To the chief musician, a psalm of David
40
📚I waited patiently 📖for the LORD,
and he bent down to me
and heard my cry.
40:1 Another great psalm in which we have a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ (in vs 6-8). Some scholars think every word in the psalm refers to Him. If this interpretation is true then the iniquities mentioned in v 12 would have to mean our sins which He took as His own to bear to the cross in our place (Rom 4:25; 2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:24). Much of the language of the Psalms describes experiences that all God’s people go through, and can apply equally well to Christ the second (and last) Adam, the head of a new race of men (1 Cor 15:45-49).⚜
2 📚He also brought me up
out of a horrible pit 📖,
out of the miry clay,
and set my feet on a rock 📖,
and established
my steps.
3 📚And he put a new song
in my mouth,
praise to our God.
Many will see it
and fear,
and will trust in the LORD.
40:3 Deliverance brings a song, and every new deliverance a new song, and others seeing the deliverance of believers and their joy are inspired to trust in God. Supremely true this is in the case of the Lord Jesus. We see Him raised from the dead and rescued from every enemy, and so we trust Him to deliver us too.⚜
4 📚Blessed is that man
who makes the LORD his trust,
and does not respect the proud,
or turn aside to lies 📖.
5 📚Many, O LORD my God,
are your wonderful
works 📖
which you have done,
and your thoughts toward us.
They cannot be recounted
to you in order.
If I would declare
and speak of them,
they are more than can be
numbered.
6 📚Sacrifice and offering
you did not desire;
my ears you have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you did not require.
40:6 Verses 6-8 are quoted in Heb 10:5-7 and applied to Christ. God Himself appointed sacrifices for Israel (Ex 20:24; Leviticus chapters 1 to 6. See notes there). Now He says that He did not desire them. Is this a contradiction? Absolutely not. There are no contradictions in the Bible. God knew that those offerings and sacrifices were valueless to Him. He did not desire them for Himself. They were mere pictures of Christ who was to come as a sacrifice for sin. And even in those days when the people offered animal sacrifices at God’s command, God always put far more value on faith and obedience and holy living than on the bringing of sacrifices (Ps 51:16; 1 Sam 15:22; Isa 1:11-17; Hos 6:6; Micah 6:6-8; Matt 12:7; Mark 12:33).⚜
7 📚Then I said, “Look, I come.
In the book’s scroll
it is written of me.
40:7 This is the Lord Jesus speaking through David. It can hardly refer to David himself. Often the prophets wrote things which they understood did not refer to themselves but to the Messiah (1 Pet 1:10-12). Christ speaks here of coming from heaven to earth. He comes in accordance with all that is written in the “scroll”. This means the Old Testament. It was written on scrolls. The whole Old Testament is full of prophecies and types of Christ (notes at Matt 5:17; Luke 24:25-27, 44-47).⚜
8 📚I delight to do your will,
O my God.
Yes, your law is within
my heart.
9 📚I have proclaimed righteousness
in the great congregation.
See, I have not restrained my lips;
O LORD, you know.
10 📚I have not hidden your righteousness
in my heart.
I have declared your faithfulness
and your salvation.
I have not concealed your loving
kindness and your truth from the
great congregation.
40:9-10 These words can refer to both David and Christ. Christ, of course, completely fulfilled them (Ps 22:22, 25; Matt 9:35; Mark 1:38; 2:13; John 18:20; 1 Tim 6:13; Heb 2:11-12).⚜
11 📚Do not withhold your tender
mercies from me, O LORD.
Let your loving kindness and your truth
continually preserve me.
12 📚For innumerable evils have
surrounded me.
My sins have overtaken me,
so that I am not able to look up.
They are more than the hairs
of my head;
therefore my heart fails me.
40:12 The true saints are often more conscious of their sins than anyone else is. What David says here is true of us all. Our sins of omission and commission are innumerable. This verse can refer to the Lord Jesus only as bearing our sins. He Himself never sinned (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pet 2:22-24). But do our hearts not fail when we think of our sins? How earnestly we should cry to God for protection against them and against all evils that surround us in this world (vs 13,17).⚜
13 📚Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!
O LORD, come quickly to help me!
14 📚Let those who seek my soul
to destroy it be put to disgrace
and confusion together.
Let those who wish evil for me be
driven backward and put to shame.
15 📚Let those who say to me “Aha, aha!”
be appalled at their disgrace.
16 📚Let all those who seek you rejoice
and be glad in you.
Let those who love your salvation
say continually,
“The LORD be exalted”.
40:16 This will be the eternal result of the salvation the Lord Jesus gained for men by His sufferings. It is experienced by those who seek Him and all the glory will be God’s.⚜
17 📚But I am poor and needy.
Yet the Lord thinks of me.
You are my help and
my deliverer.
Do not delay, O my God.