Mazmur 30:5-11

30:5 For his anger lasts only a brief moment,

and his good favor restores one’s life. ¹ 

One may experience sorrow during the night,

but joy arrives in the morning. ² 

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ³ 

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ⁴ 

Then you rejected me ⁵  and I was terrified.

30:8 To you, O Lord, I cried out;

I begged the Lord for mercy: ⁶ 

30:9 “What ⁷  profit is there in taking my life, ⁸ 

in my descending into the Pit? ⁹ 

Can the dust of the grave ¹⁰  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ¹¹ 

30:10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me!

O Lord, deliver me!” ¹² 

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ¹³ 

[30:5]  ¹ tn Heb “for [there is] a moment in his anger, [but] life in his favor.” Because of the parallelism with “moment,” some understand חַיִּים (khayyim) in a quantitative sense: “lifetime” (cf. NIV, NRSV). However, the immediate context, which emphasizes deliverance from death (see v. 3), suggests that חַיִּים has a qualitative sense: “physical life” or even “prosperous life” (cf. NEB “in his favour there is life”).

[30:5]  ² tn Heb “in the evening weeping comes to lodge, but at morning a shout of joy.” “Weeping” is personified here as a traveler who lodges with one temporarily.

[30:6]  ³ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[30:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[30:8]  ⁶ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 8 are probably preterites; the psalmist recalls that he prayed in his time of crisis.

[30:9]  ⁷ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ¹¹ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[30:9]  sn According to the OT, those who descend into the realm of death/Sheol are cut off from God’s mighty deeds and from the worshiping covenant community that experiences divine intervention (Pss 6:5; 88:10-12; Isa 38:18). In his effort to elicit a positive divine response, the psalmist reminds God that he will receive no praise or glory if he allows the psalmist to die. Dead men do not praise God!

[30:10]  ¹² tn Heb “be a helper to me.”

[30:11]  ¹³ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.