Summary
When difficult times hit, we often know who we can depend upon because they have helped us in previous times. A pattern of support, help, and encouragement helps us to know who is likely to stand beside us. God, who demonstrates his love and support for his people in all ages is the greatest example of that truth.
Psalm 40 speaks very personally of the support that David received from God in his life. The first part of the psalm rejoices in God’s support and deliverance in past days. The second part of the psalm switches to a present time of distress, where David calls on God in confidence that he will again deliver.
Our passage explained
v1-10
The first ten verses of Psalm 40 proclaim thanksgiving and praise to God for his past deliverance and help. In the past, when David waited expectantly for God to act, “he inclined to me and heard my cry” (v.1). God then delivered him from his place of distress, which he describes as like being pulled from a pit or a “miry bog” and set on a firm foundation (v.2).
With David rescued, God placed “a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God” as a testimony to others (v.3). Others will hear of his deliverance and themselves trust in God.
Unlike the idols of the nations surrounding, God had power to save. So David contrasts those who trust in God rather than idols, commending them as blessed (v.4). The “proud” referred to in verse four is probably a reference to idols, the “lie” which some go astray after. Unlike the idols, God has provided many wonders of deliverance, so many that while sung of “they are more than can be told” (v.5), much like Jesus’ miracles and deeds (John 21:25).
David then describes how his thankfulness is expressed in obedience rather than bare sacrifice. While God commanded animal sacrifices in the Old Testament as a shadow of Christ’s sacrifice, God prefers obedience rather than animal sacrifice (v.6, cf. Micah 6:6-8).
Instead, David professes his desire to do God’s will, responding in commitment to him (vv.6-8). These words are fulfilled in Christ’s lifelong obedience and self-sacrifice for our salvation (Hebrews 10:5-7).
The salvation God gave to David brings not only heartfelt obedience but a desire to proclaim it. He announces “glad news of deliverance” to the whole congregation of God’s people, not keeping his mouth shut (v.9). He does not want to hide his experience of deliverance from others, but announce it so others will trust in God’s faithful character (v.10).
v11-17
David’s knowledge of God’s goodness and commitment to his promises helps him confidently call on God for deliverance again. In verse eleven, he confidently expresses that God “will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!”
His confidence in God’s continuing presence is because he feels the weight of trouble again. They are both external (“evils have encompassed me beyond number”) and internal (“my iniquities have overtaken me … more than the hairs of my head”), causing great distress (v.12).
In this plight he asks God to come again to deliver him from his distress (v.13). He seeks God’s curse upon his enemies, bringing a reversal in their fortunes (vv.14-15). In the place of enemies shouting, he would rather God’s people sang songs of rejoicing, praising God’s greatness (v.16).
This psalm ends with David proclaiming his dependence on God (“I am poor and needy”), and expresses a desire that God will think of him and act quickly once again for his deliverance (v.17). The God he looked to and received help from in the past is the same he looks to for help in the present.
Our passage applied
Like David, we too have the testimony of our own lives and those of others to rest on in faith and praise. When we sing songs of deliverance together at worship or alone, we proclaim God’s deeds in our own lives and those written in Scripture, expressing God’s greatness and faithfulness to keep his promises. These songs of God’s goodness in the past are often things we remember when trouble hits, and seek God’s help anew today.
We also see in the psalm a reminder of how natural it is to proclaim God’s goodness to others as David did to all God’s people. He is like the new convert who cannot shut up about how God has saved him. In our corporate worship and our daily lives, here is something to aspire to and seek for ourselves!
We also live in the tension of desiring to serve God wholeheartedly but also feeling the weight of our sins and the inadequacy of any offering we could provide. So we can praise God for delivering us through Christ, who truly fulfilled the devotion of this psalm and rescued us from our sins. As God has been faithful to us in the past, so too will he deliver us today and in the future.
Resources
Questions? Please contact us. Inspired? Come and worship with us on Sundays.
