Things were going so well in my life: and “in my prosperity” (Psalm 30:6) I assumed that it would always be that way, because “by your favor, O Lord, you had established me as a strong mountain” (30:7).

And then life got hard: “you hid your face, and I was dismayed” (Psalm 30:7). Suddenly everything had gone wrong. I was about to be one of “those gone down to the pit” (30:3), and as I felt myself sliding into the abyss, as I felt my soul turning to dust, I called to you: “Lord, be my helper!” (30:8-10).

Will it be glad celebration or crushing heartbreak? We should honestly admit that sometimes, as the book of Lamentations reminds us, the full weight of the disaster lands on us: “The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning” (Lamentations 5:15). Other times God rescues us in astonishing ways: “Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow” (Jeremiah 31:13).

And that’s how it happened for the psalmist. “Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me” (30:2). You have transformed everything: “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever” (30:11-12).

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When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (I Corinthians 2:1-2).
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Indeed, let my soul praise you, O Lord: let none of us be silent, but let us sing and testify: for you have indeed healed us and blessed us; you have strengthened and sustained us, all along the way.

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