Psalm 30
July 3, 2022
Sermon by the Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
On this 4th of July I am mindful of all the things that we have to be grateful for; our country, the beauty of nature, and the life that we live.
What are you grateful for today? Gratitude is an interesting state of mind. When good things are happening in our life, it is easy to be grateful. Yet when unexpected things happen to us or tragedy strikes, we tend to forget to be grateful.
The psalmist in psalm 30 reminds us that we live our lives in cycles. There are times when everything is going well and there are times when our lives are chaotic. One minute all is well. We feel right with God and others. Then we may feel fear. Our friends become our enemies. Our lives feel confused and chaotic. We don’t sense God’s presence. These are normal cycles in our lives. Our human state assures us that we were born, we will die a human death, and that no one is immune from pain and suffering.
Walter Brueggemann, a famous Old testament scholar sees the cycles of our lives in the psalms. He groups the psalms into three main categories: orientation, disorientation, and reorientation. Orientation psalms are basic psalms of praise when everything is going well. Disorientation psalms are psalms that describe when a tragedy, illness, or some other unforeseen circumstance happens to shake us up-disorient our lives. Reorientation psalms describe how we move forward after a disorienting event. Psalm 30 is unique in that it describes all three of these states, orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.
Verses 7-13 describe the process:” When I felt secure, I said, ‘I shall never be disturbed. You Lord with your favor made me as strong as the mountains.’ Then you hid your face, and I was filled with fear.
I cried to you oh Lord I pleaded with the Lord saying, ‘what profit is there in my blood if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you or declare your faithfulness? Hear oh Lord and have mercy upon me O Lord be my helper.
You have turned my wailing into dancing, you have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. Therefore, my heart sings to you without ceasing o Lord my God I will give you thanks forever.”
If we look at verses 2 through 6, we learn that the psalmist had an illness and has recovered. The psalmist was well and happy. The Lord made the psalmist as strong as the mountains. Then the psalmist became ill. The psalmist pleaded. The psalmist negotiated with God. The psalmist reminds God that the dust can’t praise God.
Psalm 30 has several themes. One theme of Psalm 30 is remembrance. Remembering that we will go through disorientation in our lives. We will come through it. It will change us.
Psalm 30 reminds us that the main purpose of humans is to praise God and to be grateful to God for our life, our planet, and our universe. Praising and thanking God is a way that we show our dependence on God. It also keeps our mind focused on God. It keeps us in conversation and relationship with God.
Psalm 30 is also about always having an attitude of gratitude, no matter the circumstance. By practicing gratitude our overall attitude changes.
I want to end with part of a short story by Ray Bradbury called “Getting Through Sunday Somehow.”
The story is about an American man contemplating Sunday. He doesn’t attend church. He contemplates about sleeping in, drinking tea, going to the pub and how to get through Sunday without going to church or thinking about God. The scene takes place in an Irish pub in Dublin on a bleak Sunday afternoon. The American man walks into the pub and finds an old man staring into the mirror over the bar. The old man says in a loud voice, “What have I done for a single mortal soul this day? Nothing and that’s why I feel so terribe destroyed. The older I get the less I do for people. The less I do the more I feel a prisoner at the bar.”
The American man starts to respond, “Well- “The older man cuts him off and replies “No its an awesome responsibility when the world runs to hand you things. For instance-sunsets. Everything pink and gold, looking like those melons they ship from Spain. That’s a gift ain’t it?” The American replies, “It is.”
Well, who do you thank for sunsets? And don’t drag the Lord in the bar now. Any remarks to Him are too quiet. I mean someone to grab and slap their backs and say thanks for the fine early light this morn, or much obligued for the look of those wee flowers by the road this day, and the grass laying about in the wind. Those are gifts too, who’ll deny it? Have you ever waked in the middle of the night and felt summer coming on for the first time, through the window, after the long cold? Did you shake your wife and tell her your gratitude? No you lay there a clod chortling to yourself alone, you and the new weather! Do you see the pattern I’m at now?”
The conversation goes on with the older man telling the American man that he too is guilty for not showing enough gratitude and for keeping the gifts without a spirit of gratitude. We don’t just keep receiving gifts of nature and gifts from other people. We must say thank you to god and others. The bar scene ends with the older man telling the American man to act now before he’s the walking dead.
When the American man leaves the pub, he notices things. His spirit lifts. I will not tell you the end of the story, you should read it yourself. It is very well written. In my summary you miss the literary beauty that it is. The point is that living a life of praise and gratitude is the way we were meant to live. We were never meant to just keep taking and enjoying without a spirit of gratitude and a praise of thanks to God.
What are you grateful for today and to whom do you thank?