you to remember this as a believer. When you have been brought low, and it may be because of something you did directly as a result of your sin, or maybe not, maybe it was, something coming upon you from outside of you by our enemy. Maybe you're being persecuted, whatever. Remember David's actions here. He pleads to the Lord for mercy. He asked for grace and deliverance. Your prayers are never in vain. The Lord hears the prayers of the saints, always. Verse nine gives us the detail of this prayer. It's very clear, David knows that death will bring silence from him. Death and going down to the pit will result in silence. He knows that his body will decay if he goes to the pit. Once again, drawing upon that language of death in order to illustrate for us just the desperate situation that his life circumstances have brought upon him. It's almost like he's dying and he's going down to the pit. And it's as if he's saying to the Lord, you know, what good is it if I go down to the pit? The dirt can't praise you. I won't be able to praise you there. And so he asks that the Lord would deliver him. He asked to be saved. Look at verse 10. It's very clear there, is it not? Verse 10 where David pleads with the Lord to hear and to be a helper to him. He asks to be heard as he did back in verse eight. He asks for the mercy of God. He prays that God would help him, help him to not go down. into the pit, but rather to be raised up in life. In verse 11, we see that God has answered his prayer again. Look at the way in which David describes the Lord's answer to his prayer. Mourning is turned into dancing. The funeral has been turned into a wedding. You see that? This reminds us of verse five, the weeping that tarries for a night turns to joy at daybreak. The final word of the Lord towards his people is not a downer, but it's an up. It's grace and deliverance. David here says that the Lord loosed his sackcloth. What does it mean? What in the world does it mean to have one's sackcloth loosed? That's not familiar language to us, is it? It's kind of strange language. Well, sackcloth was the attire that you wore when you were in mourning, when you were grieving, when you were repenting. You see, David was in great distress We don't know exactly why, what the circumstances were, but we know that that was the case. Whatever it was, was it sin that brought him to wear sackcloth, or was it to grieve his circumstances, his hard providences that he's going through? Either way, we see that God has done away with the sackcloth. God has wiped away the tears of David. He's replaced those sackcloth with joy and clothes of glory. David has new clothes, clothes not of sadness, but clothes of gladness. The Lord once again brings David up He doesn't allow him to go down to the pit, but he lifts him up into glory. You see it? Behold the beauty and the splendor of God. That brings us then to our last verse, verse 12, and we see here that David ends where he began. He began with worship, and now he ends with worship. His salvation, he sees here, is unto worship. He's clothed with gladness so that his glory, his whole being might sing praise to the Lord. And again, not only praising, but giving thanks as well. I will give thanks to you. But notice the time marker here, by the way. It's not insignificant. The very last sentence of the psalm indicates that the thanksgiving that David renders to the Lord is forever. It's never ending. It's ceaseless. Now this psalm ends on an up note, does it not? As David is lifted up, God's grace triumphs. It is the final word of God to David. Life, not death. That is the message of the psalm. But we know that if this were the end of the story, we know that there must be more. But if this were the end of the story, if we stopped at that last sentence of Psalm 30, as glorious as it is, but if we were to stop there and not move on, we would become depressed, perhaps. So we know what happened to David, don't we? David did eventually succumb to death, as we all will. David would eventually find his way to Sheol, to the grave. David's not alive today, is he? Of course not. He would eventually, eventually succumb to death. You see, the last enemy, death, gets us eventually. But when it gets us, we have to understand it is not victorious. It wasn't victorious for David, because that's not the end of the story. We don't stop at Psalm 30. For David knows that his worship with the Lord will be forever, and he is confident that this life here now in which he lives is not the end of the matter. We seem to be aware of this. David recognizes that there is something beyond the grave. David seems to be aware of the resurrection and the life. David anxiously, we might even say, is awaiting something better than being delivered from his enemies. from sort of getting out of a tight situation, as wonderful as that is, and as wonderful of a testimony as that is to God's grace. David's hope resides in something greater. We are driven to this by the song, to this conclusion. He is grasped by something greater than simply being delivered from a tight situation. We too have that confidence. We may say, in fact, that we have that confidence to a greater degree than David had it. For David, you see, never saw him who is the resurrection and the life. David did not see him, Jesus, the Christ, who would burst the bonds of death and Hades and Sheol. once and for all for his people. David was only able to behold that day from afar through types and shadows and promises. And that's wonderful and glorious. And David was privileged to see Jesus from afar. But you, you see him nearly. You see him as those who stand on the other side of the empty tomb. You see Jesus as the one who manifested the fact that he is the resurrection and the life, because you stand on this side of the empty tomb. And as you open your New Testaments, which David did not have, you read and you behold the splendor and the glory of the conquest of death itself. by Jesus. Jesus is the one who was cast down, who did go into Sheol, who experienced weeping for the evening, the one who for a time was dismayed, the one who for a time had the face of his father hid from him in judgment as he bore the judgment that your sin and my sin deserve. He is the one who went down, but he is also the one who was drawn up. He is the one who experienced in that most awesome and ultimate sense of the word, a turn from evening to morning, from weeping to joy, whose sackcloth was turned into garments white with glory and gladness. For Christ's story comes to this point, this great up. Up from the grave he arose. Up from the grave he arose and ascended up into heaven to reign and to rule over all things for you, his church. This is your hope. This is why this psalm comforts you. Because it speaks of your hope. Your hope is ultimately not found in getting out of a tight jam. It is not found in somehow turning your poverty into prosperity. To living your best life now. No. Your hope is that though you suffer now, yet you will receive glory and splendor and honor with Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. And you will have that forever, where you will praise him and thank him. You will not rot in the grave. You will be raised. You will sing the praises of our Lord forever. You will give thanks to him for all of eternity. Your life will end on an up note. A permanent up note. Not one, and it's just for a time. But permanent and forever in the heavens with God in Christ. But until then, Now though we suffer, though now we receive mocking and ridicule, though now our enemies seem to get the upper hand over us on a daily basis, we exalt in the Lord because we know He is the victor. And He comforts us in this psalm. He comforts you. He promises you mercy and life And He calls you with David to live for Him, to walk with Him, to His glory, praise, and honor. Let us do so for the glory of His dear Son, Jesus Christ, both now and forevermore. Amen.