Monday, July 1

All’s Well

Psalm 30:1        I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up

               and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

 

     Dateline: October 14, 1987. 18-month-old little Jessica McClure, known to the world as Baby Jessica, fell into an uncapped well on her aunt’s property. The well was twenty-two feet deep and only eight inches wide. Would she be found alive? If so, how in the world would they rescue Baby Jessica from such a perilous situation in time? This story made international headlines as for the next fifty-eight hours the world watched and waited on the edge of their seats hoping against hope.

     Oxygen was pumped down the well to keep Baby Jessica alive. The frightened and wailing toddler was comforted as rescuers sang nursery rhymes down the shaft. Fifty-eight hours later, after drilling a parallel shaft, Baby Jessica was brought out alive as the world rejoiced. She was scared, bruised, and scarred, but alive, nonetheless. The rescue was a success.

     King Dave extols the LORD. Why? Well, it’s because the LORD drew him up from the well in which he found himself. There’s a play on words in this verse. ‘Extol’ means to raise or draw up. ‘Drawn up’ is to draw water up from a well. David raises up the LORD in his life because the LORD had drawn up David and rescued him from the deep, dark well of his situation. Both Yhwh and the poet are moving up, but in both actions, the poet is, so to speak, on the bottom, and Yhwh is up top^[1]

     It’s easy to play “Monday morning quarterback” reviewing the Sunday’s plays after the fact. King David is not playing Monday morning quarterback here. As he was in the well David clung to the promises of God. He knew that one way or the other, God would come through. How would God come through? He didn’t know this. But David believed that God would come through. God’s rescue may have been according to David’s prayer, or His rescue might have been a different outcome. Nevertheless, David trusted God.

     When you’re in a deep, dark well you are not alone. God is there in the well with you. He’s comforting you. He’s experiencing the darkness with you. He draws you up. He points you to the ultimate Rescuer Jesus to give you hope.

 

 

---

^[1] Timothy E. Saleska, Psalms 1–50, ed. Christopher W. Mitchell, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2020), 492.