Turning Point

Guest (Male): The more of life's violent storms you experience, the more you appreciate those rare seasons of smooth sailing. The highs and lows of life are the focus of today's Turning Point, as Dr. David Jeremiah turns to the 30th Psalm for insights on how you can rely on God to help you get through them. With the powerful and inspirational message, here is David to introduce "Life's Ups and Downs."

Dr. David Jeremiah: Well, I don't have to ask you if you've ever been through that cycle. One day everything is great, and the next day you wonder what in the world happened. You're happy for a week, and then something takes your joy away. How do you deal with the ups and downs of life? The psalm that we're going to talk about today tells us some things that will help us. We have been in the Psalms for these weeks in the month of May. We're going to finish out the month in Psalms, and today we're going to be in Psalm 30.

If you have your Bible, you will turn there. We'll follow the scripture and talk about this particular subject: what happens when life does its thing, its up-and-down thing. We'll talk about it in just a moment. We still have one week left for you to order your copy of the special book on Psalms that we produced for this series. It's a beautiful, hardback gift book called *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*. It's 236 pages to help you practice daily abiding with the Lord.

These written instructions will really grab hold of your heart, turn you in a new direction away from sadness and depression and discouragement to being filled with the joy of the Lord. We want you to have this book, and here is how you get your copy. In these next five days that we're on the air here in the month of May, take one of those days and send a gift to Turning Point of any size. In your letter, ask for the book on Psalms, and it will be sent to you.

No matter what size your gift, we want you to do the best you can, be as generous as you can, but the book is not conditioned on the size of your gift. Whatever gift you send, you simply ask for the book on Psalms and it will be on its way to you. We have them here in our warehouse ready to send as soon as we hear your request. Well, here's Part 1 of "Life's Ups and Downs."

A seminary professor once chastised a student for turning in a sermon that had a very boring title. He was trying to teach this young man to be a better preacher, and he said to him, "Sermon titles have to be catchy, and they have to be relevant. They have to be engaging. So, I want you to take this sermon and bring it back tomorrow with a new title that will grab hold of people and make them want to listen."

Well, the young man wasn't exactly sure what he was being asked to do, so he said, "How do I come up with a catchy title?" Well, the professor said, "It's easy. Just imagine that your sermon title is posted on a sign in front of your church. It's Sunday morning, and a big bus full of people has stopped momentarily by your sign. You want a sermon title so catchy, so compelling, that all the people on the bus will jump off of the Greyhound and run into your church. Just think of it that way, and I'm sure you'll come up with a great title."

The student left to ponder the matter, and the next day he returned with his new title: "There's a Bomb on Your Bus." That would get them into church, wouldn't it? If nothing else would do that. Sometimes as I look out at our world—and I'm sure you've had the same emotion—I wonder if we're not riding on a bus that's got a bomb hidden on it somewhere. If it's the cultural problems that we face, some moral and ethical problems that we face, but it seems like there's a heightened sense of concern on the part of people as to where this bus is going after all.

I don't know how you relate to that, but the journey is filled with a lot of peaks and valleys. There's a lot of ups and downs, and it's not like some people expect when you become a Christian, that from then on life is just going to be kind of a sailing on a cruise ship for the rest of your life until you ultimately sail into the harbor of heaven. Most of us have found out that the Christian life is filled with a lot of challenges, and there are a lot of ups and downs in the Christian life.

In some respects, life is like a soccer game. It seems like you play hard through the entire game and never really score any goals. But then nobody else does either, so you don't feel too bad. You get kicked and bruised and knocked down, and you quickly get back up and into the game and avoid getting penalties as best you can, with the exception of the normal kinds of mistakes that are part of the game.

And then the entire game is over, and it's ultimately decided by the flick of a hand in the goal, a mere deflection—one defining moment, and everybody says, "That's the game." And you've played so hard for so long, and it came down to one defining moment in your life. Throughout the game, if you were like me, your emotions were rocketed from one extreme to another, from disappointment to exhilaration, from anger at what you thought was unfair and maybe unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of the other team, and then admiration of a play that was well executed.

From total fatigue to the discovery of energy that you found them dredge up from somewhere you didn't know where, it seems like that's the way life is, isn't it? It's a lot of effort over a long period of time, and it ends up being decided by one or two defining moments along the way. All of us know that we're the product of the ups and downs of life.

Psalm 30 is an honest expression on the part of the psalmist of life. That's why I love the Psalms so much. I find myself here. I find my emotions here. I find the things I have felt and thought of here, expressed in ways much better than I could ever express them. The superscription over the psalm, if you'll notice carefully, says that it's a song at the dedication of the house of David.

That's caused a lot of confusion on the part of scholars because the only house that David really built himself was his own house. That was built by Hiram when he became king, and most people do not believe this psalm fits that occasion, but rather that it is meant to describe the events that were involved when David brought the ark back to Jerusalem and set it up in Jerusalem as the final resting place for the ark of the covenant where the temple would ultimately be built.

As you read the psalm, you begin to see that there are many connections with it that have to do with that particular event as recorded in 2 Samuel. You see, when David became the king over Israel, after waiting for such a long time to be finally crowned king, when he came into his kingdom, his first desire, according to the Old Testament, was to go and get the ark of the covenant and bring it back to Jerusalem so that it would be central to the worship of God's people.

Now, the ark of the covenant, as we've learned already, represents the presence of Almighty God. In the Old Testament system of worship, the ark of the covenant was that which represented the Shekinah glory of God, the presence of Almighty God. Now, I was reading again what happened when the Philistines got a hold of the ark of the covenant. Do you remember that? And the ark of the covenant went throughout Philistia, and everywhere it ended up, there was all kinds of problems. Frankly, they finally got to the place where they didn't want anything to do with the ark of the covenant, and they sent it away.

Well, for many years now, the ark of the covenant had not been at the center of Israel's worship. In fact, during the time when King Saul was in the office, the Bible says that during Saul's reign, nobody even inquired about the ark of the covenant. They didn't even ask any questions about it. But David knew that the ark of the covenant was central to the worship of Almighty God, and so it was his desire to bring it back to Jerusalem. As soon as he became king, that was his intention.

Well, unfortunately, he assigned this project to some of the people in his kingdom who weren't very well studied in terms of the Old Testament law. If you read the story in the Old Testament, you'll discover that they went to get the ark of the covenant and they didn't follow the instructions for moving the ark of the covenant, because in the Book of Numbers, there are detailed instructions as to how this piece of furniture was to be moved. They thought the most convenient way to get it from where it was to Jerusalem was to put it on an ox cart and just take it on down to the city.

Well, that was not the way you were supposed to move the ark of the covenant. On their way down, they came to a place called the threshing floor of Obed-Edom, and the Bible says that the oxen stumbled. When the oxen stumbled, the cart kind of jolted, and a man by the name of Uzzah reached out to steady the ark of the covenant on the cart so that it wouldn't fall off. As soon as he touched the ark of the covenant, he died right there on the spot. He was just fried in a moment.

The Bible says that David got angry. Now, I don't know why he would get angry because God had said that's what would happen if anybody touched that piece of furniture in that way. God had told them that was the penalty because it represented the holiness of God. But the Bible says David was angry. In fact, he was so angry that his anger turned into fear. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, verses 9 through 11, we read that David was afraid of the Lord that day, and he said, "How in the world can the ark of the Lord come to me?"

So he would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David, but he took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months. In other words, David was so bent out of shape over what happened and so afraid of what had happened that he said, "Just leave it where it is. I don't want anything to do with it. I'm not bringing it back to Jerusalem now. Let's just abandon this project and get back to other things."

The interesting thing about the story is that after the ark of the covenant had been in the house of Obed-Edom for about three months, word trickled back down to Jerusalem that everything Obed-Edom touched was turning to gold. Everything that he did was so successful because the Bible says that the Lord blessed the house of Obed-Edom because the ark of the covenant was present. All of a sudden, David got renewed interest in getting the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem.

So this time, he went back and he studied the Old Testament law, and he found out how it was supposed to be done. He went back and he got the ark of the covenant, and it tells us in 2 Samuel chapter 6, beginning at verse 12, that David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. So it was when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.

Many scholars believe that it was at that particular moment that Psalm 30 was born, that David wrote that psalm for right there in that moment when the joy of the Lord was on him and the ark of the covenant was returning to its special place. Well, it was a glorious and exciting day. But I want you to just think back for a moment over the story I've just briefly told you and look at the ups and downs in David's life.

He went from being angry and afraid to being overwhelmed with joy. He went from being mad at God because something he did in the flesh failed to being filled with exhilaration to the point where he couldn't contain himself. I rather suspect that most of us have been on that up-and-down trail through much of our life. How many of you know that there are peaks and valleys, and sometimes the height of the wave, the crest of the wave, determines the depth of the trough that comes after it? Isn't that true?

Life is hard to navigate like that. We're going along trying to make sense out of it, and we just can't. I often think about that as a pastor. I don't know of any career that you could ever sign up for, any position you could ever take, that would challenge your emotional equilibrium more than being a pastor. You go from a party at night to celebrate somebody's anniversary to a wedding the next day, to a funeral the following day, to the hospital, to people in trouble, and your emotions are all over the place.

I think that's much of what David was talking about. In fact, in the psalm—and we're going to do this quickly—there are five contrasting experiences that are pointed out by the psalmist in the ups and downs of life. He begins in the first four verses and in verses 8 through 10 with the cycle from hurting to healing. We do not know exactly what was going on in David's life at this time because we have no record in the narrative that David ever had a serious sickness, but a number of his psalms allude to the fact that he experienced some sickness in his life that was nigh unto death.

Here in the eighth verse of the 30th Psalm, we read these words, which are the prayer of David about his own situation in life, a prayer for his healing. Notice the eighth verse of the 30th Psalm. "I cried to you, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it declare your truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me and be my helper."

The interesting thing is David's praying because he's sick, and he's arguing with God. He's saying, "Lord, let me just plead my case with you for a moment. Why are you letting me be sick, and why am I almost dead? Lord, what profit is there in my blood? If I die, is my dust going to praise you? Lord, you let me die, you're going to lose a worshipper." That's kind of the argument that David is bringing before the Lord.

What good is there? I can't do you any good when I'm dead, Lord. Why don't you let me live, and then I'll worship you and praise you? The one thing you have to say for David's argument is at least his argument was not totally self-centered as most of ours are. He seemed to be concerned about the glory of God, and he said, "If you'll save me, I'll be one more worshipper who will bring honor and glory to your name."

Finally, he gets in sense in his head and he quits all this arguing, and he just pleads to God for mercy. In the last verse, he says, "Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me and be my helper," and that's where we end up. If you've ever been sick or you've ever found out that you have something that is scary to you in terms of sickness, that's kind of the way you pray. You may argue with Him about lots of things, but when you get right down to the end of it, you say, "Lord, I need your mercy. Please, please help me."

So he prays for his healing. And then in verses 1 through 4, we see the praise for his healing, for this is what happens after God heals him. "In You, O Lord, I put my trust. I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name."

Now, here's the picture. Wherever David is in this situation in his life, he has gone down almost to the grave. He says, "O Lord God, I extol You, for You have lifted me up." The word "lifted up" from the Hebrew language is the same expression that's used for dipping a bucket down into a well and drawing water up out of the well. David has this picture in his mind: "Lord God, You reached right down into the grave, and You pulled me right out of the grave. I was almost gone."

The interesting thing is the word "extol" means to lift up. So if you read the text that way, David is saying, "I will lift You up, O Lord, because You lifted me up. I'm going to lift You up in praise because You lifted me up." He begins to praise God for his healing. Anyone who's ever been through a life-threatening experience or a difficult disease knows that when God brings you back from that disease, you just can't ever wake up any morning without thanking Him for the light of day.

You can't get up any day without thanking the Lord for His goodness to you to give you another day. You see the colors differently, and you see the beauty of His world differently, and your heart is filled with joy for the renewed opportunity to be alive. In fact, this is what David says. He says, "Lord, You healed me, and You kept me alive." How many of you know that when God heals you, or whether He doesn't heal you, if you're alive today, it's because God's keeping you alive?

Every day, whether you've ever experienced a threat to that or not, you should get up and look out at the world in which He's placed you and say, "Lord God, thank You for keeping me alive through another day, through another night. I lift up my voice and my hands to You in praise for Your goodness." Notice David has gone now from hurting to healing.

Then notice the purpose for his healing, which is in the fourth verse, and we'll touch on that a little bit later. But he just turns now and addresses the people and says, "Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name." When people have prayed for somebody who is sick and God raises them up, it's just as much their responsibility to praise God for the healing as it was for them to pray for the healing in the first place.

I know that for many of you, you've prayed for those who have been ill, but have you always been careful to give praise to God when He has healed them? Sometimes when the healing comes, the pressure's off, and we forget. We're so careful to say, "Lord, if You'll do this, I'll give You praise," but then we don't often do it. So David exhorts the people, "Sing praise, you His saints, and give thanks to God and remember His goodness because of His healing."

Now, you see the first contrast is one of going from hurting or ill health to healing, and it's kind of a long way between the two. He goes secondly to another contrast, from hurting to healing and now from weeping to joy. Notice what verse 5 says. It says, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." From weeping to joy.

Most of the time, weeping and joy don't go together. I've noticed one exception, and that is that sometimes women cry when they're happy. I don't understand that completely, but I've seen them. "I'm just so happy." I'm trying to figure that out. I can't understand it. But most of the time, weeping goes with sadness and joy goes with gladness. David now is talking about this big chasm that exists between the ups and the downs of weeping and joy.

You can experience those things in just a moment of time. You can be filled with joy one moment and in tears the next because events change and things happen. I want you to notice two things about this little expression, this little contrast between weeping and joy. First of all, this is an everyday truth. This doesn't even necessarily have to come from the Bible to be true, but it is true.

It's good common sense that when a person's going through a difficult thing, you can usually say to that person with meaning and not be false in doing it, "You know what? It's not going to be like this forever. Just hang on, it's going to get better. Just hang on, you'll get through this." One of the great verses of the Bible, which has been a bit misinterpreted with this little phrase, but I like this misinterpretation: some guy was asked what his favorite verse in the Bible was, and he said his favorite verse in the Bible was this: "And it came to pass."

It didn't come to stay, it came to pass. That's kind of the way it is. A lot of people think, when you go through trouble, it's forever. But the Bible says weeping comes in the nighttime, but joy comes in the morning. It is true; this is an everyday truth. I see this all the time as a pastor. Sometimes when we're paying tribute to someone that we've loved who has gone on to be with the Lord, and you look at the sadness in the faces of the family members and you think it'll never, ever be all right with them.

But then a year later or so, you see that somehow God has healed over the open wound and he's brought back some gladness and joy. I was talking with a pastor friend of mine just recently. They've just gone through some tragic things with one of their children, and his wife said, "I looked at my husband the other day, and I said, 'I wonder if we'll ever smile again.'" Some of you have been through hurt so awful that you've actually wondered if you'd ever be able to smile again because it hurt so much at that moment of time.

But you know what? Generally speaking, God restores it and you move through that time of weeping and God brings back the joy. He just has a way of healing. But you know, this is not just an everyday truth. This is an eternal truth, and I want to explain this to you because this is a precious thought. How many of you remember in reading the Old Testament account of creation that the Bible says something, if you think about it, that's rather strange?

After describing the creative work every day, the Bible says this: "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Now, what's wrong with that, class? Isn't that upside down? Isn't that backwards? Isn't it morning and evening is the first day? But in God's calendar, it's not like that. In God's calendar, He says it's the evening and the morning, and that's the first day. There's a wonderful little practical thought there if you'll just grab hold of it.

How many of you know that if you start the day the night before in the thought process and the planning process and the thinking process, the next day will always go better? If you sit down at night and read just a little bit from the word of God before you go to bed and kind of look over the things you're going to do the next day and say, "Lord, these are the thoughts that I have as I look at tomorrow and just bless them," you know what will happen? You'll go to bed that night and God will organize those things in your mind while you're sleeping. You'll get up the next day, and the evening and the morning will be the day.

I think it's important to start early with God, but maybe we should start even earlier. Maybe we should start the night before. But here's the precious truth about eternity. Right now, you and I are living in the evening time of life. But the Bible says there's going to be a morning that dawns someday, and all of the sorrow and the sadness and the difficulty that we have known in our nighttime of life is going to be all gone in the dawning of that new day when the Lord comes back.

Guess what? When He returns, there's not going to be any more ups and downs. There's not going to be any more weeping and sorrow and difficulty and challenge because He's going to heal every hurt and take away every sickness and restore every blemish, and there is going to be joy in the morning. Weeping may be ours for now, and it is probably ours, and isn't that a great thing? Amen.

It's a wonderful thing that God has given to us. So here is this contrast from weeping to joy. Now notice the third one. This everyday, eternal truth is followed in the text by number three, and that is from prosperity to poverty. Isn't it interesting how the Bible uses contrast to teach us life-lasting truth? I've discovered that as I've studied the Bible over these years. Look for the contrast. The Bible likes to tell us what it could be and what it should be, what it has been, what it will be. Through these contrasts, we see life as it should be today, and it helps us grab hold of these scriptural truths and put them into practice. "Life's Ups and Downs," Part 2, tomorrow. Don't miss it as we continue our study of the 30th Psalm.

Guest (Male): We still have two psalms after this one, and we'll finish up this month in the book of Psalms, which is obviously the favorite book of a lot of people. Someone once told me there are more tear stains in the book of Psalms than any other book in the Bible, and I suppose that's true because the Psalms are visceral. They talk about life as we experience it because they were written by David, who experienced life at the deepest level. Be sure and join us tomorrow here on this good station as we continue our discussion from the Psalms. I'm David Jeremiah. Thanks for listening.

For more information on today's special message from Dr. Jeremiah, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected: our monthly magazine, *Turning Point*, and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at DavidJeremiah.org/radio. That's DavidJeremiah.org/radio. Or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book, *Five Psalms for a Flourishing Life*. It'll help you abide with God, and it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James versions, available in your choice of attractive cover options. Get all the details when you visit our website, DavidJeremiah.org/radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow for more of this special message from Dr. David Jeremiah, here on Turning Point.