This too shall pass – Advent Psalm of Thanksgiving, Part 4

As we study Psalm 30 this week, we’re discovering it’s parallel structure. We found its first matching pair of lines here, and we found its second pair here. To search for its third coupling, we first look at verses 4-5.  These two verses are loaded with praise to God because, David says, God’s favor that lasts a lifetime.  Yet David is honest about the reality of pain in life.  David says he has felt what appears to him to be God’s anger.  David has wept. 

But notice the difference in longevity between the negative side (God’s anger and David’s weeping) and the positive side (God’s favor and David’s rejoicing).  God’s anger and David’s weeping are temporary, while God’s favor lasts a lifetime, and rejoicing comes in the morning. 

What David is saying is very similar to the phrase, “This too shall pass.”  We all go through difficult moments in our lives.  But for most people, in the vast majority of difficult situations, those hardships are moments, short-lived; they will pass.  Or at least the depths of despair and emotion, will pass.  Even if the circumstance doesn’t become all you want, there will be a new normal. 

I will admit that it can be very difficult to believe “this too shall pass” when I am in the middle of a difficult moment.  It can seem as though there will be no end to the pain, the frustration, the ordeal.  In the middle of the pain, we can rarely see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We rarely see light at all.  We only see how we are struggling, hurting, in pain. 

“You have cancer.” And we think, “My life is over.”

“I’m breaking up with you.”  And we can think, “I’ll never be in a relationship again.”

“You’re being let go.” And we can think, “I’m never going to be able to make ends meet.”

We start to believe we’ll never be able to pay off that ridiculous school debt, mortgage, car loan, or medical bill. 

We wonder if we’ve screwed up as parents, and our kids are too far gone. 

When he says “weeping may stay for the night,” in verse 5, David is using the image of a traveler who stays the night at an inn.  Weeping, depression, sadness, mourning, or anxiety can seem like they are taking up residence in our lives.  It can seem like they are moving in permanently.

But David is right.  The weeping is only an overnight traveler who is on their way in the morning.  This too shall pass. David is not being insensitive here.  He is not dismissing the real hurt of the pain, and neither am I.  Our pain is real.  But it is not permanent.

My guess is that his phrase in verse 5, “God’s anger” is not meant to be literal, as if David’s illness or whatever situation brought him to his deathbed is because God is angry at him and God decided to smite David with a mortal illness. 

From last week we know that David’s terrible sin with Bathsheba, and the resulting murder of her husband, made God angry, as it should.  But the situation David is talking about in this psalm seems different.  It feels to him as though God is angry at him, because David is deathly sick. 

If you’ve ever thought the words or felt the feelings, “God, why are you allowing this happen?” and wondered if God is angry, you know something of what David expresses here.  This doesn’t mean that you have done something wrong and God is angry at you.  But it feels that way.  It feels that way when we are alone.  When we are hurting.  When we are sick.  

Rather, David is facing death’s door not because David sinned, but because in life we will all face death.  Death is our inevitable human reality. 

Facing death has been one of the most difficult realities of being a pastor.  I don’t like to think about death.  But pastoral ministry has forced the reality of death upon me.  Years ago I did 8 funerals in seven months.  I couldn’t get away from death.  It just kept happening, and as the deaths piled up, I really started struggling.  I remember driving thinking, “I could die today in an accident.”  I would watch the NFL on TV and think, “Look at those vibrant athletes. They will all die.”  It was eerie, and I couldn’t shake the dread of it for the longest time.  But this too shall pass. 

You know what helped me?  Reading Ecclesiastes.  Some people believe that Ecclesiastes is the most depressing book of the Bible, and I get why.  It’s most famous phrase is “meaningless, meaningless, it’s all meaningless.”  The writer of Ecclesiastes some believe is David’s son, Solomon, the great Israelite King who had everything you could ever want in the world.  Power, money, position, wisdom, peace, success. 

The writer of Ecclesiastes, called the Teacher, writes as if he was able to indulge in all of that, and after having his fill, he says “it’s all meaningless.”  I’ve since learned that a far better reading of the text is that “it’s all fleeting.”  It’s not meaningless.  It has great meaning.  The experiences of our lives, even the indulgent, selfish experiences, still have meaning.  But they are fleeting.  Meaning, they come, they go, they come, they go.  Like the wind.  So the teacher’s conclusion is actually very positive and joyful, “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die.” 

I was shocked when my Old Testament professor in seminary remarked that Ecclesiastes is the most joyful book of the Bible, with more references to joy than the famous joy book of the Bible, Philippians.  The point the Teacher in Ecclesiastes is trying to make is that, yes, death is inevitable.  We need to stare death in the face and admit that, but that doesn’t mean that we need to stare at death all the time.  Even when surrounded by death, we can also choose to rejoice.  It is right and good to celebrate, to eat, drink and be merry.  We remember God, the Teacher says.  We focus on revering God and following his ways. 

Likewise, back in Psalm 30, David writes in verse 4, “Sing his praises, you faithful people.”  “Faithful” is a description of how people live their lives.  Their practice, their habits, their pattern of life is one of faithfulness to God.  Part of that habit, is regular praise to God.  This is why we sing in church worship services, but there is so much more to praising God.  There is the pattern of a faithful life.  Our lives praise God by how we live.  So when times are very difficult, remember this too shall pass, this is not your permanent state, and choose to practice living God’s way. 

Do verses 4-5 have a match? If they have a match, it should talk about God’s anger and God’s favor.  The struggle and the praise.  Look at verse 7.  What do you see.  God’s favor and God hiding his face.  It’s a match.  God’s favor makes Mount Zion, the mountain of God where Jerusalem is situation on, where the king’s palace is located.  It’s a royal mountain.  When God favors the king, the royal mountain stands firm.  But when God hides his face, the king is dismayed. 

It can seem as though God is hiding his face.  Especially when we are struggling.  This is why we started our Advent series with psalms of lament.  In lament we declare to God that it seems like he is hiding his face right at the moment when we need him.  David is recalling those times.  Those too shall pass.  Because there will follow the times when God favors us, when we feel and know his presence. 

That leaves us with one verse, and we’ll talk about that in the next post.

Photo by Viktor Forgacs on Unsplash