The 40th Psalm ranks with our best loved and most familiar compositions. The words of this song are as well known, especially the opening section, as the 23rd, “The Lord is my shepherd”. The 40th, which begins “I waited patiently for the Lord”, is preeminently a Psalm of testimony as David relates his experience with God.

DAVID’S SALVATION

As David testifies of the goodness of God he describes a horrible pit and sinking sand from which God rescued him in response to His cry.

In his published sermons on the Psalms Dr James Montgomery Boice talks about the various horrible pits that Christians fall into.

Some are sinking down in the mud of sin. Temptations, addictions, covetousness, idolatry or a host of other sins cling destructively to our characters like filthy parasites. If we continue to succumb, refusing to confess and repent we will continue in the miserable condition of the backslider.

Some are swallowed up by the pit of defeat. Disappointments, failure, the disruption of precious and dearly held plans bring nothing but bitterness to the mind and heart.

Some are languishing in the quicksands of sorrow. Bereavement and grief bring a terrible darkness which dominates one’s thinking to the extent where escape doesn’t seem possible.

Some suffer in the horrible pit of circumstances. Whether it is the sickness of today in body or mind, the guilt of yesterday or a mindset created by some incident far back in childhood there is a very real darkness and sense of anguish and suffering.

Whatever the pit was that David was in, he was rescued not through his own ideas or his own resolve. He did not climb out of that pit through the interventions of men with their philosophical schemes. It was God that gave him an escape in response to prayer. When he was as far down as he could go, struggling and floundering in the sticky mud he cried for help and the Lord reached down his arm and drew him onto solid ground. Suddenly his uncertainties vanished, he was now in the rock. His sorrows were turned into joy, his tears were transformed into laughter…the Lord made the difference. So it will be for you dear Christian reader. Whatever pit you are in today, of sorrow, suffering, despair, depression, circumstances, fear or guilt rescue is at hand. Cry unto the Lord, rest on Him.

The word patience is key, however. David begins his song with the well known phrase – “I waited patiently on the Lord”. Answers do not arrive in our time. They come in God’s time. Waiting is about believing and trusting that our Heavenly Father makes no mistakes. He has planned it all. He will intervene when He pleases knowing the end from the beginning. Therefore whatever your pit keep praying because He will incline unto you and hear your cry.

There are some, however, who do not know the Lord, who suffer in that pit which swallows up the sinner into the everlasting darkness of Hell. This is the most awful, the most horrible and the darkest pit of all. The first great fact that the sinner must learn is that he or she is in the pit; that their sins are destroying their souls. Everyday without Christ the sinner sinks deeper down, closer to Hell and further from God. Each time the Gospel is heard and another opportunity is squandered the soul slips further into that quagmire. Struggling to escape is not the answer. Some struggle by trying to be decent and religious, other struggle through their own own delusions that there is no God and no eternity, some struggle by embracing the pit as quite a desirable place and that sin, God, judgement and eternity don’t exist. What utter foolishness! The sinner is in a dark place which offers nothing but pain, sorrow and darkness. Satan’s ploy is to swallow up a destroy men and and women and young people. And so he is seizing the souls of many.

There is no escape.

Except through faith in Christ alone.

Understanding the seriousness of the situation will cause the sinner to cry unto God for salvation. Then He draws us out and brings us onto solid ground.

The prayer of sinner is not a specific form of words, it is a cry of faith, born of necessity – I must be saved through Christ alone.

The testimony of the Christian looks back with grateful and humble hearts to this time when the Lord drew us out of that horrible pit and from the miry clay.

Then we discovered the blessedness, the sheer happiness of making the Lord our trust. It is not something that is ever regretted. Furthermore the Christian life is the experiencing of a God who has many, an infinite number, of gracious and kind thoughts towards us. What a blessing ti know that all his plans for our future stem from such a heart of love and grace:

Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,
and thy thoughts which are to us-ward:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee:
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.

Psalms 40:5

DAVID’S SAVIOUR

The section of the 40th Psalm which runs from verses 6-10 can only be properly understood in the light of Christ’s person and ministry. While they may have some historical significance in the life of David; they were not perfectly fulfilled in his experience. The Apostle Paul when writing to the Hebrew Christians gives us the true Holy Ghost inspired interpretation of this passage in unfolding the mysteries of Christ:

Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Hebrews 10:5-7

Christ’s personal offering; He came with a prepared body which he would offer. He came not to present to offering of a lamb or a bull but he he came to offer Himself:

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire;
mine ears hast thou opened:
burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Psalms 40:6

Christ was absolutely and unflinchingly obedient to His Father’s will. His heart was perfect, bent with entire submission to the law and the purpose for which He sent into the world.:

Then said I, Lo, I come:
in the volume of the book it is written of me

Psalms 40:7

Our Saviour found great satisfaction through serving His father. The will of God was His delight, particularly the prospect of bringing many sons to glory. We are saved because of His work, as a result of what He did, for the joy that was set before him He endured the cross:

I delight to do thy will, O my God:
yea, thy law is within my heart.

Psalms 40:8

Christ was a preacher. Whether among the doctors or of the law at the tender age of twelve, in picturesque Galilee or within the precincts of the temple He taught truth, doing so with appeal and authority. His words were great in terms eloquence, of knowledge, of wisdom and goodness. He had insights that no mortal ever had. His words were received with amazement and with joy. There never was and never will be a preacher quite like Jesus Christ.

His words, His precious words sound forth today through the reading of Scripture and ministry of truth as He fulfils this prophetic ministry through the servants which He calls and sends forth:

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation:
lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O LORD, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart;
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation:
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Psalm 40:9-10

Have you surrendered yourself to His Word as He surrendered Himself for you?

DAVID’S SUPPLICATION

While the Psalm begins with a look back at what God had done in the past it concludes with a look forward to what God will yet do in the future. We get a sense of a man in urgent and terrible need as He beseeches the throne of grace:

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD:
let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.

Psalm 40:11-13

As in other places and times His enemies were giving him considerable considerable difficulty and so he prayed for their defeat, the conquering of those who gloried in his demise.

At the end, however, He expresses the care and compassion of God towards Him in a most beautiful fashion:

But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me:
thou art my help and my deliverer;
make no tarrying, O my God.

Psalm 40:17

Others may say that they think about us but inevitably people forget. But the precious thoughts of God for us never end; He has each one of His dear children constantly on His heart. His thoughts are frequent, wise and most importantly they are thoughts which act and work with great kindness for us.

If there is a reason for trusting God, this is the reason…the God who saves and who never fails, who loves us continually, whose care is much more than we ever deserve. This is the message of the 40th Psalm.