Psalms 40:1

The Bible says in Psalms 40:1, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” This is an important spiritual principle if you are going to live by faith: waiting patiently on the Lord. It also tells us one of the reasons that some of our prayers do not seem to be answered: they are answered, but maybe not as soon as we initially wanted. God’s timing is better than our timing. He has the perfect plan for now and eternity. Zacharias and Elizabeth prayed for many years to have a child, and eventually they were given John the Baptist. It says about them in Luke 1:7, “And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.” What did Zacharias and Elizabeth do all those years that they had no child? They prayed, and they prayed, and they prayed. The angel said to Zacharias in Luke 1:13, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” Their son was the forerunner of Christ. If John had been born years earlier, he could not have been the great forerunner of the Messiah. God knows. God was answering their prayer from the first time they prayed it. They did not see the answer until years and years later, but what a marvelous answer to prayer God gave to them.

The Bible says in Psalms 40:2, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” When you come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior, He does wonderful things for you. Jesus saves your soul, forgives your sins, and reserves for you a home in heaven. But He does things for you in this life too. Jesus takes care of your past, and your future. The reason that you are in a “horrible pit” and “miry clay” is probably because your sins found you out. You cannot get out of the miry clay by yourself, but Jesus will get you out. Jesus will become your rock. You will have a foundation to stand upon of the Lord and His Word. As long as you stay in the Word, you will gain wisdom and character that will establish your “goings.” By the grace of God you will start making the right decisions and thus benefitting from the good consequences. There are many benefits to following Jesus.

One of the benefits of following Jesus is found in verse three. It says in Psalms 40:3, “And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” Instead of a heavy heart, God can give you a joyful heart. Is there any greater joy than knowing your sins are forgiven by Jesus and that you are going to heaven? The joy of the Lord is only experienced by those who know Jesus as Savior. Therefore, joy is something that helps to make us witnesses to a lost world. When the Spirit of God is inside someone, the Spirit makes a difference that others notice. Learn the great gospel songs and sing them throughout the day. It says in Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”

The Bible says in Psalms 40:4, “Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” You will either trust in the Lord or you will trust in man. If you trust in the Lord, here is your result: blessedness. If you trust in man you get pride and lying. Which do you prefer? It is best choose the Lord. To trust in the Lord means to rely upon Him and depend upon what He will do.

The Bible says in Psalms 40:5, “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.” The great eternal mind of God: what wonderful thoughts He must always have. Wonderful thoughts result in wonderful works. We only know a few of God’s many eternal thoughts. The Bible came from His mind. The plan of salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross came from His mind. Every event in the life of every human being came from His mind, and the universe came from His mind. Some day we will know more about what Jesus knows. This knowledge will be one of the wonders of heaven throughout eternity.

The Bible says in Psalms 40:6, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.” Why would the Bible tell us that “Sacrifice and offering” God did not desire, and that “burnt offering and sin offering” God did not require? Those things are part of the requirements of the law of the Old Testament. But they were meant to be symbolic only. Those ceremonies accomplished nothing. You can have all the ceremonies in the world, but they mean nothing unless the heart is changed. God looks at the heart. That is why it says in Romans 10:9-10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.[10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

The Bible says in Psalms 40:7, “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.” This and the verses following are Messianic. They reveal the motivation and attitude of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus is coming. He came the first time and fulfilled some of the promises about the Messiah. And Jesus will come the second time and fulfill the rest of the promises about the Messiah. In the last phrase of verse seven Jesus says, “in the volume of the book it is written of me.” What book is it talking about? It is talking about the Bible, the book of God. The Book writes about Jesus. Jesus is the central figure of the Book. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus is the Lover of our souls. Jesus is the great Teacher. Jesus is the Shepherd of the sheep. The Bible tells us all these things and much more. And the Bible tells us about His first coming two thousand years ago and about His second coming sometime in the future. The time of the Second Coming starts with the rapture of the believers who are suddenly taken to heaven one day, and then the antichrist goes forth conquering and to conquer; and then after the seven years of Great Tribulation Jesus comes to defeat all the armies of the world that are gathered at the Battle of Armageddon; and then Jesus will rule the earth from Jerusalem on the throne of David. All of this is written in the Book and much more.

The Bible says in Psalms 40:8, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Of course, the Christ set the best example of doing this. Jesus always did the will of the Father. That is why Jesus left heaven and came into the world of woe. That is why Jesus was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Most people do not “delight” to do God’s will. They rebel. One reason that Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus was that she called herself the “handmaid” of the Lord: the servant girl of God, who served Jesus by being His mother.

You will have a chance to “delight” to do God’s will, especially if His Word is within your heart. In the Old Testament in a context like this “the law” simply referred to the Word of God. For the Word of God to go into our hearts, means that it goes deep into our conscience and inner being, and then the Word of God affects how we think and what we do. And of course, this implies that you are hearing the Word of God taught by a teacher that God is using and that you are reading the Word of God and being taught by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says in Psalms 40:9, “I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.” If God has taught you something, He wants you to teach others. After Peter had spent three years learning from Jesus, Jesus said to Peter, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” God wants us to be witnesses for Him. He wants us to tell others what Jesus did for us. God knows the ones who open their mouths and say the words of God to others. That is why Jesus said in Mark 8:38, “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Verse 9 mentions “the great congregation.” These are the believers who gather together in the name of the Lord. God wants believers to gather together to hear the Word and to fellowship and to pray for each other. Jesus said in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

The Bible says in Psalms 40:10, “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.” When we speak about the Lord Jesus, what should we talk about? Notice the five words used here: righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, lovingkindness, and truth. We can talk about the righteousness of Christ. We ought to live holy and righteous lives, but we have failed. We have sinned. But Jesus did not sin. And His righteousness is credited to our account when we put our faith in Him. We can talk about the faithfulness of Christ. God keeps His promises. Jesus will keep your soul all the way until He takes you to heaven, and He will take care of you in this life according to His plan for you. He is faithful. That which He has promised, He will fulfill. We can talk about the salvation of Christ. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Jesus suffered and died on the cross in order to save sinners. Jesus said, “I am come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Are you saved? If not, you can come to know God’s salvation through faith in Jesus. We can talk about the lovingkindness of Christ. Jesus loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” No one will ever love you as much as Jesus does. We can talk about the truth of Christ. Jesus is the Truth. The world is full of lies. The truth is that Jesus is the Savior of the world. The truth is that we are all sinners who need a Savior. The truth is that if you repent and turn to Jesus, you will know the truth and be converted and become one of His children.

The Bible says in Psalm 40:11-12, “Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.[12] 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.” Every believer in Jesus definitely has mercy, lovingkindness, and truth. Mercy means that God forgives us our sins. God always will love us. God’s truth will endure. That is why He gave us a written Word, so that the truth would endure. God has preserved His Word in the Hebrew and Greek texts. The Textus Receptus is the Greek text that God preserved for all generations, and therefore, should be used for all translation work. If the translation that you use is not based upon the Textus Receptus, then you need to change translations. The old King James Version is a very good version to use because it is translated from the Textus Receptus. That is probably why God blessed the King James Version so greatly in the four hundred years that is has been used. The King James Version is based upon the Textus Receptus. The King James Version is an accurate word-for-word translation. The King James Version has stood the test of time. Some of the modern translations do not follow a word-by-word method of translation, and therefore you are reading many words in those translations that God did not give in the Hebrew or Greek, and you are losing other words that God did give. That is not the way to study the Word of God or to be blessed by it as much as possible. No wonder we have so many weak Christians with so little zeal to give their all for Jesus.

David wrote at the end of verse eleven, “let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” If you have a strong belief that God loves you, and if you are constantly in the Word of God so that His truth is your foundation and the basis of what you think about, then you will be preserved in the face of whatever battles the Lord gives you to fight. In verse twelve David spoke of “innumerable evils” and his own “iniquities.” You must fight spiritual battles that come both from without and within. You must be able to stay positive, to be encouraged, and to keep hope alive. David did that by constantly turning to the Lord for whatever David needed.

David wrote in Psalms 40:13-17, “Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.[14] Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.[15] Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.[16] Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.[17] 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.” David did what the Lord wants us all to do: he took his troubles and brought them to the Lord. That includes his enemies. God can do anything. We do not want to get into the habit of thinking that we can take care of our enemies. That is God’s job to do that. He said, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.” We prove that we believe this by saying to the Lord what David said, “Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.[14] Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.” There is nothing wrong for hoping for truth and justice to prevail. Just make sure that you are looking to the Lord to bring that justice when and how He chooses.

After you have prayed to the Lord Jesus and put things in His hands, make sure you believe that He is going to handle it. Notice how David reacted after he prayed to the Lord about his enemies. David said in verse 16, “let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.” Praise God that you can pray and put things into His hands. What a blessing we have compared to those who do not know the Lord Jesus and do not have the power and promise of praying in the name of Christ. David wrote that he said “continually,” “The LORD be magnified.” How often should we praise God: continually. It says in Hebrews 13:15, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” David said that those who “love thy salvation” should praise God continually. If you think about and “love” what Jesus did for us when He suffered on the cross, then you will have no problem “continually” praising the Lord.

In verse seventeen David wrote, “the Lord thinketh upon me.” That is comforting to know. God knows every detail of our lives. God moves and shapes people and circumstances so everything fits perfectly into God’s plan for us. What a mighty God is He. How important we all are to Him.

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