A Psalm of Thanksgiving for Answered Prayer

“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 have healed me. O Lord, You have brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit. Sing praise to the Lord, You saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.” (Psalm 30:1-5, 12b. NKJV).
NKJV). [Read Psalm 30]

This exuberant Psalm of thanksgiving is attributed to David and the introductory notation says it was the song at the dedication of the house of David. This notation may have been added much later for the Psalm seems to have little to do with the dedication of a house. Its subject is thanksgiving for recovery from a life-threatening illness. The psalmist had been “sick unto death” and feared that he would soon go down to the grave. He asks (v. 9) if the dust of his body in the grave could praise the Lord. But amazingly, his health was restored and the whole psalm reverberates with the excitement and exaltation of having been pulled back from death itself. (v. 5b).“Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning!”

Recently a book was published here entitled Bless You, Sister. I’ll Be Prayin’ for You. The subtitle gives insight into what the book is about: “Stories of Bodacious Women Surviving Cancer with Courage.” The forty-five women whose testimonials make up the book’s contents lived through severe illness and aggressive treatments to tell their story. They share their fight for life, and their acknowledgement of God’s grace that brought them through. Their thanksgivings are superlative. To read their stories reinforces and makes real and personal a psalm such as the 30th which is a paean of praise for healing. “Three times I have outwitted death,” poet Byron Herbert Reece wrote. I, too can identify with facing death’s door three times and surviving. John Donne, English poet, wrote, “Death, be not proud.” Why do we have prayer lists with many requests for prayer for the sick? It is because we believe that our God is a God of healing: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Malachi 4:2 KJV). And when we experience healing, our thanks should rise with such joy and gratitude that we, as David of old, will exclaim: “O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever” (Psalm 30:12b).

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Wednesday, November 17, 2010