Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19960609.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm Thirty: Learning To STAY Reliant On God Instead Of Becoming SELF-SUFFICIENT
(Psalm 30:1-12)
  1. Introduction
    1. Like David in his Psalm Twenty-Three testimony, when the Lord is our Shepherd, we have no need.
    2. However, when that Shepherd provides us blessings, it is easy to shift our gaze away from the Shepherd and focus on His provisions so that no longer is the Shepherd our sufficiency, but ourselves as we feel so comfortable with the provisions God has given us!
    3. David got to the point in life where God blessed him so bountifully that he stopped leaning on the God of Psalm 23! What God did then and the lesson David learned are recorded for us in Psalm 30 as follows:
  2. Learning To STAY Reliant On God Instead Of Becoming SELF-SUFFICIENT, Ps. 30:1-12.
    1. The historical background to Psalm Thirty presents a hard lesson learned by David against becoming self-sufficient instead of permanently trusting the Lord.
      1. The introductory inscription claims Psalm 30 was used for the dedication of simply "the house," the definite article "the" referring to the "well-known" house of God! (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, p. 20; J. A. Alexander, Psalms, p. 129)
      2. Since the temple was not built in David's lifetime, but in his son's days (2 Sam. 7:12-16), this dedication event was undoubtedly the dedication of the temple site of 2 Chron. 21:28-22:1, Ibid., Alexander.
      3. At that site, David repented of a sin of self-sufficiency following the severe discipline of the Lord:
        1. Though it was not itself sinful to take a census, David took a military census of his warriors to see where his OWN strength lay. As David's MOTIVE was THEREBY to rely upon his OWN prowess INSTEAD OF the Lord's, this census was a faithless act of self-sufficiency and was therefore SIN, 1 Chronicles 21:1-4 and 2 Sam. 24:1-4.
        2. Accordingly, God struck at David's self-sufficiency by beginning to slay some of the numbers of foot soldiers upon which he had come to rely for his military security, 1 Chron. 21:7,14.
        3. Only when David had built an altar at Mount Moriah, Arauna's threshing floor (Mt. Zion) in obedience to the Lord to handle this sin was the plague stopped. David then dedicated this place as the place of God's grace, the location of the future temple in Jerusalem, cf. 1 Chron. 21:18-22:1.
    2. Thus, Psalm Thirty, composed for the dedication of this location, shares David's testimonial on God's correcting him of his false self-sufficiency sin in taking the census in the first place, Ps. 30:1-12:
      1. David begins the psalm with the claim that God had rescued him from dire straits involving life threats from his military foes, Ps. 30:1-3. This most likely refers to all of David's past military triumphs as he properly credits them not to his own power, but to the Lord's!
      2. Then David called upon the godly to sing in remembrance of God's holiness, His separation from sin, 4.
      3. In keeping with this memorial, David stated that God's anger is only a moment in time but His favor lasts a lifetime; as he had just discovered, "weeping (over sinful failure) may remain for a night (of trouble), but rejoicing (in God's forgiveness and restoration) comes in the morning (of deliverance)," 5b.
      4. To explain this statement, David admitted that he had sinned in becoming self-sufficient by numbering his soldiers, thinking as he did during this faithless numbering that "I will hardly be shaken!" (Ps. 30:6)
      5. In response, God had done David a favor in "shaking" him up pretty good from his self-sufficiency so that when God hid His face of approval, even David's "mountain" of soldier-strength couldn't keep him as God struck at that mountain of many foot soldiers to kill 70,000 of them, Ps. 30:7.
      6. David recalls how he cried to the Lord for mercy (v. 8-10) and God turned his wailing into dancing, removed his sackcloth (1 Chr. 21:16) and clothed him with joy to the praise of God's grace, v. 11-12.
    3. Note: God was not unfair in killing the 70,000 soldiers, for 2 Sam. 24:1 with 1 Chron. 21:1 inform us that God permitted Satan to tempt David to take this census as God had justice to deal out with Israel!!
Lesson: Once God becomes our Provider and our Shepherd, we have to STAY in that role lest, becoming falsely SELF-SUFFICIENT, God becomes angered and WITHDRAWS our idols upon which we lean for self-sufficiency and we must get back the hard way to le aning upon HIM!

Application: We must therefore hold all blessings in life God gives us at arm's length lest they become security replacements for the Giver of them, God Himself!