Daily Devotional for Sunday, June 30

David’s Triumph and Troubles

“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever,” Psalm 30:11, 12.

What is your first memory? Think back, way back. What is the first thing you can remember? I have two, and I am not sure which happened earlier. The first is falling from the top of the staircase. We had a two-tiered stairwell with a banister across the top. I decided to squeeze through the railings and climb around the inside of the banister. Of course, I fell, and I have a distinct memory of a thud on my head. The second also involved a fall in our den. I do not remember what I was doing, but I remember having the breath knocked out of me and the feeling of needing air.

We remember pain. We remember broken arms and broken hearts. We remember injuries and insults. We remember lacerations and loneliness. We must also remember the healing that follows. We must also remember the easing of the pain and the repairing. We must also remember joy. God is in the business of turning mourning into dancing. He delights in dressing us in gladness instead of sackcloth and ashes. He is good at doing that, and He is good for doing that.

The psalmist declared that he would praise God for this and that he would not be silent about it. Pain may stick in our memories and may still sting after decades, but we must allow God’s graciousness in the pain to be that which fills our current thinking about it.

REFLECTION
Joy always comes in the morning for the believer. Joy is always at the end of the story for the one who trusts in Christ.

Jason Rutherford