Mourning Into Dancing-- Psalm 30

A psalm. A song of dedication of the house. Of David.
This psalm was written at a time of dedication of the temple. Perhaps it was when Solomon built the first temple, or perhaps it was when the second temple was built, in the time of Zechariah the prophet. Whatever the case, it was written by a person who had faced a terrible difficulty, facing death, and he escaped the calamity with his life.

I will extol you, Yahweh
For you have drawn me up
And have not let my enemies gloat over me
O Yahweh, my God, I cried to You for help
And You healed me
O Yahweh You brought up my soul from Sheol
You saved my life from sinking into the Pit.
Sing praises to Yahweh, faithful ones,
And give thanks to his holy name.

The writer of the psalm was in a terrible period of his life. He was near to death—perhaps from illness, perhaps from danger—and he gives credit to God for his deliverance from death. And so he spends time doing what he is supposed to do—praising and thanking God.
Praise, as we all know, is speaking well of another. But praise in Scripture is more than this, it is giving important insights on the character of another, and thus, giving honor to that person. To praise someone is to show that they are worthy of praise—thus, they are people who are good or great in some way, and thus deserving of having other people how good they are. Giving praise to someone is kind of like having a newspaper article about how great that person is published. It means that they are important enough and good enough to tell others about.
Thanksgiving is a kind of praise. It is talking about how good one is through what they have done. To praise someone in this way, you could just recount their deeds in the past—like a biography of someone the writer appreciates. Or one could be more direct and simply thank the person for what they’ve done.
We are commanded in Scripture to praise God and to give him thanksgiving many, many times, especially in the Psalms. In the Law, the children of Israel are commanded to praise the Lord (Leviticus 19:24). We are also commanded to praise God in the New Testament (Romans 15:11; Ephesians 1:3-6; Hebrews 13:15; Revelation 19:5). But, by far, the most frequent place in the Bible that commands us to praise God is the Psalms (Psalm 30:4; 33:1; 66:2; 67:3; 149; 150 and many more). Praising God isn’t just a nice thing to do on occasion, it is something God wants us to do all the time. But especially, we are to praise and thank God when He has done something great for us. This is why the Psalmist commands us to do this for God.

God's anger is only for a moment
God's grace is for life.
One may lay down weeping in the evening
But at dawn one rises with a shout of joy.
In my prosperity, I said, "I am forever unshakable."
O Yahweh, you made my mountain to stand firm
But when you hid Your face, I was terrified.
To You, Yahweh, I called,
And to Yahweh I pleaded
"What profit is there in my death
If I go to the Pit?
Can the dust praise You?
Will it declare your faithfulness?
Hear, O Yahweh, and have mercy on me
Yahweh, be my Helper."
The psalmist is here telling the story of his fall and deliverance. He was proud, like Nebuchadnezzar was in Daniel 4, feeling on top of the world, ready to tackle anything. But God was displeased with his pride and He caused the psalmist to falter, to fail, even to come near to death. Then the psalmist began to assail heaven with prayers, such as Jesus mentions in Luke 18:1-7. He argued with God, claiming that his death gives God no benefit. And so God heard his prayers and offered mercy on him.
This story is not unusual in the Bible, nor should it be in everyday life. Often we, as followers of God, think that we have done everything ourselves and give no credit to God for the successes in our life, and even if we do give Him credit, we “know” in our hearts that we did it on our own. But God always attacks that pride and lets us know that we are nothing without Him. And when we are at the bottom, and we are crying out to Him, that’s when God comes up and delivers us, gives us the help we need.

You turned my mourning into dancing
You removed my sackcloth and clothed me in joy.
That my soul may sing praise to You and never be silent.
Yahweh, my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Now the psalmist is praising God for his salvation, as he should. He gives the most memorable line in the psalm right here—“You turned my mourning into dancing.” At one point, he was in depression, in horror and terror and everyone he knew recognized the mental anguish he was in day and night. But now he says that God made his life a joy, a party. Because of God’s deliverance, he does not need to share his anxiety and depression any more. And so he gives thanks to God, as is his requirement.