In Step with the Lord
Sermon – Psalm 30 – In Step with the Lord
Rev. Sara McCurdy, Laguna Niguel Presbyterian Church
July 28, 2024
This Psalm reminds us that in times of trouble and in times of praise, in joy and in concern, we rely on God and on our worshipping community for support, hope and prayer.
Psalm 30:1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved."
7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication:
9 "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?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!"
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
This is the word of the Lord! Thanks be to God!
Those are the words of a person who has learned to partner with God through all the ups and downs of life and who has consequently emerged from a time of trial ever more ready to give thanks to the Lord forever. They are the words of a person completely engaged in relationship with a God who is always at work to save, and who is, therefore, a person clothed with joy because life is in step with the Lord, dancing with God through all that life may bring.
And importantly, they are the words of a person who has returned to the worshipping community encouraging others to join in the dance of praise and thankfulness forever!
When we speak of joy we think of it as a feeling we hold somewhere deep down in our heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. In Sunday school children learn to sing that song (I’ve got joy, joy, joy) followed by a shout out “where?” And the song goes on – down in my heart, down in my heart today. Over the past 6 months I’ve learned that I can experience both grief and joy in my heart at the same time. That is the fruit of being grounded in this joyful worshiping community at LNPC.
When the Bible speaks of joy it is often expressed in dancing. In the Book of Exodus when the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and escaped from Egypt, Moses’ sister Miriam and her friends took their tambourines, and everyone began to dance. To the contrary, in Lamentations when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, men packed up their instruments and called off the dancing because everyone was sad. When the Lord delivers them from exile there will be singing and dancing, says the Prophet Jeremiah. Joy is not just in the heart but also in the feet, legs in the whole body. Dancing was the natural response to God’s deliverance through life’s many trials. When was the last time you, metaphorically speaking, picked up a tambourine and danced out of sheer joy and in response to God’s presence in your life – or in the community of the church?
I wonder if we are not created with a need for this kind of soulful expression that is lost along the way. It is always such a delight to see children dance with abandonment just for the sheer joy of it.
I recall an experience I had with a family gathered in my office for prayer before the start of a memorial service. A great-grandchild, I think he was around 4, was with his grieving family for such an occasion. Spontaneously this little guy began dancing around my office with some kind of stick he had found all while he sang boom, boom, boom. He danced and sang boom, boom and then turned to his Mom and said, Mommy don’t you want to dance? There was in that moment just a spark of joy – of Christian hope in the resurrection in the midst of her sadness. In grief and in illness God wants to turn our mourning into dancing. This Psalm is
about God’s healing grace, God’s steadfast faithfulness, and God’s power to do just that – to turn mourning to dancing.
All of the Psalms are poetry or hymns to be prayed or sung and as such they are filled with poetic language. Figurative, pictorial, and metaphorical language. The words in Psalm 30 paint pictures for us in our minds eye of moving through a time of sadness to joy.
The Lord draws up our souls from the pit as if our very souls had turned into stagnant, lifeless water – pooled motionless in wait for God to come – in wait for God to ladle it up once again so it can be poured out into the living water of life. And when God’s love so thoroughly transforms any one of us we are different inside and out
The use of the word dancing is a metaphor – for living life in step with the Lord, dancing together in the dynamic, irregular and unexpected patterns of life. You know the dance. You’re sailing along feeling good - well oriented to your life and then something happens and things change – a crisis perhaps, an illness or a loss and you know you will need to learn to sing a new song. We hear in this Psalm the ebb and flow of life and loss, of joy and sorrow. Good things and bad, “I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved”, is followed by a lament – “O Lord I cried to you for help. . . you hid your face, I was dismayed.” You know in those moments that you will need to learn the dance of faith again. Ray Waddle is an author and editor of Yale Divinity School’s Reflections. He adeptly puts this ancient Psalm 30 into our contemporary context. In his book, A Turbulent Peace The Psalms for Our Time he writes, over the past decades we are a people who have enjoyed the “biggest prosperity run in American history. And it’s been a time when spirituality was all the rage.” To a sociologist the timing of this focus on spirituality was no coincidence. During this period, we’ve become accustomed to the phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” According to sociologists, in the hierarchy of needs the search for spiritual meaning begins after material well-being is secured. Perhaps we just eventually tire of materialism. The more toys we have the less they satisfy. Psalm 30 puts it this way: Prosperity leads to a puffed-up delusion of self-sufficiency. “I’ve got everything I need. Why do I need the church?” Biblically, when that happens God hides God’s face. And we tend to forget some basic facts.
· Everyone is born equal in God’s sight.
· Everyone dies.
· Dying is not softened by the material things we have accumulated. (Whoever dies with the most toys wins. Not so much.)
· Peace of mind isn’t something one can purchased.
The psalmist recalls earlier days of health and prosperity when he rarely thought about God. “As for me, I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved”. But now, having come through a serious illness or significant loss of some kind, in his recovery he has learned a lesson. And now his gratitude lights up the sky. “Joy comes with the morning.”
We all need practice in turning to God in prayer, especially Prayers of lament and practice in learning how to emerge, however long it takes, in praise and trust. The dance of faith is something that is learned and practiced. It doesn’t always come naturally. Gratefully, the Holy Spirit and the community of the church are here to teach and guide. We don’t have to flounder our way through the experience.
This may not have been the first time the Psalmist had danced with God through the process Jesus calls finding life, losing life, and finding life again. He may have had some practice at losing the life he once had. Now he knows how to give thanksgiving for being delivered from a very dark place – from the Pit from Sheol.
The Old Testament uses the word Sheol to describe a very murky place – a dark and dismal place beneath the earth. It is a place of gloom and darkness where praise is silenced. “O Lord you brought up my soul from Sheol.” From a place where praise is silenced, the Psalmist is lifted up from something he on his own could not escape.
· In times of distress whether the misfortune is out of our own making,
· Or because of a personal illness or illness of a loved one we can feel as if swallowed up into a gloomy place. A place where praise is silenced.
And then he turned, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you healed me.” God’s love brings wholeness. The mystery of God’s faithfulness brings spiritual recovery. And praise returns.
Do you remember those first school dances that somehow, we managed to live through - so awkward. Boys the lined up on one side and girls on the other. Once on the dance floor you hope to find a rhythm, trying to not step on each other’s toes while avoiding looking at your partner. Learning to dance in step with a partner is learned. It takes practice to know the joy found in dancing with a partner.
Perhaps dancing with God does feel awkward at first. We may not feel sure how to look to God for help and healing in tough times.
So, it takes learning how to be open with God in prayer especially when we are filled with lament. Psalm 30 are the words that came after reflecting retrospectively upon life experience. In retrospect the psalmist compares his past fleeting sense of confidence to his current deeper trust in God and renewed commitment to live in thanksgiving forever.
What a great reminder. This Psalm reminds us that through all the twists and turns of life our central prayer of supplication is “Lord, first and foremost bring me and therefore us back to praise.” Praise is the language of faithfulness that goes with all of life. When praise becomes the dance of life then an unshakable kind of joy is possible in seasons of prosperity as well as in the depths of despair.
I’ve got joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where??? Down in my heart today!
Psalm 30 invites us to express and examine a wide variety of life experiences and a wide variety of strong feelings in the context of our community of faith. In community, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the faithful remain in step with the Lord. It is the dance of praise for how God has repeatedly provided safety, healing, and restoration. It is the dance through which instead of feeling lost, we see hope and trust arise again and again because God is our dancing partner. Amen.
Rev. Sara McCurdy, Laguna Niguel Presbyterian Church
July 28, 2024
This Psalm reminds us that in times of trouble and in times of praise, in joy and in concern, we rely on God and on our worshipping community for support, hope and prayer.
Psalm 30:1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.
3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.
4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved."
7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed.
8 To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication:
9 "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?
10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!"
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
This is the word of the Lord! Thanks be to God!
Those are the words of a person who has learned to partner with God through all the ups and downs of life and who has consequently emerged from a time of trial ever more ready to give thanks to the Lord forever. They are the words of a person completely engaged in relationship with a God who is always at work to save, and who is, therefore, a person clothed with joy because life is in step with the Lord, dancing with God through all that life may bring.
And importantly, they are the words of a person who has returned to the worshipping community encouraging others to join in the dance of praise and thankfulness forever!
When we speak of joy we think of it as a feeling we hold somewhere deep down in our heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. In Sunday school children learn to sing that song (I’ve got joy, joy, joy) followed by a shout out “where?” And the song goes on – down in my heart, down in my heart today. Over the past 6 months I’ve learned that I can experience both grief and joy in my heart at the same time. That is the fruit of being grounded in this joyful worshiping community at LNPC.
When the Bible speaks of joy it is often expressed in dancing. In the Book of Exodus when the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and escaped from Egypt, Moses’ sister Miriam and her friends took their tambourines, and everyone began to dance. To the contrary, in Lamentations when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, men packed up their instruments and called off the dancing because everyone was sad. When the Lord delivers them from exile there will be singing and dancing, says the Prophet Jeremiah. Joy is not just in the heart but also in the feet, legs in the whole body. Dancing was the natural response to God’s deliverance through life’s many trials. When was the last time you, metaphorically speaking, picked up a tambourine and danced out of sheer joy and in response to God’s presence in your life – or in the community of the church?
I wonder if we are not created with a need for this kind of soulful expression that is lost along the way. It is always such a delight to see children dance with abandonment just for the sheer joy of it.
I recall an experience I had with a family gathered in my office for prayer before the start of a memorial service. A great-grandchild, I think he was around 4, was with his grieving family for such an occasion. Spontaneously this little guy began dancing around my office with some kind of stick he had found all while he sang boom, boom, boom. He danced and sang boom, boom and then turned to his Mom and said, Mommy don’t you want to dance? There was in that moment just a spark of joy – of Christian hope in the resurrection in the midst of her sadness. In grief and in illness God wants to turn our mourning into dancing. This Psalm is
about God’s healing grace, God’s steadfast faithfulness, and God’s power to do just that – to turn mourning to dancing.
All of the Psalms are poetry or hymns to be prayed or sung and as such they are filled with poetic language. Figurative, pictorial, and metaphorical language. The words in Psalm 30 paint pictures for us in our minds eye of moving through a time of sadness to joy.
The Lord draws up our souls from the pit as if our very souls had turned into stagnant, lifeless water – pooled motionless in wait for God to come – in wait for God to ladle it up once again so it can be poured out into the living water of life. And when God’s love so thoroughly transforms any one of us we are different inside and out
The use of the word dancing is a metaphor – for living life in step with the Lord, dancing together in the dynamic, irregular and unexpected patterns of life. You know the dance. You’re sailing along feeling good - well oriented to your life and then something happens and things change – a crisis perhaps, an illness or a loss and you know you will need to learn to sing a new song. We hear in this Psalm the ebb and flow of life and loss, of joy and sorrow. Good things and bad, “I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved”, is followed by a lament – “O Lord I cried to you for help. . . you hid your face, I was dismayed.” You know in those moments that you will need to learn the dance of faith again. Ray Waddle is an author and editor of Yale Divinity School’s Reflections. He adeptly puts this ancient Psalm 30 into our contemporary context. In his book, A Turbulent Peace The Psalms for Our Time he writes, over the past decades we are a people who have enjoyed the “biggest prosperity run in American history. And it’s been a time when spirituality was all the rage.” To a sociologist the timing of this focus on spirituality was no coincidence. During this period, we’ve become accustomed to the phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” According to sociologists, in the hierarchy of needs the search for spiritual meaning begins after material well-being is secured. Perhaps we just eventually tire of materialism. The more toys we have the less they satisfy. Psalm 30 puts it this way: Prosperity leads to a puffed-up delusion of self-sufficiency. “I’ve got everything I need. Why do I need the church?” Biblically, when that happens God hides God’s face. And we tend to forget some basic facts.
· Everyone is born equal in God’s sight.
· Everyone dies.
· Dying is not softened by the material things we have accumulated. (Whoever dies with the most toys wins. Not so much.)
· Peace of mind isn’t something one can purchased.
The psalmist recalls earlier days of health and prosperity when he rarely thought about God. “As for me, I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved”. But now, having come through a serious illness or significant loss of some kind, in his recovery he has learned a lesson. And now his gratitude lights up the sky. “Joy comes with the morning.”
We all need practice in turning to God in prayer, especially Prayers of lament and practice in learning how to emerge, however long it takes, in praise and trust. The dance of faith is something that is learned and practiced. It doesn’t always come naturally. Gratefully, the Holy Spirit and the community of the church are here to teach and guide. We don’t have to flounder our way through the experience.
This may not have been the first time the Psalmist had danced with God through the process Jesus calls finding life, losing life, and finding life again. He may have had some practice at losing the life he once had. Now he knows how to give thanksgiving for being delivered from a very dark place – from the Pit from Sheol.
The Old Testament uses the word Sheol to describe a very murky place – a dark and dismal place beneath the earth. It is a place of gloom and darkness where praise is silenced. “O Lord you brought up my soul from Sheol.” From a place where praise is silenced, the Psalmist is lifted up from something he on his own could not escape.
· In times of distress whether the misfortune is out of our own making,
· Or because of a personal illness or illness of a loved one we can feel as if swallowed up into a gloomy place. A place where praise is silenced.
And then he turned, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you healed me.” God’s love brings wholeness. The mystery of God’s faithfulness brings spiritual recovery. And praise returns.
Do you remember those first school dances that somehow, we managed to live through - so awkward. Boys the lined up on one side and girls on the other. Once on the dance floor you hope to find a rhythm, trying to not step on each other’s toes while avoiding looking at your partner. Learning to dance in step with a partner is learned. It takes practice to know the joy found in dancing with a partner.
Perhaps dancing with God does feel awkward at first. We may not feel sure how to look to God for help and healing in tough times.
So, it takes learning how to be open with God in prayer especially when we are filled with lament. Psalm 30 are the words that came after reflecting retrospectively upon life experience. In retrospect the psalmist compares his past fleeting sense of confidence to his current deeper trust in God and renewed commitment to live in thanksgiving forever.
What a great reminder. This Psalm reminds us that through all the twists and turns of life our central prayer of supplication is “Lord, first and foremost bring me and therefore us back to praise.” Praise is the language of faithfulness that goes with all of life. When praise becomes the dance of life then an unshakable kind of joy is possible in seasons of prosperity as well as in the depths of despair.
I’ve got joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where??? Down in my heart today!
Psalm 30 invites us to express and examine a wide variety of life experiences and a wide variety of strong feelings in the context of our community of faith. In community, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the faithful remain in step with the Lord. It is the dance of praise for how God has repeatedly provided safety, healing, and restoration. It is the dance through which instead of feeling lost, we see hope and trust arise again and again because God is our dancing partner. Amen.
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