Psalm 30 in Tehillim - "A psalm, a song for the dedication of the House, of David" - is a psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance from illness and distress. In the section before us, King David turns to the pious, teaches them the secret of the relationship between the momentary anger and the lifetime of goodwill, reveals that the entire standing of the body depends solely upon the Creator's will, and concludes with a declaration that his entire petition for life is only in order to sing praises and give thanks to Hashem, blessed be He.
זַמְּרוּ לַיהֹוָה חֲסִידָיו וְהוֹדוּ לְזֵכֶר קָדְשׁוֹ׃ - Sing to Hashem, His pious ones, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.
King David says: Let Hashem's pious ones sing to Hashem and recount the praise of the Holy One, blessed be He, which is praise for Who He is in Himself. And not only that, but also "give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." The Malbim explains that thanksgiving is always for the good deeds Hashem has performed: one always gives thanks for something - you did something for me, and I thank you. This thanksgiving is directed "to the remembrance of His holiness," meaning that by giving thanks, I recall Hashem's deeds and offer Him gratitude. Thanksgiving always follows the recollection of His benevolent deeds toward me; therefore, "give thanks" - in remembrance of the deeds Hashem performed for my benefit.
The Ibn Ezra asks an interesting question here: Why specifically "His pious ones" (chassidav)? Does someone who is not a chassid not need to sing to Hashem? Rather, King David himself was a chassid - "Preserve my soul, for I am pious," "You will not allow Your pious one to see the pit," "the steadfast mercies of David." David therefore brings good tidings to the pious: If what happened to me happens to you, know that Hashem will extricate you from distress. "Sing to Hashem, His pious ones" - sing and give thanks, for you can see that I too am a chassid like you, and I fell into distress, yet Hashem redeemed and saved me from it; and so too will He save you if such a thing befalls you.
כִּי רֶגַע בְּאַפּוֹ חַיִּים בִּרְצוֹנוֹ בָּעֶרֶב יָלִין בֶּכִי וְלַבֹּקֶר רִנָּה׃ - For His anger lasts but a moment; life is in His favor. Weeping may lodge for an evening, but in the morning there is joyous song.
"For His anger lasts but a moment" - even when there is a period of wrath and anger, how long does it endure? Chazal teach that the wrath of the Holy One, blessed be He, lasts only a moment (rega). And how long is a rega? "Kemimreih" - the time it takes to utter a single word. Tosafos already ask: What could Bilaam have uttered in such a fleeting moment? They answer that he could have uttered a single word: "Kaleim" - destroy them. That is the span of a moment, no more. Bilaam knew how to pinpoint that precise moment when Hashem is wrathful, and this is the meaning of "My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab plotted..." - remember that in those days the Holy One, blessed be He, did not display anger at all; for had He been wrathful for a moment as is His daily way, Bilaam would have been able to curse. There is an additional opinion in Tosafos that had he begun at that precise moment, even if he continued speaking afterward, everything would follow from that initial moment and depend upon it.
In any case, King David comes to teach you: Know that Hashem is abundant in kindness, and even if there is wrath, it lasts only a single moment in His anger. By contrast, "life is in His favor" - the abundance and goodness are life itself, and they are enduring rather than momentary. Hashem's constant will is life, whereas anger is merely a moment.
The Malbim adds further: Even during the time of anger itself, there is "life in His favor." There is anger intended to destroy, and there is anger intended to rectify and heal. The anger that Hashem directed toward David was meant to heal him, so that through its effect he would attain rectification. The fact that we see David pursued, Avshalom banishing him from his kingdom, and David wandering, brought nearly to the threshold of death - for had the counsel of Achitophel not been thwarted at the last moment, nothing of David would have survived - all these were troubles that befell him in the wake of the sin, as was said to him: "Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house." Yet David says: Even though there is a moment in His anger, this is not anger meant to destroy, but anger meant to heal and bestow life. Hashem is angry with me, and through that very anger He heals me. "Life is in His favor" - His will was that I should live, and the anger did not come to put me to death, but to blot out my sins, so that through suffering He would restore and revive me.
And the proof that the anger is limited: "Weeping may lodge for an evening, but in the morning there is joyous song." In the evening, when I went to sleep, it was with weeping, but in the morning when I awoke, there was already joyous song. The duration of suffering was merely from evening until morning, and the brevity of the anger proves that its entire purpose was to heal. According to this, the explanation is: In the evening a person may lie down weeping, but in the morning he will rise with joyous song.
The Ibn Ezra offers an additional, somewhat novel explanation here by way of allegory: "Weeping may tarry for the night" - weeping itself goes to sleep at night. Already in the evening, the crying is silenced and calmed, and the person cries no longer; and when he awakes in the morning, joy bursts forth. That is to say, "tarry" (yalin) refers to the weeping itself. Yet the plain meaning of the verse - which the Ibn Ezra also cites - is that an implied subject is missing: in the evening, he who lodges in weeping will lodge; a person who went to bed falls asleep accompanied by tears.
The Radak adds that this is compared to evening and morning with good reason: evening is a time of darkness, always an expression of exile and of a state where a person finds himself in a difficult reality. Morning, by contrast, is always the aspect of the light of redemption, the aspect of abundance, light, and joy. King David says: that same wrath of which I spoke, wherein Hashem showed me my sins, is the punishment with which He afflicted me in this world - and that is only for a moment; but His favor and the tidings of the forgiveness of iniquity are long life, the life of the World to Come. "Weeping may tarry for the night," but "in the morning" - the aspect of light, as it is written: "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days." Now we are in the darkness of exile, but in the future there will be the aspect of light, and this light is the aspect of bounty and healing.
וַאֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי בְשַׁלְוִי בַּל אֶמּוֹט לְעוֹלָם׃ - And I said in my tranquility: "I shall never be moved."
The Malbim explains: David said, I thought that vitality and health are natural. As long as the body is healthy, everything is fine; I take care of myself, eat well, take vitamins, exercise, and that guarantees my health. "I said in my tranquility" - when the body was at ease, I was certain that my well-being and health were natural, and therefore "I shall never be moved," I will not collapse. In other words, I thought that everything depends on physical health. And what have I now realized? That everything depends on Hashem's desire and His will.
יְהֹוָה בִּרְצוֹנְךָ הֶעֱמַדְתָּה לְהַרְרִי עֹז הִסְתַּרְתָּ פָנֶיךָ הָיִיתִי נִבְהָל׃ - Hashem, in Your favor You made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, I was terrified.
I came to see that it was not as I thought. By what power did my bodily life stand, which is like my mountain? By what virtue did this mountain hold firm? Only by Your will. "In Your favor You made my mountain stand" with might and strength to endure - my body stood intact only by virtue of Your will, not because I eat healthy food. And when "You hid Your face" - the mountain began to collapse; "I was terrified," its foundations and pillars gave way. It turns out, then, that the onset of illness was not an active punishment that Hashem actively inflicted; rather, it was enough that He concealed His face from me, and immediately the mountain began to crumble. As long as Hashem's countenance is upon me, I hold fast and retain my strength; the moment Hashem turns His face away, everything begins to fall apart.
There is a great lesson here. They tell of an elderly couple who passed away and arrived in Heaven. Their records were examined, and baruch Hashem, they were found worthy of Gan Eden, and both were sent in together - in life and in death they were not separated. They arrived in Gan Eden, saw how wonderful and magnificent it was, and were overjoyed. Then the husband said to his wife: "Meidele, you see? If not for you and your health food, we could have been here twenty years ago!"
This is not to say that one should not eat healthily, but many have thought that everything depends on this. There are people who meticulously observed every health rule - whole-grain bread and cereals only, no fats, and nothing harmful - and yet, Rachmana litzlan, passed away prematurely from an illness that struck them. I once heard from Rav Korach ztz"l, who remarked about himself that he was very careful about his health, and according to his calculations he was supposed to live for many more years, but Hashem thinks otherwise and has other plans for me. That is to say, maintaining one's health does not guarantee life, for other factors can create a different reality.
There was once someone who went to a fortune-teller. She looked at him and said, "Sir, I see that what will kill you is margarine." From that day on, he never touched margarine; bourekas he saw only in pictures. One day, while crossing the street, a Blue Band margarine delivery truck hit him. In short, there are things that do not depend on how healthy you are or how much you exercise. Again, the point is not to dismiss health, and a person must take care of their health; but as King David said: "I said in my tranquility: I shall never be moved" - do not imagine that everything depends on physical health. If it is Your will, "You made my mountain stand strong" and the mountain remains firm; but if Hashem hides His face - "I was terrified," and reality itself collapses, Heaven forbid, to the brink of ruin.
And this is backed by studies as well. One of the cities with the highest life expectancy is Bnei Brak, where the primary sport is swaying by the shtender. Kugel and cholent are hardly health foods either, and tofu is probably better for you, yet people there live long lives. What do we learn from this? That longevity depends greatly on the soul. When the soul is healthy, when a person lives properly, everything he experiences is endured with trust and faith in Hashem: "All Your breakers and Your waves passed over me." And if not - as the saying goes: what kills you is not what you eat, but what is eating you. When a person is eaten up inside, immersed in sorrow, strife, anger, and holding grudges against the whole world, that is what kills a person and brings on all troubles. Therefore, one should know: spiritual and emotional wholeness is also the foundation of physical well-being.
אֵלֶיךָ יְהֹוָה אֶקְרָא וְאֶל אֲדֹנָי אֶתְחַנָּן׃ - To You, Hashem, I call, and to my Lord I make supplication.
"To You, Hashem, I call" - my prayer is directed solely to You, and to nothing else. "And to my Lord I make supplication" - the prayer is for Hashem's sake; that is, my entire focus is the honor of Hashem. When I ask for life here, it is not so that I can eat a few more steaks, but so that I may live a life in which I sanctify the Name of Heaven through my actions, so that I can thank You and serve You. This is the ultimate purpose for which I ask to live.
מַה בֶּצַע בְּדָמִי בְּרִדְתִּי אֶל שָׁחַת הֲיוֹדְךָ עָפָר הֲיַגִּיד אֲמִתֶּךָ׃ - What gain is there in my blood, in my descent into the pit? Will dust thank You? Will it declare Your truth?
"What gain is there" - what benefit will You have, Master of the Universe, if I die? After all, the entire purpose for which You created man is for him to serve You, to know You, and to attain, after one hundred and twenty years, spiritual realization and closeness to God, the realm of Gan Eden. But if I live here and merely accumulate Gehinnom for myself, why live? As Chazal said: It would have been better for him had his afterbirth turned over his face; better had he been born a stillborn. "What gain is there in my blood" - what gain is there in my life if my end is to descend into the pit? What do I gain by living if my end is to go down to Gehinnom? Why did You give me life if not to acquire the life of the World to Come through it?
The Radak explains: When sinners die, nothing living remains of them; everything descends to the dust. This is the meaning of "in my descent into the pit" - if a person is not innocent and righteous, everything descends into dust, and "will dust thank You? Will it declare Your truth?" - the dust cannot thank You nor declare Your truth. The spirit returns to God Who gave it, but if it did not attain merit here in life, it does not return to Him. However, if I merit here, that You forgive me and pardon me, then ultimately the spirit will return to God, and then there is gain in my blood; there is purpose in having placed within me the soul, which is the blood, which is this life - a life through which I acquire the World to Come.
שְׁמַע יְהֹוָה וְחָנֵּנִי יְהֹוָה הֱיֵה עֹזֵר לִי׃ - Hear, Hashem, and favor me; Hashem, be a help to me.
Please, Hashem, hear and favor me - "and favor me" means raise me up from illness; "be a help to me" - so that I may thank You.
הָפַכְתָּ מִסְפְּדִי לְמָחוֹל לִי פִּתַּחְתָּ שַׂקִּי וַתְּאַזְּרֵנִי שִׂמְחָה׃ - You turned my mourning into dancing for me; You loosened my sackcloth and girded me with joy.
The Malbim explains: Behold, I see that You indeed listen to my prayer for this reason alone - solely so that I may thank You, and for no other purpose. For the reason You turned my mourning into dancing is so that "my soul may sing praise to You"; by transforming the eulogies of my illness and healing me, I am able to praise and laud the Creator.
The Malbim paints the scene: Everyone already thought King David had passed away. The illness had reached a point where they understood it was only a matter of hours until the end, and everyone gathered to eulogize him. Suddenly, David returns to life, and all those who came to deliver eulogies and stood around his bed began dancing in circles. "You turned my mourning" - that very eulogy itself - "into dancing"; they danced and rejoiced, swirling and praising and lauding Hashem.
Not only this, but also "You loosened my sackcloth." Until now, I had been clothed in sackcloth, which expresses atonement for sins - a person who seeks atonement for his sins wears sackcloth. We find this with the king who wore sackcloth and "walked softly," and similarly with Yehoram, about whom it says that the sackcloth was visible underneath, showing that he wore sackcloth beneath his royal garments. "You loosened my sackcloth" - I had been wearing sackcloth on account of my sins, and now You remove the sackcloth so I may know that my iniquity has been forgiven. "And girded me with joy" - in place of the sackcloth, You gave me joy, for behold, I received forgiveness of sins. In a homiletic play on words, one could interpret: "You turned my mourning lemachol li" - that state of mourning became a source of forgiveness; do not read it merely as lemachol (into dancing), but as limchol - for forgiveness.
לְמַעַן יְזַמֶּרְךָ כָבוֹד וְלֹא יִדֹּם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהַי לְעוֹלָם אוֹדֶךָּ׃ - So that glory may sing praise to You and not be silent; Hashem my God, I will thank You forever.
All this is "so that glory may sing praise to You" - so that the soul within me, which is called "glory" (kavod), may sing and chant to You. "And not be silent" - that there should never be a state of silence or cessation from singing and praising Hashem, blessed be He, but that I may continue singing ceaselessly. Therefore, since the ultimate purpose for which You granted me life is that I may sing to You, King David says: I, too, will do just that. "Hashem my God, I will thank You forever" - since You gave me my entire life so that I might sanctify the Name of Heaven through my deeds and sing and praise Hashem, I promise that this is what I will do, and I will forever thank You, praise, and sing to the Name of Hashem, blessed be He.
The Dubno Maggid offers an original explanation here. There is positive joy: a person wins the lottery, a child is born to him, or a good livelihood comes his way. And there is joy over a negative circumstance that was removed: someone was critically ill and recovered, or was taken captive and rescued - he rejoices over this as well. But if you were to ask a person which type of joy he would want to experience again in the future, he would certainly choose the first kind. Does he wish to be taken captive again just to rejoice over his rescue? Or to fall ill again just to rejoice over his recovery? Of course not. Yet he would gladly win the lottery again and rejoice, or have another child born to him and rejoice in him. The first type of joy he wishes to experience again and again, but regarding the second, he says: neither the distress nor the joy - I would rather forgo it all.
Therefore, notice what King David says here: "So that glory may sing praise to You and not be silent" - a song that never ceases, so that always "Hashem my God, I will thank You forever." What kind of bounty do I ask for? A bounty for which I would aspire to give thanks again and again - that is, that You bestow goodness upon me, rather than the bounty of rescue from evil. For as for being rescued from harm, I have no desire for such joys in the future; I desire joys in which You add goodness to me, for then it is a song that will not be silenced. But a song sung because You saved me from evil - I would prefer to remain silent from it: neither the harm nor the song. Therefore I ask: Master of the Universe, grant me reasons to sing that are of the kind that "will not be silent," so that I may continuously sing - and this can only come through the bestowal of good.
King David teaches the devout to sing to Hashem for His intrinsic praise and to thank Him in remembrance of His goodness, assuring them that just as he was delivered, so too will they be delivered. He reveals that His anger lasts but a moment while life is found in His enduring favor, and that even the anger itself comes to heal rather than destroy - as proven by its brevity: "in the evening weeping may tarry, but in the morning there is joy." He acknowledges his error in thinking that bodily tranquility guarantees security, for only through Hashem's will does the mountain stand firm, and with the concealment of His face it collapses. His plea for life is solely for the sake of the glory of Heaven - "what profit is there in my blood" if I do not merit through it the World to Come - and therefore Hashem turned his mourning into dancing, loosened his sackcloth, and girded him with gladness. And he concludes: "So that glory may sing praise to You and not be silent," which according to the Dubno Maggid is a prayer that his song should always stem from an increase of goodness rather than deliverance from misfortune: "Hashem my God, I will thank You forever."