Some of you may have noticed a change our devotions over the last few weeks. Through the summer we are going to be writing devotions on the upcoming Sunday lectionary readings. So on each day we will talk about a different reading assigned for that Sunday: Monday will be the Psalm, Tuesday the Old Testament reading, Wednesday will be a video devotion on various topics, Thursday the New Testament reading, and Friday the Gospel reading. We hope you enjoy this change in format.
Psalm 30:11-12
You have turned my mourning into dancing
you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
so that my soul may praise you and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.
Often when people speak of mourning they’re speaking about the death of a loved one. But we mourn many things; moving to a new home, job change, broken relationships, our own brokenness and sin… Even in times of joy we may find ourselves mourning. When my children graduated from high school I was filled with joy, but I was also mourning, for I knew that soon they would move on. Mourning is a natural behavior. It is God who gave us tears. It is also God who gives us hope in the face of our tears.
The writer of Psalm 30 knew this: that in our mourning in our sadness there’s always hope. We have the hope of forgiveness and reconciliation. We have all the hope of a new future. We have a promise of life out of death--that someday we will be together again. We have the promise of God who is with us in our sadness. With the promises of God our mourning is turned into dancing. Sometimes we may even find ourselves mourning and dancing for joy at the same time, and that is okay.
