Scripture Daily

Context No. 1701 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 40:1-17: in context

1I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry. 2He 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. 3He 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. 4Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies. 5Many, 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. 6Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. 7Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. 8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.” 9I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know. 10I 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. 11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me. 12For 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. 13Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD. 14Let 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. 15Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!” 16Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let the LORD be exalted!” 17But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.

The psalm opens with a testimony of rescue. I waited patiently for the LORD, David says, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, set my feet on a rock, and made my steps secure. And he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; and many will see it, and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Later the psalm turns to fresh trouble, and David prays again for help; but it begins here, with the memory of a deliverance that became a song.

There is a pattern in these opening verses worth tracing. First, waiting: I waited patiently for the LORD. The rescue did not come at once; there was a season of waiting, of crying out and not yet being answered, before God turned and heard. Then, deliverance: he brought me up out of the pit, out of the miry clay. David had been stuck, sinking, unable to free himself; and God drew him up and set his feet on a rock, on solid ground where before there had been only mire. And then, a new song: he put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. The rescue did not just relieve him; it gave him something to sing, a fresh song of praise born out of the deliverance. And finally, the widening effect: many will see it, and fear, and trust in the LORD. David's rescue and his song were not only for himself; others would see what God had done for him and be drawn to trust God themselves. This is often how God works. He lets us wait, and the waiting is hard; then he lifts us from the pit, sets us on solid ground; and the rescue becomes a song, a testimony, that draws others to trust him too. If we are in the pit now, sinking in the miry clay and waiting for a God who seems slow, this psalm holds out the pattern: the waiting is real, but so is the God who turns and hears, who lifts us to the rock and puts a new song in our mouths, a song that others will hear and be drawn to trust him by.

When I am in the pit, sinking and waiting for a God who seems slow, can I hold to the pattern of this psalm, that the God who turns and hears will lift me to the rock and put a new song in my mouth, and that my rescue may become a testimony drawing others to trust him too?

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