Psalm 30 Continued…
Psalm 30:1 I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
I will exalt you…The verb “exalt” comes from the Hebrew verb “RUM” which means “to be high.” While human beings cannot raise God any higher than he already is, they can indeed acknowledge his unsurpassable greatness. David says, “for you lifted me out,” which literally in Hebrew is the image of lifting a bucket of water out of a well…the imagery is that of pulling a drowning person out of the water.
David says that God did not allow David’s enemies to “gloat” over him. That word “gloat” in Hebrew literally means “to rejoice” and would be a reference to the rejoicing his enemies would have had if they had triumphed over him.
This was the judgment which David feared the most out of the three evils; he said, let me fall into the hand of the Lord, and not into the hand of man. It would indeed be terrible if we were handed over to the will of our enemies. Blessed be the Lord, for we have been safeguarded from such an awful fate. The devil and all our spiritual enemies have not been allowed to rejoice over us, for we have been saved from their deception and snares. Let us give all the glory to Him who has saved us from the terrors of hell and has not allowed our enemies to defeat us.
Psalm 30:2 O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.
During those occasions when he was in danger and trouble David would cry out to his covenant God and Father. It should be noted that verses 8-10 are an expansion of this verse.
And you healed me
There is not enough information given in this Psalm to say with certainty what the psalmist means by “you healed me,” but there are several possibilities advanced by Bible scholars. Compare:
1. “Healed” may be used figuratively for the removal of mental sufferings; but here David may be referring specifically to his grief when he saw the sufferings of his people from the plague, which seems to have completely prostrated him, both in mind and body. Compare:
• Psalm 41:4: “I said, “O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you.“
• Psalm 147:4: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
2. “Healed me”—Bodily diseases and sickness affect all of us eventually, and relief comes by healing. Compare:
• Psalm 6:2: “Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony.” This is language which would be applied to a case of sickness.
• Psalm 107:20: “He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.” He sent his word and healed them—He did it by a word; it was necessary for him merely to give a command, and the disease left them.
3. “Healed me” may be understood in a civil sense, of restoring him to his house, his throne and kingdom, and restoring the peace along with it.
Psalm 30:3 O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit.
The meaning is that he had been in imminent danger of death, and had been brought back from the very brink of death. His deliverance was a kind of resurrection from the grave, for his sickness was so severe that he barely escaped death; his recovery was like life from the dead. The soul does not die, nor does it lie and sleep in the grave.
The word which has been rendered here as “grave” is “Sheol”—a word which, when properly used, commonly denotes the region of the dead; the underworld which is entered through the grave. Compare:
• Isaiah 14:9: “The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you — all those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones — all those who were kings over the nations.”
• Psalm 6:5: “No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave?”
• Job 33:22: “His soul draws near to the pit [grave], and his life to the messengers of death.”
You spared me from going down into the pit
The “pit” refers to either the grave or hell. Hence, you have kept me from going along with them, and from being where they are, and as they are. Compare:
• Psalm 69:15: “Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.” In his anguish and distress he passes here from the idea of running streams, and deep waters, to that of a well, pit, or cavern – representing himself as “in” that pit, and praying that it might not be closed upon him, leaving him in darkness and in mire, from which he could not escape.
• Psalm 88:4: “I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength.”
• Isaiah 38:17: “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.”
PRAY
Thank you Father for rescuing me, for saving me, for protecting me.