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Psalms 30:11 · World English Bible

Psalms 30:11 Meaning You Have Turned My Mourning Into Dancing

You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,

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What does Psalms 30:11 mean?

Religion arrived on this earth wearing sackcloth, and the long face became a certificate of holiness. Dancing undoes that whole arrangement, since godliness is the deepest flowering of joy rather than its opposite.

From the Indian Guru reading below.

Psalms 30:11 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

AWARENESS

Indian Guru

Religion arrived on this earth wearing sackcloth, and the long face became a certificate of holiness. Dancing undoes that whole arrangement, since godliness is the deepest flowering of joy rather than its opposite.

Mourning and dancing are one energy in two states. Sorrow is that energy turned inward and stagnant, held there by a mind chewing on what is gone. When the chewing stops, nothing has been added; the same energy stands up and begins to move. That is why the change comes as a gift and cannot be manufactured. A man who tries to be joyful only paints his sackcloth.

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Indian Guru lens

Live Psalms 30:11 today

  1. Put on one song and actually move to it, alone in the kitchen, badly. Not to feel better, just to let the stuck energy walk around.
  2. Laugh with someone today instead of trading complaints. The first silly thing one of you says, follow it.
  3. When the day goes hard, drop the heavy face you put on for it. You can take the work seriously without wearing the sorrow.

What have I been chewing on, and what happens if I set it down for an hour?

The same truth in other traditions

Sufism · Rumi

Dance where you are broken open. Grief and celebration run on the same energy, and the turning sets it moving.

Zen · Hotei

The laughing monk carries nothing and gives away everything he finds. A long solemn face was never the proof of depth.

Taoism · Chuang Tzu

Chuang Tzu drummed and sang after his wife died, because the grieving had finished its turn. The energy did not leave, it changed direction.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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