Readings for 6/9/13: 1 Kings 17:17-24; Psalm 30; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17
[Psalm 30] I will exalt you, O LORD,
because you have lifted me up
and have not let my enemies triumph over me.
O LORD my God, I cried out to you,
and you restored me to health.
You brought me up, O LORD, from the dead;
you restored my life as I was going down to the grave.
Sing to the LORD, you servants of his;
give thanks for the remembrance of his holiness.
For his wrath endures but the twinkling of an eye,
his favor for a lifetime.
Weeping may spend the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
While 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, O 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, O LORD, and have mercy upon me;
O LORD, be my helper.”
You have turned my wailing into dancing;
you have put off my sack-cloth and clothed me with joy.
Therefore my heart sings to you without ceasing;
O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever.
There are times in life when we feel spiritually dry…when we’re not sure there’s any meaning in all of this…when we’re not sure there is a God. That’s when I open up my Bible or Book of Common Prayer to the Psalms. The Psalmist expresses the full range of human emotion—from praise to lament, from anger to fear, from sadness to joy. Reading a Psalm, such as Psalm 30, I’m reminded that the God we believe in can handle ALL of my emotions. I don’t have to hide any of my feelings from God. God wants to know me—and you—in our entirety, and through our anger, through our fear, through our lament, God can bring about transformation, so that again, our “wailing is turned into dancing,” and we move from” pleading” to God, to “singing without ceasing.”