Psalms 30 - Introduction

A thanksgiving for recovery from an almost fatal sickness, and a reflection on the lessons which it was sent to teach. Cp. Psalms 119:67. The Psalmist praises Jehovah for preserving his life in answer to his prayer (Psalms 30:1-3), and calls upon the godly to join him in thanksgiving (Psalms 30:4-5). He goes on to relate his own experience of God's mercy. In prosperity he had grown presumptuous, till God withdrew His favour, and trouble came (Psalms 30:6-7). Then he pleaded that his life might be spared (Psalms 30:8-10): his prayer was answered; his life was prolonged that he might praise Jehovah, and in thanksgiving will he employ the remainder of his days (Psalms 30:11-12).

The Psalm is entitled, A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the House; a Psalmof David (R.V.): and this title has generally been supposed to refer to the occasion for which the Psalm was written. But commentators are not agreed whether the Housemeans the Temple or David's Palace. The term dedicationis used of a house (Deuteronomy 20:5), or city walls (Nehemiah 12:27), as well as of sacred things and places (Numbers 7:10 ff.; 1 Kings 8:63; Ezra 6:16-17). Some refer it to David's palace in Zion (2 Samuel 5:11), and suppose that he had recently recovered from a severe illness: others to the dedication of the site of the Temple (1 Chronicles 21:26; 1 Chronicles 22:1) after the great Plague, regarding the allusions to sickness in the Psalm as not literal but figurative of the anguish which the king felt for the sufferings of his people.

But it is most probable that the title does not refer to the occasion of the Psalm at all, but to its liturgical use at the Dedication of the Second Temple (Ezra 6:16), or in later times at the Feast of the Dedication, to which it is assigned in the Talmudic treatise Sopherim. Comp. the title of Psalms 92, and of 29 in the LXX. The title appears to be a composite one. The words A Song at the Dedication of the Houseare inserted awkwardly between A Psalmand of David. The Feast of the Dedication (John 10:22) was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus in b.c. 165, to commemorate the purification of the Temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the erection of the new altar of burnt-offering (1Ma 4:52 ff.; 2Ma 10:1 ff.).

But it does not follow that the Psalm was written for either of these occasions. More probably it was already familiar, and was selected as appropriate to the circumstances. The very existence of the nation had been at stake; it had been suddenly and unexpectedly freed from a crushing tyranny and as it were restored to life; and this Psalm supplied it with fitting language in which to give thanks for its deliverance. The experience of the individual had been repeated in that of the nation.

This thanksgiving corresponds to the prayer of Psalms 6. Comp. Psalms 30:2 bwith Psalms 6:2 b; Psalms 30:5 awith Psalms 6:1 a; Psalms 30:7 bwith Psalms 6:2-3; Psalms 6:10; Psalms 30:9 with Psalms 6:5. Hezekiah's prayer (Isaiah 38:10-20) seems to contain reminiscences of it; comp. especially Isaiah 38:18 with Isaiah 38:9 ff.