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Psalm 30 · a question people ask

"You have brought up my soul from Sheol" (30:3). Did the psalmist die and come back?

In the text

The psalm doesn't say he died. The same verse goes on, "You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit" (30:3), and his cry asked, "What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit?" (30:9). So Psalm 30 speaks of being brought up from Sheol and of being kept from going down, in one breath (tap Sheol). It names his cry and his healing: "LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me" (30:2). It doesn't name a sickness or an event. Other psalms speak the same way of the LORD and Sheol: "You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol" (Psalm 86:13), and "But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol" (Psalm 49:15). Psalm 16's honest question on Sheol and corruption looks at 16:10, and these notes don't repeat it.

The verses

“LORD my God, I cried to you, and you have healed me. LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol. You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.”
Psalm 30:2-3 · World English Bible
““What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?”
Psalm 30:9 · World English Bible
“For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.”
Psalm 86:13 · World English Bible
“But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.”
Psalm 49:15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 30

Psalm 30: Mourning into dancing

In Psalm 30, "you have raised me up" (30:1) is dalah, a verb for drawing water. "I shall never be moved" (30:6), said in prosperity, opens with two Hebrew words that Psalm 10's wicked man and Psalm 16 also say. And the verb of the cry "Shall the dust praise you?" (30:9) comes back in the psalm's last line: "I will give thanks to you forever!" (30:12).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions