All right, we'll open our Bibles
to Psalm 30. You listened a while ago when
I read this psalm, and there are so many indications that when David wrote this, he
had been greatly afflicted, greatly afflicted. In verse 1, he said,
I will extol thee, O Lord, thou hast lifted me up In verse 3,
he said, You brought my soul up from the grave, kept me alive
that I should not go to the pit. Verse 7, Lord, by Thy favor,
Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong, but Thou just hide
Thy face from me, and I was troubled. Verse 11, You've turned my mourning
into dancing, my sackcloth. He's been clothed in sackcloth
and mourning. David had been greatly afflicted
both personally and in relation to his friends. And it seems, putting all of
the different writers together, they all seem to agree that this
trial and time of testing came in David's last days, just before
he made Solomon the king. and conferred upon him the work
of building the temple. In fact, this psalm seems to
have been written when David was in his last days and his
battles were all over, and he was very comfortable and very
secure, because he says in verse 6, in
my prosperity, I say had I shall never be moved. There were no wars now. All his
enemies were conquered. I'll read you where he said that
over in Chronicles in a minute. His enemies were all subdued.
They were not fighting any battles. He handed over to Solomon a peaceful
regime. In fact, Solomon's name means
peaceable. During the whole reign of Solomon,
it was a peaceful reign. Absalom, his rebellious son,
was dead and buried. The kingdom was his again, no
problems. He was in the sunset years of
his life, gathering riches indescribable, for the building of the temple
of the Lord. Let's turn to 1 Chronicles, chapter 22. Let me show you that. David was in the sunset years gathering material to build the
temple of the Lord. He says in 1 Chronicles, chapter
22, you have it, verse 5. And David said, Solomon my son
is young and tender, And the house that is to be built for
the Lord must be exceeding, magnificent, of fame and glory throughout
all countries. I will therefore now make preparation
for it." So David prepared abundantly before his death. We'll read
some more of that after a while, but that's the time. But you
know, when God's children prosper, one way, they are sure to be
tried in another, just sure to be tried. I read a poem in my son, Pastor
Paul Mahan's, bulletin. How strange is the course that
a Christian, a believer, must steer. How perplexed is the path
he must tread. The hope of his happiness rises
from fear, and the life he receives from the dead. His fairest pretensions
must wholly be waived, his best resolutions out must be crossed,
nor can he expect to be perfectly saved till he finds himself totally
and utterly lost. Now when all this is done, his
pretensions waived, his best resolutions crossed, finds himself
utterly lost. When all this is done and his
heart is assured of total forgiveness of sin, when his pardon is signed
and his peace is procured, From that moment, his conflict begins. That's exactly right. When God's
children prosper one way, they're sure to be tried another. Consider
Abraham. After these things, it says in
Genesis 22, didn't someone preach on that here recently? Genesis
22. After these things, after all
these things, you think of the things he's talking about. Abraham's
now 120 years old. God did test him and told him
to take his son on Mount Moriah and offer him as a burnt offer. Few people, few believers can
bear perpetual prosperity. Very few. can bear freedom from
trial. David said that. He said in Psalm
119, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, for that's when
I learned God's statutes. Solomon said, Lord, deliver me
from poverty lest I steal. Deliver me from prosperity lest
I forget Thee. You see, the Apostle Paul himself
said that God gave me, in the latter years of his life, a thorn
in the flesh to keep him from being exalted above measure. God gave it to him, a messenger
of Satan, because prosperity and comfort and success breed
bad things in this vessel of clay. Prosperity, success, acclimation,
and comfort breed self-confidence. They breed pride of grace. They
breed carnal security. They breed self-righteousness. Two vital questions ought never
be forgotten. Who makes you to differ? And
what do you have you didn't receive? Who makes it a difference? And
what do you have you didn't receive? So let this be said at the beginning
of this message. David expressed it, and I'm going
to show it to you so plainly in just a moment, that even the joys of grace and
the comfort of faith and the delight of that blessed hope
we sang about a moment ago. It's irons healed. These things, grace, faith, love,
and hope, need to be mixed with the pain of experience, and they
need daily a reality check concerning these two things. The world of
sin in which we dwell, and the nature of sin that dwells in
us. All of these good blessings and
graces need to be mixed with the pain of experience and a
reality check always. We dwell in a world of sin. And James said this about it. He said, listen to James, Know ye not that friendship with
the world is enmity with God? Whosoever will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God? And then Peter said this in 1
Peter 1, verse 6. You greatly rejoice, but for
a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
trials. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than a gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be under the praise and honor
and glory of God at the appearing of Jesus Christ. We must not lose sight of those
two things. The world of sin in which we
dwell is all around us, but more than that, The nature of sin
which dwells in us. And Paul said, the things I would
do, I don't do. The things I would not do, I
do. Oh, wretched man that I am. I find the law when I would do
good evils present with me. Oh, wretched man that I am. That
nature of sin. And the Lord is not going to
allow his children to forget these things. And that accounts
for this Psalm 30. Nevertheless, Pardon always follows
repentance. Fellowship follows chastening.
Joy follows weeping. Weeping endures for the night.
Joy comes in the morning. All right, let's read what happened
over here in 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Let's read what all of the
commentaries agree brought about this psalm of David. Now just remember, this is in
David's last years, peace, prosperity. He said, I said, I'll never be
moved. Well, Satan stood up against
Israel and provoked David, 1 Chronicles 21, to number Israel. And David
said to Joab, Joab was his general and chief aide. He said to Joab and to the rulers
of the people, ìGo number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan. Bring
the number of them to me that I may know it.î Joab answered,
ìThe Lord make his people a hundred times so many more as they be. But my Lord the King, are they
not all my Lordís servants? Why then doth my Lord require
this thing? Why will he have Why will he
be a cause of trespass to Israel? This is wrong. Nevertheless,
the King's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed
and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. And Joab
gave the sum of the number of the people under David. And all
they of Israel were a thousand, thousand, and a hundred thousand
men that drew sword. And Judah was four hundred, three
scored, and ten thousand men that drew sword. But Levi, the
priestly tribe, and Benjamin counted he not among them. But
the king's word was abominable to Joab. And God was displeased
with this thing. God was displeased with this
thing, therefore he smote Israel. And David said unto God, I have
sinned greatly. because I have done this thing.
But now I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant,
for I have done very foolishly. And the Lord spake unto Gad,
that was David's preacher, David's seer, saying, You go and tell
David, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I offer you three things,
David. Choose thee one of them. that
I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David and said
unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Choose thee, number one, either
three years' famine, number two, or three months to be destroyed
before your enemies, before your foes, while that the sword of
thine enemies overtake thee, or thirdly, three days, the sword
of the Lord. even the pestilence in the land,
and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coast of Israel.
Now, therefore, advise thyself what word I shall bring again
to him that sent me to the Lord God. And David said to the prophet
Gath, I am in a great strife. Let me now fall into the hand
of the Lord, for very great are his mercies. But let me not fall
into the hand of man. So the Lord sent pestilence upon
Israel, and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God
sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it. And as that angel
was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil,
and said to the angel that destroyed, It's enough. Stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood
by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted
up his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the
earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand, stretched
out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of
Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth," you remember he said you turn
with sackcloth into gladness, by mourning, into dancing. They're down. They are down. David is down. Clothed in sackcloth,
fell on their faces. Verse 17, And David said unto
God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even
I it is that sin and have done this evil indeed. As for these
sheep, what have they done? As I told you, he was distressed
and afflicted personally and among his friends. Let thine hand, I pray thee,
O Lord my God, be on me and on my father's house, but not on
thy people, that they should be plagued. Then the angel of
the Lord commanded Gad the prophet to say to David, that David should
go up and set up an altar. unto the Lord in the threshing
floor of Ornon the Jebusite. Sin has to be purged. It has
to be atoned for. You've got to have an offering.
You've got to have a sacrifice. David went up at the saying of
Gad, which he spake in the name of the Lord. And Ornon turned
back and saw the angel and his four sons with him, hid themselves. Now Ornon was threshing wheat. This man was threshing wheat.
And as David came to Ornon, Ornon looked and saw David the king,
and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David
with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornon, Grant
me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar
there unto the Lord. Thou shalt grant it to me for
the full price, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
And Ornon said unto David, Take it! Take it to thee. Let my Lord
the King do that which is good in his eyes. Lo, I give thee
the oxen also for burnt offering. I give thee the threshing instruments
for wood. I give thee the wheat for a meat
offering. I give it all." David said to
Hornan, No, I'll buy it for the full price. I will not take that
which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without
cost." In 2 Samuel, when this is recorded, David said, I will
not offer unto the Lord that which costs me nothing. That's
not a gift. That's not an offering if it
costs me nothing. I won't take it. I'm going to
pay for it. All right, verse 25. So David gave to Ornan for
the place 600 shekels of gold. hundred shekels of gold by weight.
And David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the Lord. And
God answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt
offering. And the Lord commanded the angel that he put
up his sword again into the sheaf thereof. At that time when David
saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of
Ornan, the Jebusite, and he sacrificed there, for the tabernacle of
the Lord which Moses made in the wilderness and the altar
of the burnt offerings were at that season in the high places
of Gibeon, David could not go before it to inquire of the Lord.
He was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
That's a desperate situation, isn't it? Desperate. Great. Awesome trial. And that's when
he wrote this psalm. Go back to the psalm now. Let's
look at it. That's when this psalm was given him by God to
preserve for us. Verse 1, Psalm 30. Let's just
look at it. I will extol thee, O Lord, thou
hast lifted me up. I will extol thy goodness and
thy mercy, for thou hast lifted me up out of the pit. Thou hast lifted me up from the
slough of the spire. Oh, how down he was from the
dungeon of the spire. So many people have suffered
because of me, and you've lifted me up, lifted me up. Out of the depths have I cried,
he said in Psalm 130, unto thee, Lord, hear me. And God did. Look at the next line. And you
have not made my foes to rejoice over me. This is what he feared
mostly. You remember that statement he
made over here. Don't turn. I'll read it to you.
When Gad came to him and said, God gives you three choices.
You can take a famine three years. or be destroyed by your enemies
for three months, or fall into the hands of the Lord. And David
said, I'm in a great, great strain, but I know this much. Let me
fall into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies, but
don't let me fall into the hands of men. And God didn't. That's
the reason he's saying here, everybody agrees with this, I'll
extol thee, you've lifted me up out of the slough of despond,
out of the dungeon of despair, and you haven't made my enemies
to rejoice over me. What a blessing. All right, verse
2, O Lord my God, I cried to thee and thou hast healed me.
when David was afflicted in this severe, awesome, it was one of
the greatest trials of his entire life. Where did he go first? He went to the throne of God,
and not to the arm of the flesh. You know, this is one of the
charges God brought against old King Asa. Let me turn over here
and read you what happened. King Asa. He'd been king a long
time. But 39 years he had been king. And he was a pretty good king.
But here it says in 2 Chronicles, And Asa, in the thirty-ninth
year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until the disease
was exceedingly great. Yet in his disease he sought
not the Lord, but he sought to the physicians. And he slept
with his fathers. So Mr. Spurgeon said about that,
he said, if we must have a physician, let it be so. But still, in all
things, whether it be pain of body or pain of soul, in all
things, let's go to our Father first. If your watch is on the
blink, go to the watchmaker. There can be no power in medicine
except to heal. God may use the medicine, but
the healing power is from God, who said, I wound and I heal,
I kill, I make alive. So that's what David said, O
Lord, my God, as covenant words, I cry to thee, and you heal me,
and you heal me. All right, verse 2 and 3 together. I love this language here. It
follows our whole course through life. In verse 2, he said, you
heal me. Salvation is of the Lord. In
verse 3, he said, you brought up my soul from the grave. You
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. And you
kept me alive. Salvation is of the Lord in its
sustaining power, that I should not go down to the pit. You did
all that. That's of the Lord. Then in verse
4, David calls upon all believers to join him in praising the Lord. He says here in verse 4, Sing
unto the Lord, O ye saints of his. David wouldn't fill his
choir with rebels. He wouldn't fill his choir with
rebels. They don't know how to praise the Lord. But he says,
O ye saints of his, O ye chosen of the Lord, who can sing his
praises from their hearts but those who are his? So those are
the ones he invites to join him, singing to the Lord, O ye saints
of his. Now what's this? And give thanks
at the remembrance of his holiness. We give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness because it's his holiness that brought Christ
to the earth as our Redeemer. It's his holiness that sent Christ
to the cross as our substitute. It's his holiness that raised
Christ from the dead and brought him to the throne as our intercessor. So he says here, give thanks
at the remembrance of his holiness. And that's the words of instruction
from our Lord. Take this bread, which is my
body, broken for you, and this do in remembrance of me. Take
this cup, which is my blood, shed for the remission of sins,
in order that God may be just and justify it and do it in remembrance
of me. So ye saints of his, give thanks
at the remembrance of his holiness. Sing unto the Lord. Now here's
a verse I want us to look at a little bit. For his anger, verse 5, his anger
endureth but a moment in his favor is life, and love, and
grace, and mercy, and acceptance. God's anger, and I want you to
think with me. I don't know a whole lot about
this, but what I see is pretty clear to me. God is angry with
the wicked. That's what it says in Psalm
5.5. God hates workers of iniquity. That's what it says in Psalm
7.11. The wrath of God abideth on those who believe not on Christ.
That's what it says in John 3, verse 36. But anger and wrath
toward his people is not proper to God. God is unchangeably an
unchangeable being who loves us in Christ with an everlasting,
immutable, infinite love. Nor is there any wrath and anger
towards Christ or towards those in Christ. God's displeased with what David
did. That's what it says. That's the
word he used, displeased. But angry and wrath? How can it be? If something I
do or don't do or some spiritual failing causes God to be angry
with me, He'd be angry with me all the time. Because I never do anything good. Isn't that right? I never do
anything perfectly. He'd be angry with me all the
time. So I believe what we're saying here, that when God moves
upon us as his children, and corrects us, and chastises us,
It appears to us to be anger. When God does those things which
we do in anger, he turns away. He hides his face. This is all this language, right?
He hid his face. He turns away. He afflicted David. He chastised him. He tried him. He dealt strongly and firmly
with his sins, David's sins, and God dealt with him. But he
did it as a loving, caring father, never stopped loving him, never
hated him. God wasn't angry with David.
I think David says that in Psalm 103. I think the word anger there
is to be understood as we men understand. what folks do who
are angry. You know, God used that word,
He repented. What's repentance? It's to change.
It's to alter your behavior. God, He's using the language
of men. That's what He's using. And here,
when David talks about his anger is but for a moment, endures
but for a moment, he's talking about how we view that sort of dealings with us. But look at Psalm 103, verse
10. See if this helps. He hath not
dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath God removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knows
our frame. He remembers with dust. With
dust. So this, what he's speaking of
here, he says, his anger endureth but for a moment. When God deals
with us in chastisement, in affliction, As a father deals with a child
that needs correction? As he dealt with Paul with a
thorn in the flesh, was he angry with Paul? Was he dealing with
Abraham when he said, take your son up and sacrifice him? Was
he angry with him? No. But it seems that way. We'd look
at it that way. If my father dealt that way with
me, he'd be mad at me, you know, that human being. But not my
Heavenly Father. You see, in his favor, he says
his anger endures for a moment. In his favor is life. In His
favor is love. He never leaves us, actually.
Never leaves. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. Well, He said He hides His face.
Yeah, but He never leaves you. You got that impression. And
He meant for you to. Lord, are you clean gone? David said one time. He reckoned
he was. Are you clean gone? Won't you
hear my prayer? But he never forsakes us, he
never leaves us, his love and favor can never be diminished.
For in Christ, we are holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. Totally. Did not Romans 8, 28
say? And we know all things work together,
even 1 Chronicles 21, for good. It's all in God's design. So,
my text again, verse 5. His anger endureth for a moment,
in his favor is life. Weeping may endure for the night.
That applies to this experience through which David went. I don't
know how long this lasted, but it was longer than a day or a
week or a month, maybe six months. But it was over. Weeping endured
for that night. God dealt with him and with Israel,
and then he took off his sackcloth and turned it into gladness,
and he took off his mourning and turned it into dancing. You'll
see in the next chapter in a moment. Everything's all right. But this
doesn't only apply to momentary things, temporary things. I've been living 75 years, and
the last 50 years have been a heartache every year. Never without one. Never without one. It gets better.
Then it gets worse. You know what I'm talking about.
Same thing. And there's going to be another
next year. And the next year. We've been endorsed by... This
thing applies to this whole life. This whole lifetime. Our lives
are struggles and sins and conflicts. perpetual conflict and heartache
over loved ones, over ourselves, over the world in which we live.
But it's only for a while, because joy is coming in the morning. And I'm not talking about a 24-hour
day. I'm talking about the morning of the Lord. Signs heal, that's
what I'm talking about. So weeping, yea, though I walk
through this valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For
thou art with me always, thou rod and thou staff, comfort me,
thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,
my cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of this difficult time, affliction and trial and struggles
and conflict and heartache. And I'll dwell in the house of
the Lord. That's the morning, when the morning comes. Remember
that psalm, when the morning comes. That's what he's talking
about here. I think I got something on that.
I believe so. Because David said, I'll be satisfied
when I wait with his likeness. Listen, weeping may endure for
the night, and it will. We've got a lot of tears to shed
yet. You read that, Jim, about collecting my tears in your bottle.
There's more of them coming. But listen to this poem. When
in our Father's happy land we meet our Lord and our family
once more, then we shall all things understand, and we'll
wonder why we wept before. Someday we're going to wonder,
why'd I weep? I didn't know then. that God
was doing all this for my good and his glory. I did know it
there. And the whole thing started right
here in verse 6. In my prosperity I said I'll
never be moved. I've got to read you what one
writer said about that. David said in my prosperity I'll
never be moved. Look at the next verse. Lord,
by your favor you made my mountain to stand strong. My mountain?
My prosperity never moved strong. The writer said, David, you said
a whole lot more than it was wise to say, and so God dealt
with you. You talked about your prosperity
never being moved, and you talked about your mountain standing. Standing. He said, when you talk
about your mountain, David, you ought to have said molehill.
That would have been closer to it. We can never think too little
of ourselves or too highly of God. David did, and God corrected
his mistake. What did the Lord do? Thou didst
hide thy face from me. In my prosperity, I said, I'll
never be moved. I've got it made now. By thy
favor, thou hast made my mountain to stand strong, and thou didst
hide thy face, and I was troubled." You know, a hidden face. Somebody
said this, God to hide his face, that's enough to conquer and
correct any believer. This proves David is a child
of God. A hidden face would never trouble a rebel, but the joy
of a believer depends entirely on the presence of the Lord. A hidden face would never trouble
a rebel, but the joy of a believer depends entirely on the presence
of his Lord. So let's go with verse 8 and
then we'll close. to thee, O Lord, unto the Lord
I made supplication. What prophet is there in my blood?
When I go down to the pit, shall the dust praise thee? Shall it
declare thy truth? Hear me, O Lord. Have mercy upon
me, Lord. Be thou my helper." What prayer? Well, he turned for me my mourning
into dancing, put off my sackcloth, girded me with gladness to this
end. that my soul may sing praise
to God and not be silent. O Lord my God, I'll give thanks
unto Thee forever. I'll tell you what I want you
to do. Turn to 1 Chronicles again. Let's read a few verses of that
next chapter when David is back up on shouting ground, happy
ground. Let's don't leave him there.
All right, 1 Chronicles 22, let's read some of this. Then David
said, this is the house of the Lord God, this is the altar of
the burnt offering for Israel. He's talking about that threshing
floor, they've made that sacrifice. And David commanded to gather
together strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he
sent masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. And
David prepared iron in abundance for the nails, for the door of
the gate, doors of the gates, and for the joinings, and brass
in abundance without weight, cedar trees in abundance. For
the Zydonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.
David says, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house
that is to be built for the Lord must be exceeding, magnificent,
of fame, of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore
now make preparations for it. So David prepared abundantly
before his death. Then he called for Solomon, his
son, and charged him to build a house for the Lord. Solomon's
temple. Oh, what an awesome, awesome edifice for the Lord
God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, My
son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the
name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and you have
made great war. You will not build a house unto
my name, because you have shed much blood upon the earth in
my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be
a man of rest. And I will give him rest from
all his enemies round about, for his name shall be called
Solomon, peace above. And I will give peace and quietness
unto Israel in his days. And he shall build a house for
my name. He will be my son, I will be his father, I will establish
the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now, my son,
the Lord be with thee, and prosper thou, and build the house of
the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee. Only the Lord give
thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning
Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.
Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfill the statutes
and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning
Israel. Be strong, be of good courage, Dread not, nor be dismayed. Now behold, in my trouble," that's
poverty, he used that word, "'I have prepared for the house of
the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, a thousand thousand
talents of silver, and of brass and iron without weight. It is
in abundance, timber also, and stone have I prepared, and thou
mayest add thereto. Their workmen would be in abundance,
cures, and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning
men for every manner of work. But the gold and silver, the
brass and the iron, there is no number. Arise, therefore,
and be doing, and the Lord be with you." David also commanded
all the princes of Israel to help Solomon, his son, saying,
"'If not the Lord your God with you, and hath he not given you
rest on every side? For he hath given the inhabitants
of the land into mine hand. And the land is subdued before
the Lord and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul
to seek the Lord your God. Arise therefore and build ye
the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the ark of the covenant
of the Lord and the mercy seat and the holy vessels of God into
the house that is to be built in the name of the Lord. And
it stood.