Psalm 40:1-17
It is no secret that I love this psalm enormously — so much so that I have taken it as the motto of my ministry. But, of course, it is not only for me; it is for everyone who receives it in faith. I have called this teaching “MUTUAL LISTENING,” because that is what this psalm is about, and it is really the very substance of our life with God. We call on him and he listens to us. Then he calls us, and we must listen to him. That is how it is in this psalm too — at the beginning David bears witness to how he called on the Lord and the Lord listened to him. Then he reminds the Lord how he presented himself with a desire to do his will. At the end of the psalm, on the basis of the relationship already built, he once more calls on the Lord and waits for an answer from him.
I think we could divide this psalm into three parts:
- Verses 1-5 — testimony to the Lord — how God listens to us
- Verses 6-10 — devotion to the Lord — how we listen to God
- Verses 11-17 — prayer to the Lord — how God will hear us
TESTIMONY TO THE LORD — HOW GOD LISTENS TO US
The psalm begins with David’s testimony — with how he was in mortal danger, but God heard his prayer and delivered him.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1)
In Hebrew the first word of this psalm is a very distinctive grammatical construction — an absolute infinitive followed by a verb from the same root. Literally, it sounds like “waiting I waited.” It is a way of strengthening and emphasizing the action. The word “waited” is charged with intensity. But how do we wait “patiently” and at the same time intensely? It means: “I waited long, a very long time.” Yet this is not merely a passive waiting; it is active, full of longing — it is “waiting with crying out,” waiting in prayer. For the verse goes on to say: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.” What was that cry? I believe the answer is given to us in verse 13 and in the last verse of the psalm, verse 17. The cry may well have been: “Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me. You are my God, do not delay.”
This patient waiting is akin to the way the Bible uses the word hope. We use the word hope loading it with many different meanings. But in the Bible hope is not something uncertain. In the Bible hope is completely assured. To hope means to expect something certain. You wait patiently when you are sure that what you are waiting for will come. That is faith. It is the conviction about something that is not seen, yet you patiently await it. We wait, and what we are waiting for is the fulfillment of the hope the Lord has given us — the resurrection from the dead; the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come again to this earth; the coming of God’s kingdom in its fullness. For the promise he has given us is this — eternal life.
“I waited patiently for the Lord…” It is very likely that what the psalmist was waiting for was the answer to his prayer. There are various specific promises, but the promise concerning prayer is universal. For Jesus said: “whatever you ask.” So if you have asked something of God, believe that God will give you what you have asked of him in prayer. God is glorious, wonderful, faithful and good.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. (Psalm 40:1-2)
Clearly the trouble David was in was not small at all. It is no accident that he calls the pit he was in “slimy.” This speaks to us of mortal danger. But God saves his life and sets him in a place of stability, security and prosperity.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. (Psalm 40:3)
Here the psalmist says that as a result of his testimony about how God pulled him out and saved him from his trouble, many will believe in God and will begin to fear and to trust in him. Evidently the psalmist’s experience, his trouble, was visible to others. For he says that they “will see” — they will be able to assess his condition before and after God’s intervention. What was your “slimy pit, mud and mire” from which the Lord delivered you? In one of our hymns we sing:
When I recall the dreadful pit,
Where I sank deep in sin,
I sing the praises of your love,
Christ my Savior!I was sinking in dreadful darkness,
But you yourself came,
And rescued my soul,
Christ my Savior!I was perishing in the abyss, but you
Died for me upon a cross
And paid the price for my sin,
Christ my Savior!
Another hymn says: “Jesus took my feet out of the mire and set me on a rock.” Clearly God saves us from sin and from eternal destruction. But he is also living and real, and he acts in various ways, delivering us from different dangers and troubles in our life.
In verses 4-5, by pronouncing a blessing, the psalmist generalizes and makes universally valid what he said at the beginning about himself personally. What is true for him is true for everyone, for any person at all. The one who is humble, and who does not rely on himself but on the Lord, will be a witness of countless wonders. He will taste God’s providence, and like the psalmist he will be a witness who has come to know from experience God’s boundless goodness.
4 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. (Psalm 40:4)
May God help us to belong neither to the group of the proud nor to the group of the apostates. The proud say: “God? There is no God! Everything I have achieved I did with these two hands!” And they boast of themselves. The apostates, for their part, are those who treacherously turn away from the Lord. They belonged to the Lord, they believed in him, but they have fallen away.
Let us put our trust in the Lord. That means to have one hundred percent faith and to rely on God to the very end.
5 Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. (Psalm 40:5)
God is the God of wonders. He is a living God. We have a God who is not only almighty, but who is a God who thinks about us. That is why in the New Testament the apostle Peter says:
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)
The fact that he cares for us means that he thinks about us. His thoughts toward us are countless. This shows how great his love for us is. For when you love someone, you think about them. And here I am reminded of the words of Jeremiah 29:11:
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)
DEVOTION TO THE LORD — HOW WE LISTEN TO THE LORD
It is wonderful that when we call on the Lord, he listens to us. But the reverse is also necessary — when God calls us, we must listen to him. For it to be good, our listening must be mutual. In fact, in this respect we find something very interesting in this psalm. The normal practice for giving thanks according to the law was for a person to bring God a thank offering. But here he says that instead of a thank offering, he will offer God his very self, as a voluntary lifelong servant, together with a scroll on which his testimony and his decision to serve the Lord willingly are written.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire — but my ears you have opened. (Psalm 40:6)
This is most likely an allusion to the law of slavery in the Pentateuch. The Israelites could not be slaves forever. They could be slaves for a short time until they paid off their debts. In the seventh year they had to be set free (Exodus 21:2). But the Law provided for a situation in which a person could voluntarily decide to give himself into slavery to his master, because he loved him. Then he had to confirm this before the judges and give his ear to be pierced with an awl against the doorpost (Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:16-17). To us this sounds terrible, but when the ear healed, there was a hole in it, which was a permanent mark of his love and honor for his master, and of the fact that he had become his voluntary slave. The pierced ear was a sign that this man had decided to serve his master voluntarily to the end of his life. But think what kind of master this must have been, that his servant would make such a decision. He himself judges that as a slave in his master’s house he will be far better off than as a free man outside it. By giving himself as a voluntary slave, this man is in effect saying: “Outside of you there is no good for me. With you I am so well off that it could not be better. You release me, but I do not leave you, because I love you and because I am well off with you.”
Some critics read this text and try to set it against the priests’ teaching about the sacrifices. But such a view is far too shallow, because this psalm, like the other psalms, was sung in the temple during worship, and the temple and its worship services were under the control of the priests. So it is not that there is anything wrong with the sacrifices which God commanded the Israelites to bring, but what is more important is that we have an attitude of devotion to the Lord, like the attitude of the voluntary slaves who give themselves in service to their masters out of love and gratitude, and not by force and out of obligation.
In fact, this is what God wants — a true worship, a voluntary service. God does not desire merely formal offerings and sacrifices. We see this as a theme that runs through the whole word of God.
Remember, for example, King Saul, who returned from the battle with the Amalekites, and he had kept King Agag alive, though God had commanded him to devote the Amalekites to destruction in the same way Jericho had been devoted to the Lord, because the Amalekites had opposed the Israelites on their way to the Promised Land (1 Samuel 15:1-3). He carried out God’s command up to a point, devoting all the soldiers to destruction, but he kept the king alive along with the best of the animals. As the saying goes, “he felt sorry for the goods” and would not slaughter them. When Samuel came to meet him on his return from the battle and asked him, “Have you carried out the Lord’s command?” Saul said, “Yes, I obeyed the voice of God” (1 Samuel 15:13). But Samuel said, “Then what is this bleating and lowing that my ears are hearing?” (1 Samuel 15:14). And Saul said, “The people — not I — they spared them — to sacrifice to the Lord your God” (1 Samuel 15:15). And then Samuel spoke these words (1 Samuel 15:22-23):
22 But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” (1 Samuel 15:22-23)
Isaiah 1 speaks of the same thing. There God openly says: “I hate your New Moons and your appointed festivals.” It is not that God hated what he had commanded. For God had commanded these things, and while they sang psalms, the priests offered sacrifices. But God does not want a superficial, merely verbal, nominal worship. In the New Testament we see that Jesus insisted on this especially. There he rebuked the hypocrites and the Pharisees by quoting the prophets, who said: “These people come near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” God does not desire merely verbal, hypocritical worship, but worship that comes from the heart. And when Jesus said that now the worshipers of God will worship “in the Spirit and in truth,” he meant that we should worship the Lord with everything that is in us, with our whole being — in deed and in reality. What God is seeking is a voluntary worship, and not only worship, but obedience and the doing of his will.
Burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. 7 Then I said, “Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll.” (Psalm 40:6-7)
These words are quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews, and there they are placed on the lips of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:4-8).
4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am — it is written about me in the scroll — I have come to do your will, my God.’” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” — though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:4-10)
That is, Christ takes on flesh, and through his incarnation he carried out God’s will. And through that will — the offering of Christ’s sacrifice once for all — we have been made holy.
8 I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:8)
Here it says that God’s Law, his “torah,” is “within his heart.” What does that remind you of? Jeremiah 31. There Jeremiah speaks of the annulment of the old covenant and says that a time will come when God will establish a new covenant with Israel. Not like the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. Because they broke it. But he will write his covenant on their hearts. This is the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
In the Letter to the Hebrews these verses from Jeremiah are also quoted as the foundation of the New Covenant. We must not forget that God’s promise, the essence of the covenant, consists not only in God’s forgiving our sins, but also in his putting his commandments into our hearts and writing them on our inmost being. In other words, that it should not be difficult for us to obey and serve him, but that it should be pleasant for us, that we should “delight” in it. And this is what this man in Psalm 40 says: “I desire to do your will, my God!” It is not hard for me, it is not a burden, it is not tedious — I delight in it! Why? Because “your law is within my heart!” Not simply that the law is outside my heart and I am trying to do it. But it is “within my heart,” it is engraved on my heart, it is written on my heart.
But in Psalm 40 we see a man who says that this has already happened to him. What God wanted was an inner change in people’s hearts, so that the law would not be something that is a constant subject of dispute, but something a person obeys out of inner conviction, because it is written on his heart. The slave with the pierced ear is a wonderful illustration. He desires to do his master’s will, because it is written on his heart.
In fact, God “pierces” our ears not with the awl of pressure, but with the force of his mercy. Because he is so good to us, this leads us to present ourselves willingly to him as obedient servants. As it is said in Romans 12:1:
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1)
And of course, if we have the Law of God in our hearts, if we have this New Covenant with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, we will want to share this with others, we will be proclaimers of the good news, we will proclaim God’s righteousness. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34).
9 I proclaim your saving acts in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, Lord, as you know. 10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and your saving help. I do not conceal your love and your faithfulness from the great assembly. (Psalm 40:9-10)
For myself, I have received this “righteousness through faith” of which the apostle Paul speaks in the Letter to the Romans. For it is through it that we are saved. When a person believes in Jesus Christ, God credits that faith to him as righteousness, as justification. On the basis of this justification he makes us new creatures and puts his law and his Spirit within us. For it is said that those who are led by the Spirit fulfill the law (Romans 8:4):
4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)
Lord, help us, making use of your mercy and compassion, to open ourselves to the working of the Holy Spirit in us. Change our hearts through your Holy Spirit and make us your voluntary servants and heralds of your righteousness.
PRAYER TO THE LORD — HOW GOD WILL HEAR US
A PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE FROM OUR SINS
In the following verses we see a paradox. For, as we saw, David, or the author, or the man spoken of in this psalm, can be called “saved.” He lives with the Lord, he is redeemed, born again, he has the law of God “within his heart.” God hears his prayers. His life is a testimony to God’s goodness and kindness. He is a preacher of righteousness. He does God’s will gladly. But at the same time this man has problems. He is reaping the sins he sowed in his youth.
11 Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord; may your love and faithfulness always protect me. 12 For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. (Psalm 40:11-12)
Here is where the psalmist’s problems come from — from the fact that his “sins have overtaken” him. He is surrounded by them as by an army. But I think that in all of this we can find an enormous encouragement, brothers and sisters. For many people ask: “How can I be at once a new creature, and born again, and justified, and yet not be sinless!?” But this is the battle we are bound to wage throughout our whole life. One of the signs of the new birth is that after a person has been born again, he begins to have a greater awareness of his own sinfulness. As long as a person is not born again, he does not feel sinful at all and cannot even imagine how serious a thing sin is. But when a person is born again, he not only becomes aware of his grave sinfulness, but he also begins to appreciate far more what Christ did for us on the cross. Here we see something similar. Even after he has spoken of his “new heart” and of how God’s will is deep within his heart and has become part of him, he still goes on speaking of his incredible sense of sinfulness. His sins and iniquities are more than the hairs of his head. And “my heart fails within me,” he says. We too as Christians struggle with certain sins and weaknesses in our life. And often we are tempted to give up this struggle of ours. Sometimes the battle with sin drives us to distraction. But victory in us is possible thanks to the working of the Holy Spirit in us (Romans 8:12-13):
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation — but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12-13)
We cannot avoid the battle with sin while we are on this earth. For John says that if anyone claims to have no sin, he is a liar. This, however, should not lull us into complacency, for he goes on: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin!” But if you do sin — we have an Advocate… God has given us a way to be rid of our sins — by confessing them and forsaking them. To confess a particular sin means to call it by its true name. To say: “Lord, forgive me this sin…” and to name it, and not to pretend that it is not a sin. For God knows everything anyway. He knows all our sins. Is there anything we can do that God does not see? God is omnipresent, he is all-knowing. Then why hide sin within ourselves? Better to confess it. For then God will forgive it, and we will be clean and ready to serve God again.
And here I want to draw your attention to something very important. And that is that Satan usually attacks us before and after God has used us in some way. He attacks us before God does something with us, because he wants to crush us and somehow to thwart God’s plan for us, and after God has used us in a mighty way, he wants to strike us down and somehow to spoil our victory. So if you are under attack — do not be surprised! Rather, examine your heart and see whether God has not called you to something better and greater. Jesus too was tempted before he began his ministry. But he passed the test and entered into ministry. And in this psalm we see one who has proclaimed the righteousness of God in the great assembly, and after that he finds himself surrounded by “troubles without number.” And so I want to encourage you. Even if your heart has failed, even if you somehow see that the sins you have committed are growing within you and consuming you, even if you feel worn down, never stop praying, never stop crying out to God. For God will not abandon you. He has loved us, he has engraved us on the palms of his hands.
A PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE FROM OUR ENEMIES
As the final part of our psalm (Psalm 40:13-17), the otherwise independent psalm Psalm 70:1-5 has been added.
13 Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me. 14 May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. 15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled at their own shame. (Psalm 40:13-15)
These words remind us of the mockery our Lord endured on the cross. In Mark 15 we read:
29 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, “So! You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, 30 come down from the cross and save yourself!” 31 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! 32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. (Mark 15:29-32)
You see, around us there may be people who do not wish us well, people who gloat when we fall and fail. When something bad befalls us, they say: “There now, it serves him right, it serves him right! He did this and that and the other…” But we must know that even when he disciplines us because of our sins, as our heavenly Father God has compassion on us. And the one who most rejoices at our misfortune is Satan. The one who most seeks to destroy our soul is the evil one. And may God give us victory and give us deliverance in all of this. And then those who believe in the Lord, those who seek him, who believe in him, who love his salvation, will glorify God and will say: “The Lord is great.”
16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who long for your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!” (Psalm 40:16)
I have had moments in my life when I was worn down. I have had moments in my life when I drew back. I have had moments in my life when perhaps people gloated over my situation. But God delivered me. And here it says in verse 17:
17 But as for me, I am poor and needy; (Psalm 40:17)
You see, this is humility. David was not poor and needy. He was a king, and he was not at all poor. He had tons of gold; he was one of the richest men on earth in his day. But he did not rely on himself, but on the Lord!
may the Lord think of me. (Psalm 40:17)
We may be poor, we may have nothing, but the important thing is that the Lord thinks of us!
You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay. (Psalm 40:17)
You see, this is what we should hold in our hearts, what we should proclaim in our spirit, what we should believe — that the Lord is our help, the Lord is our deliverer, the Lord is our God. In him alone is our trust. And you see, in the end the prayer from the last part of the psalm is still unanswered, because he says: “My God, do not delay!” What does that mean? It means that God has not yet answered. So we are sent back to the beginning of the psalm. The psalmist had an experience in which he waited for the Lord, and because he did not give up trusting in him, God answered him and delivered him. But now he is again in need, and again he does the same thing — he waits patiently for the Lord. We are the same. God in the past has answered our prayers too, but now we are again in need. And once more, the way to be heard by God is the same — to wait patiently for the Lord, to wait with crying out, to wait in prayer, to wait in faith. And to listen mutually with the Lord — that he should listen to us, but that we too should listen to him; in other words, that our listening should be mutual!