Mourning Into Dancing  

Rev. Mark Porizky

2/19/06

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.

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!”

¹¹  You have turned my mourning into dancing;

       you have taken off my sackcloth

       and clothed me with joy,

¹²  so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.

     O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Bum Phillips, former coach of the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans) once made this comment, "There are two types of coaches in the NFL: them that have been fired, and them that are gonna be fired."

His statement applies to our topic today as well. There are two types of people in the world – those who have been hurt, and those who will be hurt. We can't escape it. Neither can we avoid it. At some time or another, we'll all get hurt – either by the circumstances of life, or by friends, or by people we trust, or even by our own stupidity. It's a fact that sometimes “life hurts.”  Furthermore, when we make a commitment to follow Jesus, we don't receive an exemption from getting hurt. However, our hurts don't have to destroy us; Jesus offers us hope in dealing with our hurts. 

Today we will take a look at Psalm 30, probably my favorite Psalm, even more so than Psalm 23.  This Psalm speaks to all the possible places where we live on any particular Sunday morning.  We’re up.  We’re down.  We’re pleading.  We are praising.  We’re thankful.  Whatever people are feeling—praise, thanksgiving, fear, grief, security, the need to pull out all the stops in pleading—wherever people are at with God, this psalm has a verse that reflects something for them.  

This Psalm also shows us how God wants us to handle the hurts in our life. When you are hurting, there are three things God wants you to keep in mind. Let's take a look at each one. First of all, when you are hurting...

1. Face the Truth About Your Situation  

When we are hurting, there are certain deceptions we tell ourselves (or maybe we are told by others) that simply are not true. What are those deceptions? Well, the biggest one is...

"This could never happen to me."    

How many times have you heard someone who had just experienced a tragedy say, "How could this happen? This kind of thing doesn't happen to people like me."  The sad truth is that tragedy happens to everyone. We try to fool ourselves into thinking we are immune to disaster, but no one has the right to make that claim. The more privileged we think we are, the more difficult it is to deal with the hurts we experience in life. King David said in verse 6,

(v. 6) When I felt secure I said, "I will never be shaken." 

How many times have you felt that way? Security had made David feel invincible. He had wealth and power, and his wealth and power had gone to his head. But he was soon to discover that his own self-reliance wasn't enough to face tragedy in his life. In the very next verse he says...

(v. 7) ... but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

David learned how quickly false security can be shattered. Another person in the Bible who learned this lesson was the Apostle Peter. At one point he told Jesus, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." Yet, within hours of making this statement, Peter denied knowing Jesus.  

If we go through life thinking "it could never happen to me" we are setting ourselves up for disaster. I was in the Christian bookstore over by the Stop and Shop before Christmas, looking for Christmas Candles near some of the books on one of their bookshelves.  A few feet from me were two women. One pointed at a book and said to the other, "This one's called 'The Divorced Christian.' That's a contradiction in terms, wouldn't you say?" Her friend said, "I would certainly think so."  

I felt bad for each of these women, because I realized if the husband of either one ever went off the deep end and ran away with his secretary, the woman's hurt would be compounded by her belief that in the midst of a crisis God had turned his back on her.

No matter how secure you may feel, don't believe the lie that says, "It could never happen to me."  

Three old men were having a conversation one day. The first said, "I think my mind is going. Some days I'll go out to the shed to get a tool, and when I get there, I forget which tool I was after." The second one said, "That happens to me. I'll pick up the phone to make a call, and I forget who it was I was about to call." The third one said, "I don't have that problem, and hopefully I never will—knock on wood.¼Oh that must be someone at the door. I'll get it."

Don't fool yourself your self. No one is exempt from life’s pain. Don't say, "My marriage is immune. My kids will never rebel. My job is secure. I'm as healthy as a horse. I will never fall into sin. I cannot be shaken." The fact is, you can be shaken, and odds are that you will be at some time in your life, in some area of your life. Don't deceive yourself about it. 

Another deception we tell ourselves is...  "This will haunt me for the rest of my life."  

Whether the hurt in our life is caused by our own sin or by the actions of others, we often tend to see ourselves as 'tainted', and therefore worthless. People who have been divorced sometimes think, "I cannot be in a loving relationship now." People who have been fired think, "No company would hire me now."  People who have serious health problems think, "There's no contribution that I could possibly make now." People who have failed morally think, "God could never love me or use me now." People who have been hurt sometimes think, "I can never be happy again."  

These statements simply are not true. 

If you're hurting right now I want you to know that it will not haunt you forever. That is God's promise. It says so right in verse 5  (v. 5b) Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.  

That is, the hurt you are feeling will not last forever. It may hurt now, but God promises that you will experience again a time of rejoicing.  

This, by the way, includes the hurts in our lives that have been caused by own sin. We may have made a wreck of things and feel that God has every right to be mad at me." That may be true, and if it is, this verse was written especially for you. It says... (v. 5) For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime.

Does God get angry at our sin? Yes, God does, because sin is foolish. Does God hold it against us forever? No, because God forgives us. That's God’s promise.

If you are hurting right now, don't deceive yourself about your situation. But realize also that it will not haunt you forever. Even if your pain is of your own doing, God will not hold this against you forever. God will restore you and fill your life with joy. But, in order for God to do this, there is a second thing you must do.  After we stop deceiving ourselves about our own lives we must then

2   Reach A Turning Point    

What is the turning point? It is turning away from self-reliance and turning to God as your source of strength. David said... (v. 8) To you, O Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy.

God does not want us to try to handle our hurts on our own; God wants us to turn towards God.  If you are facing problems in your marriage, God doesn't want you to try to fix things on your own; God wants to help. If you have been mistreated, God doesn't want you to seek revenge on your own; you are supposed to turn to God. If you are facing an illness or some kind of impending disaster, God doesn't want you to face it on your own; God wants you call upon the aid of the Almighty. And if you are guilty of sin, God doesn't want you to die on the cross to pay for your own sins; God wants you to look to Jesus.

We live in a world that believes we should be free of any and all pain, physical or emotional.  We are the first generation in human history to believe this folly.  I despise illness, but this I know:  Illness knocks a lot of nonsense out of us; it induces humility, cuts us down to our own size. It enables us to throw a searchlight upon our inner selves and to discover how often we have rationalized our failures and weaknesses, and dodged vital issues.  

My Story—sleep, trust in doctors, medicine, physical therapists, but not God.  Why?  Have to give up my independence.  

God is offering a way out, a way past the pain and a return to joy.  But before God can do anything, you must reach a turning point in your life, a point where you turn away from self-reliance and turn to God. It's as simple as saying, "Lord, I can't handle this on my own. I need your help."  

Of course, it sounds simple, but for many of us it's not easy getting to that point. Instead, we go through life fighting and losing the same battles day after day, year after year.   Thus, at some point we must pray as David did in verse 10:  (v. 10) Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me; O Lord, be my help.  

Friends, God wants to heal the hurts in your life. In order for God to do that, you must first reach a turning point. This takes you to the next step in the process of healing. Once we have faced the truth about our situations (!), and have reached a turning point (2)...

3 You Can Trust God To Turn Things Around    

I have good news for you: If you have reached rock bottom in your life, you can turn your life to God and he will turn things around. I have even better news for you: You don't have to wait until you reach rock bottom. At whatever stage in the process you turn to God, he will hear your prayer and turn things around. David said... (v. 2) O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.

This is the formula for handling life's hurts: When you turn to God for help, God works with you in your life. This is what King David discovered.  He wrote...    (v. 1-3)...you lifted me out of the depths and did not let me enemies gloat over me...you healed me...you brought me up from the grave...you spared me from going down into the pit.

Then David goes on to say... (v. 11) Your turned my mourning into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy...  

That verse is in my top ten verses, maybe my second favorite verse in the Bible.  It means that, right now you may still be in the 'mourning' stage, but once you turn your situation over to God, you may as well put on your dancing shoes, because God has promised to give you something to dance about. God has promised to take away your sackcloth – the clothes they used to wear during a time of mourning – and will clothe you with joy.  The joy you know may not be happiness, that’s a feeling, not a spiritual condition.  Joy runs deeper than a happy feeling.  But joy comes in the morning after the mourning, when God turns mourning into dancing.  

This I believe, and in this I trust.  Our God turns mourning into dancing.

On December 1, 1997, Missy Jenkins was one of seven students gunned down at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky.  A bullet damaged her spinal cord, leaving Missy dependent upon braces and a walker in order to move around.  

At the time of the shooting, Jenkins was 15-years-old and described herself as "without direction." During her convalescence, she not only found the will to stay alive, but the determination to go forward in a positive direction with her life.  

"I realized I did not die that morning. I'm all here. I'm alive," said Missy in a recent interview.  

On December 18, 2004, carried by that resolve, Missy received a bachelor's degree in social work from Murray State University. Her future plans include a master's degree, marriage, children, and a job.  

Missy said, "I just don't think God is going to give me anything I can't handle."  

This is what God does when we are honest about life’s difficulties, when we reach the point that we can turn our struggles over to God, and when we trust that God can transform them.  Somehow.  Somehow.  

At 43 years old, today, I believe this now more than ever.  I must let go of the deception that says I am somehow above suffering.  I must trust God in the midst of my difficulties.  And I must believe that God can deliver me, not always from pain, but from mourning.  For our God is a God who turns mourning into dancing.   

This is the core of my trust in Jesus.  What I return to in times of distress, again, and again.  And again. Mourning into dancing.  

Let us do so now.  Again.  Will you pray with me?

St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton , CT

Web Site: SAPC-CT.HOME.ATT.NET

Office Email: SAPC-CT@ATT.NET

"Permission to use is granted provided use is not for publication."