Nothing is definitive in this life. The Lord alternates joys and sorrows according to what we need for the development of our faith. We are, at times, surprised: the trials discourage us as if God no longer existed, and when God gives favors, we dare not believe them to be true.
1* 2I extol you, O Lord, for you have rescued me; my enemies will not gloat over me.
3O Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.
4O Lord, you have brought me up from the grave, you gave me life when I was going to the pit.
5Sing to the Lord, O you his saints, give thanks and praise to his holy name.
6For his anger lasts but a little while, and his kindness all through life.
Weeping may tarry for the night, but rejoicing comes with the dawn.
7Once in my prosperity I said, “I shall not be troubled.”
8Yet it was you, O Lord, who made me stand on the rock; as soon as you hid your face, I wavered!
9To you, O Lord, I called; to you I begged for mercy:
10“What good would there be in my destruction, in my going down to the pit?
Would my dust give you praise?
Would it prove your faithfulness? ①
11Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; O Lord, be my protector.”
12But now, you have turned my mourning into rejoicing; you have taken off my sackcloth and wrapped me in the garments of gladness.
13And so my soul, no longer silent, now sings praise without ceasing. O Lord my God, forever will I give you thanks.
- Verse 10 mentions what had become the scandal of believers. Is it possible that the dead go forever to this underworld (they called it Sheol) and that God who is so faithful might forget them?
