"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;"
I've been to plenty of funerals and witnessed overwhelming grief and mourning. I've also attended many celebrations and experienced exuberance and gladness with lots of dancing. What a contrast, and what a juxtaposed position in life these two extremes represent.
The Psalmist, David, perhaps the greatest human king to ever live and rule in the history of God's created order, experienced both extremes. He mourned over the loss of his enemy and son Absalom (cf. II Samuel 18:33), he mourned over his adversaries, he mourned over the destruction of his lands, and perhaps most of all he mourned over his sin (cf. Psalm 51). But he also rejoiced over his kingdom, he danced and leaped at the return of the ark of the Lord (cf. II Samuel 6:16), and perhaps most of all he was glad in the forgiveness of sins. Both ends of the continuum are a part of the Christian pilgrimage, but one leads to the other, not the other way around. In other words, God always and eventually turns our mourning into dancing, but He'll never turn our dancing into mourning, not when it comes to things eternal and everlasting. In the life to come there will be no more sorrow, tears, mourning, sin or death. Now that's something to dance about.
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