Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Major Dr Dean Smith, Director of Learning and Teaching, and Senior Lecturer in Theology and Philosophy, for writing this devotional. You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
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.[a]
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!”[b]
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul[c] may praise you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
Devotional
Psalm 30 presents the ebb and flow of human emotion through the experiences of sickness and health, sadness and joy, prosperity and poverty. Nothing to see here might be the response. However, a couple of sentences mid Psalm offers a hint at the Psalmist's hermeneutical key. 'You hid your face; I was dismayed.' Here the Psalmist, like Job, interprets what happens to him in binary terms. Those positive things we experience are the result of the Lord's face shining upon us, while the negative things we experience are the result of the Lord hiding his face from us. Those of us who identify as Wesleyans have a very different hermeneutical key to guide our understanding - the God who acts out of love. The incarnation is proof that we are never separated from God, the Lord never hides his face from us irrespective of our experience and situation. 'If I go to the depths you are there' (Psalm 139:8) provides the correction to Psalm 30. We may not know from moment to moment where we will find ourselves on the ebb and flow of human emotion, however we should hold fast to the truth that the Lord's face shines upon us.
Prayer
Lord, we learn very quickly that humans are fickle creatures. All in one moment and all out the next. And we have been guilty of projecting our characteristics upon you. Imagining that you, like us, are fickle. For us when we are good, against us when we are not. This makes for a very unsettled experience - as if we needed further additions. Help us to see ourselves through your eyes. Not fickle but constant. Always all in when it comes to us. Our prayer is not, may your face shine upon us, but rather, make us aware that, at all times and in all places, your face is indeed shining upon us. Amen.
Dean Smith, PhD (Director of Learning and Teaching; Senior Lecturer in Theology and Philosophy)