Psalm 30 — Praise for Healing

In dedicating your house—the is, your soul, which welcomes the Lord,
and the bodily house in which you dwell corporeally—
rejoice and sing Psalm 30

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

We've all had the experience that the psalmist describes here: "Complacent, I once said, “I shall never be shaken.”

LORD, you showed me favor, established for me mountains of virtue. But when you hid your face I was struck with terror. (NAB translation)

How many times have I felt I will never have my faith falter and then when things go wrong I am filled with dismay? I feel as if God is absent because he isn't dashing in to fix my problems immediately. That's not really the way of faith and often the experience I gain in having to trust while working out my own solution is invaluable. I know also so well the absolute joy of God's presence after the crisis has passed and realizing what He's done in my life.

There's some good commentary on this below, as well as a look at how this is a Biblical type in the Old and New Testaments. Interesting stuff!

Text from Psalm 30:5,
"Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning",
illustrated on a window in St Giles, Codicote, Hertfordshire, UK

This psalm reflects feelings so universal that it is a "type" or foreshadowing of events in the Old and New Testaments.

30:5 Joy Comes with the Morning

Biblical Types. Theodoret of Cyr: Now things turned out like this both in the case of Hezekiah and in the case of the salvation of everyone. After the Assyrians applied those awful threats and moved the city to weeping, they sustained the blow at night and in the morning they filled with good cheer those whom they had forced to weep. The divine Isaiah brought Hezekiah the sentence of death in the evening, and towards morning brought him in turn the good news of life. And it happened likewise in the case of the salvation of everyone: the sacred apostles and the believers along with them lamented that passion of the Lord, but toward morning the women came and brought the joy of the resurrection. Commentary on the Psalms.

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

Here we have some good insights for modern application.

For most of us, life is full of similar moments when our awareness of God's presence waxes and wanes. I am talking about our awareness of God here, not the reality of his presence or absence. God is always present, whether we realize it or not. This psalm, however, illustrates how our feelings, our perceptions, can either strengthen or undermine our confidence in facing the circumstances of our lives.

Clearly our perceptions are not always the best judge of reality. ... Nevertheless, our reaction to our circumstances can be immensely altered by our sense of God's presence or absence. As the psalmist indicates, the ability to perceive God at work in the midst of a troubled time made all the difference in the world. Wailing turned to a dance of joy, and rich festal garments replaced sackcloth and ashes.

Psalms vol. 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.