The Song of Thankful Deliverance

In Psalms 37, 38, and 39, the idea of waiting or hoping for God to work is woven into the laments, but in Psalm 40 David states the theme first with a celebratory tone, almost like the waiting is rewarded: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” As a reminder, to wait for the LORD means enduring and persevering in faith over time, even when surrounding circumstances look bleak. The Hebrew actually uses the word “waiting” twice as an emphatic declaration of truth: “I waited, yes waited with intent expectancy.” God’s response is just as intense: “he inclined his ear to me” pictures God leaning forward to catch what was said. When we cry out to the LORD for help, he pays attention. He bends down to our level to hear our pleas. So what was David’s trouble? Verse 2: “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.” There are no details about the “pit” that David was in, which means it’s meant to be broadly applicable to our situations of distress. We can all think of times when we felt like we were sinking into the mud, the horrible helplessness of slowly drowning in sorrow. But God’s salvation is like feeling your feet touch solid ground again. He makes us stable, steady, safe. David continues in praise: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!” Notice how David quickly moves from his personal story to gratitude and testimony for everyone around him. Why put your trust in puffed-up pride or empty lies? The good life, the life of blessing, is found in a faith that waits for God to do his good work.

David continues his meditation on the character of the trustworthy God. Verse 5: “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.” This is a repeated theme in the Old Testament: the history of God’s past wonders toward his people, his miracles and grace, should be a constant witness to us in the present that God will continue to be faithful in the future. How do I know that God will be faithful if I wait for his salvation? Because he has always been faithful in the past. So how should we worship this God properly? This is where David goes next: “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’” In the Old Testament, God commanded the people of Israel to offer sacrifices to him, and the four words that David uses in these verses describe four specific offerings in the sacrificial system. Yet despite God’s insistence that these sacrifices are necessary under the Mosaic covenant, the biblical writers also acknowledge that these sacrifices symbolize something deeper. We’re never meant to give God just our money, our wealth, or our possessions; he wants us to give him all of ourselves, our heart and our will, our trust and our hope. And when we do that, our possessions and everything we have will follow in their proper place. The end goal of our obedience to God’s word is not earning his favor; it’s delighting in his will simply out of love for our Savior. With this joy, David sees it his duty to share this news of salvation with others: “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.” The vocabulary of these lines is built on Yahweh’s revelation of his character in Exodus 34:6, and they strike a triumphant tone of thankful deliverance. The psalm could end here… but it doesn’t. As it turns out, David’s posture of waiting that opened Psalm 40 will again be necessary in the second half of the prayer.

Suddenly, the tone shifts from thanksgiving to lament with an emphatic cry to God: “As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me! For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.” The change in tone is jarring, and it’s a good example of how the psalms don’t always fit neatly into categories or genres. As one commentator puts it, “This is the song of one who has experienced divine deliverance from crisis in the past and now prays a renewed prayer in the midst of a renewed crisis.” Although again we don’t have details of the situation, it seems like David’s sins and failures are catching up with him. This is trouble of his own making. Interestingly, a lot of the themes from the first part of the psalm appear here in the second part. David could not restrain his lips in praise, just as God cannot withhold his mercy from his people. God’s wonders were too many to count, just as David’s iniquities are more than the hairs on his head. And in the boundary between these two halves is the declaration of God’s mercy, steadfast love, and faithfulness. Verses 13-17 of Psalm 40 are intriguing because they are repeated almost verbatim as Psalm 70, and in that episode we’ll talk about the differences between them. The idea in this section is that as David feels guilt over his sin, he also feels his enemies leaping at the chance to take advantage of his weakness. They delight in his hurt, and they mock his shame. It’s very similar in theme to Psalm 35. David ends the psalm embattled yet still waiting: “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the LORD!’ As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!” David is right with God, but he’s still vulnerable. Even in his distress, David wants God to be magnified and wants everyone to find their joy in him, not in their circumstances. Taken altogether, Psalm 40 is a powerful call to wait and trust in God whether life is going well or poorly, whether we are righteous or sinners, whether we have seen God’s wonders or we are still waiting for him to act.