Praise through Discipline
by Sarah Wootten Corinth Missionary Baptist Church
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” (Psalm 30:11-12, ESV).
What reasons do we have to sing God’s praises? If you’re a Christian, hopefully it wouldn’t take long before you had a list a mile long of reasons to praise God. We might sing of His deliverance, His blessings, or His salvation. But how often do we thank God for discipline?
Psalm 30 is an interesting psalm. While it’s definitely a psalm of praise, it is also one of personal confession. In the Psalm, David has found his life to be in danger, presumably from a sickness. Life was slipping away from him (v. 3) and death was at his door (v. 9). That’s when David cried out to God for help (v. 2). However, why was David sick in the first place? In our days of modern medicine, our first inclination would be to attribute David’s sickness to the spread of germs. As I’m typing this, I’m on my third day of being sick with a virus, and I know of at least five other families who have suffered with the same sickness recently. If you were to ask me why we’re all sick, my first thought would be, “Well, school has started back; therefore, the germs are spreading more quickly!” But this wasn’t the case for David. David knew that he was at death’s door due to his sin (v. 6-7).
The Lord had blessed David immensely. God protected David from a multitude of enemies – both Israelites and Gentiles. God took this youngest son of Jesse, a mere shepherd, and placed him as king over all of Israel. Even though David was often on the run for his life and at war, after all that subsides, we would say that his life was one full of blessings and success. And at some point, David said the same thing.
During his time of prosperity, David forgot that God is the One who blessed him and caused him to prosper. In arrogance, David said, “I shall never be moved,” (Psalm 30:6b, ESV). He may have attributed his success to God (v. 7), but he believed that he was invincible; there was no way for King David to fail. The success that surrounded him caused him to believe that he no longer needed to depend upon God. But as God does, He disciplines His children, not for the purpose of inflicting pain, but so that we will grow in Christlikeness.
The Lord hid His face from David, which caused David dismay (v. 7), and soon, David’s life was failing. All of a sudden, David did not feel strong anymore. Although he was king over God’s chosen people, he was weak, frail, weeping, and utterly helpless. So in humility, David turned to the One whom he had previously disregarded, who was also the One who had always been faithful to David – God Himself. The Lord heard the cries of his servant, reached out His merciful hand, and restored life to David. David had great reasons to praise the Lord. Although he deserved death, God loved him by disciplining him and growing him to depend upon the Father. David witnessed God’s deliverance once again. Therefore, he could sing. God changed his weeping into dancing (v. 11), and David erupted with a heart of thanksgiving (v. 12).
I wonder if we react to God’s discipline with thanksgiving like David did. The Lord’s discipline has a wonderful goal – for God to be glorified in our lives as we walk in His ways. The Bible also says that God disciples those He loves (Hebrews 12); His discipline is a reminder that He loves us and cares for us as His children. But whether God is disciplining due to sin or to produce godly character in us, discipline is painful. So my question is this: are we so focused on our complaint through discipline that we don’t see God’s mighty and merciful hand at work, and thus miss our opportunity to praise God? How sad it would be to miss the privilege we have to worship God for His good work in our lives because we are too focused on our complaints! As Christians, we are called to rejoice always (Philippians 4:4), and that would include rejoicing during seasons of discipline.
