Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people. Psalm 30:4
Susy wept as she sat outside the hospital’s intensive care unit—waves of paralyzing fear sweeping over her. The tiny lungs of her two-month-old baby were filled with fluid, and doctors said they were doing their best to save him but gave no guarantees. At that moment she says she “felt the sweet, gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit reminding [her] to worship God.” With no strength to sing, she played praise songs on her phone over the next three days in the hospital. As she worshiped, she found hope and peace. Today, she says the experience taught her that “worship doesn’t change God, but it definitely changes you.”
Facing desperate circumstances, David called out to God in prayer and praise (Psalm 30:8). One commentator notes that the psalmist prayed “for grace issued in praise and transformation.” God turned David’s “wailing into dancing” and he declared that he would “praise [God] forever”—in all circumstances (vv. 11-12). While it can be hard to praise God during painful times, it can lead to transformation. From despair to hope, from fear to faith. And He can use our example to encourage and transform others (vv. 4-5).
Susy’s baby boy was restored to health by God’s grace. While not all challenges in life will end as we hope they will, He can transform us and fill us with renewed joy (v. 11) as we worship Him even in our pain.
How might worshiping God as you endure pain affect you? How might your example affect others?
Dear God, please transform me even as I worship You in my pain and difficulties.
INSIGHT
Psalm 30 is a psalm of praise for the way God had delivered and healed David (vv. 1-3, 9-11). But as commentators Jacobson and Tanner put it, the psalm isn’t just a psalm of praise, but “a psalm about praise” calling hearers to “a complete life of praise.” It’s God’s merciful and restoring character that gives His people reason to live a life of praise (vv. 4-5). To be abandoned by God would be to be “silenced” (v. 9). But because God turns “wailing into dancing” (v. 11), we have reason to “praise [Him] forever” (v. 12).