Restored
Laura Digan
June 30, 2021
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Psalm 30 (NRSVA)
1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
and did not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment;
his favour is for a lifetime.
Weeping may linger for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
‘I shall never be moved.’
7 By your favour, O Lord,
you had established me as a strong mountain;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.8 To you, O Lord, I cried,
and to the Lord I made supplication:
9 ‘What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the Pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
O Lord, be my helper!’11 You have turned my mourning into dancing;
you have taken off my sackcloth
and clothed me with joy,
12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.
This psalm is a response to being healed from a serious illness. But it could be a response from any of us who have been restored from a situation that has put us in the depths of despair. The psalmist says: ‘O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.’
But being restored in the Lord doesn’t take you back to the place you were before. Being restored in the Lord brings wholeness, it changes your outlook on life completely. Things that used to be important are suddenly no longer. Your values can change. The psalmist admits that being rich was what drove them but now they see that without good health they have no security. Being restored by the Lord is dangerous, it can change your life. People around you might not like the change in you, they might not understand. They might want the you that was there before the Lord stepped in and interfered.
It made me think of the passage we will look at tomorrow, Mark 5: 21-43, Jairus’s daughter. Jairus’s daughter has died but Jesus restores her to life again. He knows though the potential danger in what he is doing. She is just a child. She might be labelled as different, the girl raised from the dead. People might not understand. They might point, whisper, recoil from her, tell their children not to play with her. Jesus tries to spare her from this by telling everyone that she isn’t dead, just sleeping, and not to tell anyone about what has happened.
As I’ve journeyed with Jesus I’ve lost friends. These people have wanted the old Laura, loud and brash and always up for a party or a crazy day out. Even within the church I sense some people view me now with suspicion now that my ministry and theology has evolved from the tradition I grew up in.
Restoration changes you, continually changes you.
PRAYER:
Fill me with courage Lord to dance in your joy
Fill me with your strength Lord to keep off the sack clothes from my past
Fill me with your freedom Lord to let go of all that no longer serves my life in you
Amen
ACTION: Listen (and/or belt out) the song Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).
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