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Lenten Season · Easter Vigil Fourth Reading · Year A

Psalm 30:2+4, 5-6, 11-12a+13b (2a)

You Have Turned My Mourning into Dancing

The Song of the Lark, Jules Breton
The Song of the Lark, Jules Breton, 1884Art Institute of Chicago
A barefoot girl stops in a field at dawn with her sickle, head lifted, listening. It was voted the most popular painting in America in 1934.The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light: the reading is a sunrise, and this is a face at one.Jules BretonA French painter of rural labour whose glowing field scenes made him far more popular in his lifetime than Millet.Art Institute of ChicagoFounded in 1879 as both a museum and a school, and the home of American Gothic and of a famous Impressionist collection.Art Institute of Chicago

Overview & Insights

“You have turned my mourning into dancing… O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” (Psalm 30:11–12)

Like other psalms that straddle two or more genres, Psalm 30 is sometimes classified as an individual psalm of thanksgiving, or, as Kraus advocates, a prayer song of the sick (30:1–3, 8–9).[1] The more traditional form-critical classification is an individual psalm of lament (it contains complaints against God [30:5a, 7] and against enemies [30:1c]),[2] which also borders on an individual psalm of trust, since the element of trust is so pervasive.[3] The psalmist laments the divine anger he has experienced (30:5, 7), perhaps looking back over a lifetime, and celebrates God’s deliverance (30:11–12).[4] Craigie proposes a cultic setting for the psalm, taking the form of a ceremony of thanksgiving, apparently held in the temple.[5] While the contents of the psalm do not mention sacrifice and the payment of vows, the reference to “saints” (30:4; NIV: “you his faithful people”) suggests a tabernacle/temple setting where the congregation part…

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Take it further: Psalm 30:2+4, 5-6, 11-12a+13b (2a)

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