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.
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