Psalm 30:1 I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me
The Navy Seals have a saying about their basic training, BUDs, “The only easy day was yesterday.” In other words, there is no easy day. That kind of flies in the face of what most people think of as a good life. We talk about the good life, ease, pleasure, and lack of constraint, time, or responsibility. Is that really what a good life is? Is a good life an easy life? No, I would say a good life does not equal an easy life.
Here is a kid from the Midwest who is basically in legalized torture in BUDS Navy Seal training, and here is an entitled kid who has had a silver spoon in his mouth all of his life and is miserable and unhappy. He goes to an Ivy League school and realizes that his suspicions are confirmed; there is no purpose in life. It is likely both of these kids may be missing the Lord, the real purpose in life, but of those two, who do you suppose will do more? Both of these examples are cliches, but the point is that the easy life is not necessarily a good life.
In Psalm 30:1 David talks about the ups and downs of his life. He says in verse 1, “I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up, and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.” Notice three positions of elevation. It says, “I will extol thee, O LORD.” I will lift you up. Why? Because you have lifted or drawn me up, kind of like a bucket out of an old-fashioned well. The verse continues, “And hast not made my foes to rejoice [gloat] over me.”
The psalmist didn’t have an easy life, in fact in verse 2 he says, “I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me…thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” What you learn from Psalm 30 is that there is no good without God. Good is not easy; good is when I am in need and know my greater need of God. There is no good without God. How would you even define a good day unless there was a bad day against which to judge it? How would you know a good thing against a perfect one unless you had a God against which to judge that?
So, who is up today? There are three possibilities that are suggested in Psalm 30:1. One is that you are up. Everything is going fine and you might think that is a good life. Well, it is not necessarily. Anything is better than thinking you are better without God. Verse 6 says, “And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.” David was saying that it wasn’t the problems but the prosperity that moved him from God. When we are prosperous, we can think, “I’m never going to be moved. I’m fine. I need nothing.” But in verse 7 he says, “LORD, by thy favor thou hast made my mountain to stand strong.” He was saying, “Any stability I had was not because of my virtue or moral high ground, but because of God’s grace.” It continues, “Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” In contrast, there is trouble. So, you don’t look to God without need. If you don’t have problems, you probably don’t pray. So, you can be up.
Second, your foes and problems can be up. David said, “God has not made my foes to rejoice or gloat over me.” Looking down over the lip of the well’s mouth, you might seem to be deep in the mire. In verse 2 he asks God to hear, heal, and help. God did.
So, you can be up, your foes can be up, or there can be God. God lifts you so that you will exalt Him. Verse 1 says, “I will extol thee, O LORD; for thou hast lifted me up.” In verse 12 he says, “To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee.” Many times, I have experienced something bad in life and thought, “Boy, this is the end. I am in trouble.” It is not the end. God doesn’t allow problems as the end. He allows them as a means to an end, and that end is God Himself. The last verse says, “To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee.” God lifts you so that you will exalt Him.
Today there was a story of an archaeological dig just outside Rome. They found artifacts deep in a well’s mouth that were over two thousand years old. Can you imagine if an artifact could talk? It has been preserved in mud and mire for two thousand years, broken and unrecognizable. I can imagine it thinking, “Wow, it is great to see sunlight again. You have lifted me up.” Many times, I have felt broken, dirty, and without purpose, and God has lifted me up. You see, you don’t need a good life, you need a God life. That is a good life.
The introduction to the psalm says, “A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David.” This was a dedication. Maybe you have enjoyed a graduation, and you can look back and say “Hard times. God times. Wow, that was God and that was good.” Friend, there is no good without God. Today allow your problems to direct you to the God who lifts us up and whom we should exalt.