Clothed in Gladness

Psalm 30: 11-12 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

It's cold and flu season. I got the cold. Therefore I was not at church yesterday, but got to stay home and listen to David Jeremiah, and he went here...and I heard a message of the ups and downs of life. I have been on that roller coaster this season of my life. So excited about some things, and so distressed and let down about others. And what is worse, the things you think will be good end up being the biggest downs around...like the world's greatest daughter-in-law who asks for the divorce...like the remodel making you sick, like the job you love giving you nightmares. In the case of David, it was bringing the ark back to Jerusalem, not following the directions, and having a death on his hands. He was devastated. He sent the ark away, only to bring it back a while later when the family who housed it was blessed, not cursed, by it. He had seen God all wrong. He hadn't followed the law that brings life and God's approval and got the result...death and God's disapproval, and wondered why. Isn't that like us? We do our own thing totally disregarding what the scriptures say concerning it, and then wonder why we are in a mess of our own making, and then we blame God. I see it in my life, and in the lives of those around me and would laugh if it weren't so tragic. And of course, it is easier to see in the lives of those around us than to fess up to our own self-made sewers.

But GOD.

HE shows Himself faithful. HE shows Himself GOOD. He does not delight in sacrifices and death and pain and suffering. He uses them when He has to. If the godly man can get away with breaking the law, what hope is there to redeem the truly sinful at heart? God has to show Himself HOLY, and that irks us to no end. We like Him to be more tolerant, more understanding, more accepting. And HE IS. He just can't tolerate sin. He paid for it with a horrible cost, but didn't let it fester forever.

And the Psalm says that HE changes us when He shows us Himself. When we see the error of our ways, He changes our mourning into praise, and changes our clothes from those of mourning into clothes of gladness. I would love to see these “glad rags.” For David they were linen, but for us, I wonder what color “glad” is...

Is glad red, the color of the saving blood?

Yellow, the color of the Sun who saved us?

Orange, the color of health and wealth?

Green, the color of life?

Blues, the color of sky and sapphires and royalty?

Purple, the color of kings?

When I am down, I feel like the feeling will never end. That is called depression...when there is no hope of things ever being better. What could possibly make me laugh again, to smile, to even want to get out of bed. And there are some issues that make us that sullen. We know that feelings come and go, that most depression will leave us after a time just because we cannot live there forever. Those who can't come out of that place over time become a shell of their former selves. But God is the one who can refocus our minds, give us hope that even when we feel like we are going through hell that heaven waits on the other side. And when we find ourselves looking back with just the twinge of sadness instead of the despair, we can come to God with dancing, with praises on our lips because He has brought us out. We find ourselves out, not by our own devices, because we would stay under the covers all day, but because He brings us out and shows us that it is not the end, but often the beginning. He works in our hearts to trust Him, and when we accept that He is God and we are not, He puts the praises in our mouths, often to our great surprise. We may seem mad, crazy, and totally out of our minds to others to praise God in or after the storm, but many find themselves there, patient at the feet of the Lord, praising Him for bringing us through. Others refuse that grace and suffer bitterness that brews and stews into a rancid pot of hatred. Those without grace and God will be there. But those who trust and praise on the other end of mourning will praise forever...that is a promise of being in His presence for all eternity, where there is no more mourning or tears...all the sorrow will be wiped away.

And there will be DANCING! That I really want to see and do! That's the only “getting down” we will have...no more DOWNS. Until then, praise Him for bringing you through them.