Wearing your heart

 This week our worship starts with:

Psalm 30:11-12 

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

you have loosed my sackcloth

and clothed me with gladness,

that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

A few weeks back we looked at this Psalm (Weeping may tarry for the night) and understood that while it was sung at the dedication of the temple, rather than bringing any glory to its builder, it brought glory to the LORD, the source of David's restoration after a terrible fail of character.

In these concluding verses we hear his transformation of his heart, demonstrated in his actions:

• mourning - This is not the quiet and subdued mourning of western culture.  This is the gut-wrenching wailing of the middle east.
• dancing - Please recall the unabashed joy expressed by David in 2 Samuel 6:14-22, when he danced as-if-no-one-was-watching to the chagrin of his wife Michal.

And then in his garment:

• sackcloth - A scratchy, ill-fitting, and improvised garment made of the temporary cloth weaved of husks and other fibers to hold grain for transport.
• gladness - Rather than a physical festal garment, this is raw joy.

To take a phrase from Shakespeare, David is "wearing his heart on his sleeve".  He is so full of joy that he cannot hide it from anyone around him.  

And it is this joy that he claims as "my glory" (kabowd).  It was not the silent abundance of his treasury, or the clattering armor of his army, or the awe inspiring temple in which they stood.  David's glory was the praise he brought his God.