The Psalms may well have been collected and arranged in their present form as the hymn book of Israel sometime in the fourth or third century BCE. This is pretty astounding to me. I want it to be astounding to you. The Book of Psalms was arranged primarily as a hymn book, perhaps as far back as 400 years before Christ. Scholars say that some of the psalms were written – and I can’t even begin to get my brain around this – some of the psalms were written 1,400 years before Christ. Amazing. Now I just asked all of us a minute ago, “Raise your hand if you’ve ever laughed, raise your hand if you’ve ever cried.” Well, I invited all of those who have written psalms, I invited them to come here this morning. There’s one right there, and this person was the one who wrote a psalm 1,400 years ago. I’m going to ask that person, “Have you ever laughed, and have you ever cried? If you have, raise your hand.” Oh, look. She raised her hand in both cases. We have this in common.

The Book of Psalms is a collection of various smaller groupings of psalms that were used in Israel’s worship over the centuries. Some psalms were associated with certain feasts, others for the Sabbath, others for confession, others for praise. I love this. This scholar sums up the Book of Psalms in 10 words. Ready? I love this. According to this scholar, this is what the Book of Psalms is about. Ready? Ten words. “The range of human response to God and God’s world.” He actually wrote a masculine pronoun referring to God’s world, and I fixed it. Listen to that again. The Book of Psalms is about, quote, the range of human response to God and God’s world. The range of human response. The moods of the psalms embrace the whole range of human experience from exuberant praise to despair, from intense anger and doubt about God’s care – that’s Psalm 73, if you want to read that, please wait until after the sermon, Psalm 73 represents a psalm holding intense anger and doubt about God’s care – to hope for a future based precisely upon God’s care. The psalms catch the reality of our up-and-down relationship to God, but they also move us steadily along the path of knowing God. Just a closer walk with thee. While Ian was singing, I was thinking about walking, journeying with God along the path. Wow. The range of human emotion.

Now, I find this very interesting, I want you to find it interesting too. Specifically, Psalm 30, the one we’re looking at today – quoting scholars, Psalm 30 is usually categorized as an individual psalm of thanksgiving. Most scholars identify it as the celebratory prayer of a person who has recovered from sickness. This may well be a psalm written by someone who has recently recovered from illness. The psalm is predominantly a prayer; the substance of the prayer is praise. What the psalmist has learned from the whole experience is that, “the purpose of existence is to praise God.” The purpose of existence is to praise God. This is what the psalms are about.

I’ve shared it with you before; I’m going to share it again. My late, great father, Jack Groat, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Marysville for 34 years, for 34 years straight he taught the confirmation class. God dictates that, according to my father, you teach confirmation to seventh graders. It says that somewhere in the Bible, according to my dad. So, seventh grade, 34 years, he taught confirmation class during the school year. At the end of the congregation class, each seventh-grade student had to go before the session in the Presbyterian Church – the governing body is called the session – and they had to repeat from memory one thing. If you walk up to any of those students in 34 years to this day, if you walk up to them and you ask them this question, and it has to be the first question in the Westminster Catechism, I know we all have the Westminster Catechism memorized. The Westminster Catechism is a series of questions and answers. It was used to teach people Christianity. The first question is, “What is the chief end of man?” This is 16^th-century language. What is the chief end of man? Today we would ask the question something along the lines of, “What is the purpose of living?” If you walk up to any of those students – and I’m one of them – and you ask them, “What is the chief end of man?” they’ll be able to answer it. They’ll be able to quote the Westminster Catechism. The chief end of man, and somewhere, somehow my dad right now is smiling.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy God forever. The psalmist is telling us that the purpose of life is to praise God. John Calvin and other reformers said the chief end of life, the meaning of life, the purpose of life is to serve God in what? Enjoy God – and pay attention to the beauty of moths. That is one smart moth because that moth has found an air-conditioned church to be in today. There’s something about that phrase. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Is that true? Is that true? Frederick Buechner – oh my goodness, I just realized there’s a moth. Buechner wrote we fly closer to God like moth to flame whenever we laugh and whenever we cry.

True story about laughter and tears, and there’s something in it for me that speaks of wisdom and life in God and I wanted to speak to wisdom and life for you. This happened when I was an associate pastor at the Riverside Presbyterian Church in suburban Chicago. I was the associate pastor, the late, Roger Kunkle was the senior pastor. An 850-member church, we did 20 funerals a year, maybe 15, 20 depending on the year. We had a very beloved church member die. She was wonderful. She had lived a full life, but most of us, we were broken-hearted. Even though she lived a full life, she died before we felt that she should have, and we missed her, and we cried. Roger and I prepared the funeral, and a lot of people came. I would say there were 300 people who came to this funeral. The sanctuary was filled with 300 people in deep grief and mourning. Roger and I were in grief and mourning. In terms of the architecture of the event, the sanctuary was here, and we were in the choir room, which was outside the sanctuary, separated from the sanctuary by a door. The door was closed. For funerals, typically what we did was Roger and I would gather in the choir room, just the two of us. Very somber feelings, very somber events. Then you walked in the short hallway and you had to step up three steps. just like here. We stepped up three steps, and there was a door, and we were going to walk in. I was going first, number two in command. I was going to go in first, and Roger was going to follow me, and the service was going to begin. Grief. Weeping may endure for the night. We were wearing robes. This is important. Carrying my Bible, I started stepping up the stairs, and I tripped. Anybody remember Chevy Chase on “Saturday Night Live?” I did a Chevy Chase. It was perfect. I tripped, lost all control, hit my head on the door, hard at the top. Bam! We didn’t see the sanctuary, but I’m sure everybody heard it. Thank God the door did not open. Bam! On my head, and I went down, and Roger and I started laughing. We could not stop. We couldn’t stop laughing. We’ve got 300 grieving people in there, the ministers are in choir robes. We couldn’t stop laughing. Joy cometh in the morning. And we couldn’t stop laughing. Finally, we gained some measure of control. I remember walking in front of those 300 grieving people with my hand over my mouth, because I didn’t want them to see me smiling. I’ll never forget it, and there’s something to it. I want it to mean something for you too. Like moth to flame.

I’ll leave you with this. I told you earlier, I’m really good at research, right? You know what else I’m good at? I’m really good at this. I know I’m not alone in this. I’m really good at going down into my basement and going to our Amazon account and using my remote and finding documentaries. I am the world’s best. Nobody can do it like I can. I find these amazing documentaries. I just love them. I recently watched one about World War II British pilots flying Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. It was mesmerizing. These guys were 18, 19, 20 years old. Nazism at that time was winning and people in England were afraid. They interviewed a bunch of these guys who weren’t 18, 19, 20 anymore, let me tell you. They talked to a whole bunch of them who were still alive, and it was mesmerizing. Here’s what one of them said, and I leave it with you today. It was a big battle that was coming the next day. The biggest yet was coming the next day. This guy was 19 years old, and he said to the interviewer, “This is the prayer that I prayed when I got up that morning.” When he knew he was going to go into battle, when he was going to put his life on the line, this is what he prayed. “It’s going to be a busy day, Lord, and if I forget you, don’t forget me. Give me this day. Please, give me this day.” Joy cometh in the morning. Amen? Amen.