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Psalm 30 is a Psalm of Thanksgiving by King David to God for deliverance flowing out of the suffering he went through.  The Psalm is also a call to all Christians to be thankful for who God is and what He has done for us. The Psalmist David, in gratitude, exhorts everyone to sing praises to God for His goodness to them.  When everything is going well for us, we tend to forget and presume that the goodness we received will last forever.  We think we can insure ourselves against all adversities and are mistakenly confident about our own strength.  This is the self-confidence that is blatantly offensive to God.

“When I feel secure, I said, ‘I will never be shaken.’  O Lord, when you favoured me, you made my mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed” (Ps. 30:6).  Then, suddenly we face a period of dreadful events such as major illnesses, a fit of depression, broken families, job losses or some other crises in our lives.  At such times, we may feel that God has hidden His face from us.  In the darkness of God’s hidden face, we begin to see what we refused to see when God was blessing us with His goodness.  He then corrects us through pain, to draw our attention to Him.  The Psalmist David cried out for mercy.  We also can do likewise and through prayer, draw near to our good God, for the Lord is gracious and will help His people. We have to always trust Him especially when the situation seems hopeless.

“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8, 9).  God’s discipline is only momentary and while He puts us through it, it is always for our own good.  He wants us to be conformed to His likeness and reflect His holiness.  “For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favour lasts a lifetime” (Ps. 30:5).  It is important, therefore, to understand that as Christians, our lives will be filled with health and sickness, joy and sadness, good and bad times.  As we read and reflect on Psalm 30 we have many reasons to give thanks to God for all the blessings and deliverances we receive from Him daily. God is good all the time and all the time, God is good.