Psalms 40
Psalm 40 is known as a psalm of David, and it contains both thanksgiving for experiencing God’s deliverance in a place of suffering and a prayer asking for help amid the difficulties that follow. Divided into three parts, this psalm, which reflects one person’s journey of faith, includes personal confession and supplication, praise to God, and prayer for the sake of the community.
1verseFor the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry.
2verseHe brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
3verseHe has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4verseBlessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
5verseMany, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
6verseSacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
7verseThen I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
8verseI delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
9verseI have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know.
10verseI have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
11verseDon’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12verseFor innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
13verseBe pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD.
14verseLet them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
15verseLet them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
16verseLet all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let the LORD be exalted!”
17verseBut I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
Verses 1-10: Thanksgiving for Salvation and Testimony
At the beginning (verses 1-3), the psalmist confesses an experience of crying out to God after long endurance and receiving an answer. He recalls how God rescued him from deep miry clay and put a new song and praise in his mouth. Then, in the following verses 4-5, he praises the blessedness of the one who is like that person and the unfathomable plan of God. Verses 6-8 emphasize the importance of an attitude of following God’s will rather than offering sacrifices, and verses 9-10 reveal that the psalmist did not hide the LORD’s salvation and righteousness in the community, but testified to them.
Verses 11-17: New Troubles and Prayer
Starting from verses 11-13, the mood of the psalm changes. The psalmist asks once again for God’s mercy and help in the midst of a new crisis, his own sins, his enemies’ attacks, and an urgent situation. In verses 14-15, he seeks the failure and frustration of his enemies, and in verses 16-17, he earnestly prays that God would be gracious and grant salvation so that those who seek God may rejoice. This reflects his desire to rely faithfully on the LORD even in suffering.
Structure and Flow
- Verses 1-3: Confession of past experience of deliverance and thanksgiving
- Verses 4-5: The blessedness of those who trust God
- Verses 6-10: True obedience and testimony within the community
- Verses 11-17: Prayer and a confession of faith amid new hardship
The overall structure can be described as an open loop: it confesses God’s grace in the past, and it sings of unwavering trust and hope even in present difficulties.
Meditation Points
- It reminds you that suffering and deliverance, thanksgiving and prayer, repeat throughout the journey of faith.
- It also shows how important it is not only to keep your personal experience of God’s deliverance, but to share it within the community.
- You can reflect on the truth that God desires obedience and a heart more than sacrifices.
Try Applying It to Yourself
- In the situation I find myself in now, I can remember God’s help that I experienced in the past.
- Even in hardship, I can learn to trust God by continually asking for His mercy without becoming discouraged.
- I can also set aside time to make a decision to share the grace and salvation I received from God with my family, neighbors, and within the faith community.
