Psalms 30: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A song of thanks after God rescued the speaker from a deadly trouble. He remembers crying out for help, admits he had felt safe and unshakable when things went well, and recalls how he pleaded with God by arguing that a dead man cannot praise him. He ends with God turning his mourning into dancing, and promises to give thanks forever.

Claim by Claim

1. 30:1
   • The speaker says he will extol the LORD.
   • The speaker says the LORD lifted him up, drawing him up as from a depth.
   • The speaker says the LORD did not let his enemies rejoice over him.
2. 30:2
   • The speaker addresses the LORD as his God.
   • The speaker says he cried out to the LORD for help.
   • The speaker says the LORD healed him.
3. 30:3
   • The speaker says the LORD brought his soul up from Sheol, the realm of the dead.
   • The speaker says the LORD kept him alive so that he did not go down to the pit.
4. 30:4
   • The speaker calls on the LORD's faithful ones to sing to the LORD.
   • The speaker calls on them to give thanks to the LORD's holiness, whether by remembering it or by praising his holy name.
5. 30:5
   • The LORD's anger lasts only a moment.
   • In the LORD's favor is life, which may mean life itself or a whole lifetime.
   • Weeping may lodge for a night.
   • Joy comes in the morning.
6. 30:6
   • The speaker says that in his time of ease he said he would never be moved.
7. 30:7
   • The speaker says that by the LORD's favor the LORD made his mountain stand strong.
   • The speaker says the LORD hid his face.
   • The speaker says that when the LORD hid his face he was dismayed.
8. 30:8
   • The speaker says he called out to the LORD.
   • The speaker says he made supplication to the Lord.
9. 30:9
   • The speaker asks what profit there is in his blood, that is, in his death.
   • The speaker asks what profit there is in his going down to the pit.
   • The speaker asks whether the dust will praise the LORD.
   • The speaker asks whether the dust will declare the LORD's faithfulness.
10. 30:10
    • The speaker asks the LORD to hear him.
    • The speaker asks the LORD to have mercy on him.
    • The speaker asks the LORD to be his helper.
11. 30:11
    • The speaker says the LORD turned his mourning into dancing.
    • The speaker says the LORD stripped off his sackcloth.
    • The speaker says the LORD clothed him with gladness.
12. 30:12
    • The purpose of this is that his glory, meaning his inner self, may sing praise to the LORD.
    • The purpose is that he not be silent.
    • The speaker addresses the LORD as his God.
    • The speaker says he will give thanks to the LORD forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

30:1

LORD in capitals stands in for the personal name of God in Hebrew, the four letters usually written YHWH. Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud in its place, and English versions have followed that custom ever since. "Lifted me up" translates a verb used of drawing a bucket up out of a well.

30:2

"I cried unto thee" does not mean crying tears. To cry out meant to shout for help, the way you would yell if you were hurt.

30:3

"The place of the dead" is Sheol in Hebrew: the underground realm where all the dead were thought to go, good and bad alike. It is not a place of punishment. "The pit" is a parallel term for the same place, built on the image of a grave or a cistern one is lowered into.

30:4

The word behind "all of you who belong to him" (hasidim) means those bound to God by loyal love, the faithful or devoted ones, rather than "saints" in the later sense of exceptionally holy people. The second line is literally "give thanks to his holy memorial": the memorial is his name, the thing by which he is called to mind.

30:5

The Hebrew word here means both "life" and "a lifetime," so the line can be read either as "in his favor is life" or as "his favor lasts a lifetime." The contrast with the moment of anger favors the second, but the ambiguity is in the original.

30:6

In 1611 "moved" meant shifted or knocked off its base, the way a building or a boulder is moved, not emotionally affected. "I shall never be moved" is a boast that nothing could ever topple him. "Prosperity" covers security and success in general, not just money.

30:7

"Made my mountain stand firm" is a figure of speech whose exact force is uncertain: it suggests a secure position, a stronghold on a height, or the speaker's own standing, set as solidly as a mountain. "Hid your face" is a standard idiom for withdrawing attention and favor, the opposite of turning your face toward someone.

30:8

Two different words are being translated here. The first, printed LORD, is God's personal name; the second, "the Lord," is the ordinary Hebrew word for a master or superior, used as a title of address.

30:9

"My death" is literally "my blood," meaning violent death or bloodshed. "Dust" is the dust of the grave, what a corpse becomes. The argument assumes the common Israelite picture of the dead as cut off from worship and unable to praise God, so God gains nothing by letting the speaker die.

30:10

Mercy means being kind to someone who needs help. He is asking God to be kind to him.

30:11

Sackcloth was coarse, dark cloth of goat or camel hair, worn against the skin as a public sign of grief or distress. The verb for taking it off is the one used for stripping a garment away, and "dressed me" is literally "belted me," fastening a garment on with a sash.

30:12

"My heart" is literally "my glory," which Hebrew poetry uses for a person's innermost self. With a small change of vowels the same consonants give the word for "liver," thought of as a seat of the emotions, and some ancient translators read it that way.