Psalm 40

Introduction

You might wish to be turning in your Bibles to the 40th Psalm, Psalm 40. Psalm 40 will be our text at the 9 o’clock lesson this morning. We do have many who are visiting with us, and we thank you for joining with us as we’ve come together to praise our great God, to magnify his name, and to be reminded of his beauty and of his nature, even from a study of the scriptures. If you are visiting with us, what we’ve been doing at the 9 o’clock service is looking at a psalm that we would have read that week during our reading. And if you’ve been keeping up with the reading, then you know that Psalm 40 was in fact one of the psalms. And our mind and our attention would typically go to verses six through eight of Psalm 40.

1. A Psalm of Two Periods of Distress

Sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired, my ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, Behold, I 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. Our brother Guy Richards read for us this morning Hebrews 10 and verses 1 through 10. And you’ll have noted that that passage of Psalm 40 was quoted by the Hebrew writer and attributed to the work of Jesus. We’ll certainly focus on that this morning, but first of all, we want to focus on what is the context of the psalm. Why is this passage here in the Psalm to begin with? Psalm 40 is actually a psalm of two periods of distress.

Verses 1 through 3, if you’d read with me, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. And he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. This is a remembrance of David of a period where God delivered David, as he even says, out of the pit, and set him on firm footing. Gave him salvation. Of course, there are many times in David’s life where this psalm would have fit. Many periods of deliverance that we would attribute this psalm to.

We’re not told which one it was. Was it his facing Goliath? Was it his persecution by Saul? Was it even during the days of Absalom’s rebellion? We are not told. But the Psalm begins with this assurance that my God has delivered me once before. But then the Psalm ends in verses 11 through 17 with a cry for deliverance. Here he is in distress again. And so, as God had delivered him once before, now it is praying that God will deliver him yet again. In verse 11, you, O Lord, will not withhold your compassion from me. Your loving kindness and your truth will continually preserve me. For evils beyond number have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I am not able to see.

Do not delay, O my God. It’s perhaps best of all to approach this psalm by looking at this second cry for deliverance. Again, we are not told the situation or the circumstances of which David is crying out for deliverance. We do know that the troubles are twofold. As he says in verse 12, evils beyond number have surrounded me, so that would seem to be external circumstances. But also in verse 12, my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see. They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me. It is perhaps again during the days of Absalom’s rebellion that perhaps David pins this song. Because attributing it to the outside forces, Absalom and those who have sided with Absalom, but also attributing it to the fact that David’s iniquities are so great.

And David recognizing that, really, even going all the way back to the Sim of Bathsheba, and certainly in his failure to discipline his son who had committed that horrible crime by laying with his half sister. And David doing nothing about it. Perhaps David has that in mind. My iniquities are the reason why I’m suffering. But you’ll note within this cry of deliverance, there is constant assurance that God is ultimately going to deliver him. Even beginning in verse 11, you, O Lord, will not withhold your compassion from me. That’s not giving an order, of course. That is simply assurance and trust based on the knowledge of who God is, what God has done. And so there’s this assurance that you will not withhold your compassion from me.

Your loving kindness and your truth will continually preserve me. Again, verse 13. This plea, you be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. Make haste, O Lord, to help me. Verse 16. Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. And again, in verse 17, it says, I am afflicted and needy. Let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Constant assurance within this that God will ultimately help David, that God will ultimately save David from those evils that are surrounding him. That God would even forgive David of the iniquities that have overwhelmed him. And so the rest of the Psalm should be seen in light of.

2. My God Has Already Delivered Me Before

David can have such assurance because he knows God has helped me before. My God has already delivered me before. He has delivered me out of, again, the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay. And some of us who are studying the book of Jeremiah right now, our minds are taken to Jeremiah, how he would even be one day thrown into the pit, thrown into the mud because of those who have persecute him. And David is saying that something like that has happened to him, maybe not literally, but figuratively, David sees himself as in a pit, waiting for his own destruction. And yet God raised him up and not only raised him up out of the tip out of the pit, but he put my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm.

And he put a new song in my mouth, perhaps the idea of a military victory and a song that would go along with that, magnifying what God has done for him. But not only that, he says, many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. Your mind may go back to Exodus 15, and even after Israel departed out of Egypt, and God delivered Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. And Israel could confidently say in Moses in Exodus chapter 15, he could confidently say that the other nations would see and fear what because of what God has done. We go to the book of Joshua as Israel is about to conquer Jericho. We know that the fear of the Lord has already gone forth.

The knowledge of what God has done and his mighty acts and deeds has already gone forth so that the people are afraid. And David is saying that your deliverance of me has done the same thing. Not simply to make people afraid of you, O Lord, but to ultimately so that they can trust you.

3. I Trust in You, Not False Things

And I know you can deliver me again. Verse 4 and 5. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse in falsehood. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which you have done, and your thoughts toward us. There is none to compare with you. If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count. How does this fit in with David seeking deliverance? Because David is placing himself before God as one who trusts in the Lord. David is saying in this, because of what you have done for me in the past, due to the fact of you having saved me. I trust in you. I have not turned away to false things.

That idea of the false things is used of other nations in the Old Testament scriptures and of Israel trusting in other nations like Egypt or Assyria for deliverance. Those are false things. Those things are used of idols in the Old Testament, of turning to the Baals and the Asheras, as they would give the people rain and crops. Those are false things, though. David says, I’m not turned to the false things. My trust has been in you. And if I tried to count how many wonderful deeds that you have done, I couldn’t number them. They’re too great. And so there’s trust on the part of David. And because of that trust in the Lord, there’s assurance that yes, God will and God can deliver. But what does trust ultimately look like?

4. I Delight to Do Your Will

It’s an interesting lesson for us today. We talk about faith. And within the religious world today, there’s always been so much battle between what does it mean between faith and works? Are works and faith somehow separate? Are we saved by faith and works have nothing to do with them? Or are we saved by works? Let David here explain what it really means to trust in the Lord. Because that’s continuing in verses 6 through 8. After he’s acknowledged his great trust, or we may say faith in the Lord, he says, sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired. What do you mean by that? We know from the Old Testament law that God has said that they were to offer those things. Do those things. David is not denying the fact that he would offer sacrifices.

David is not denying the fact that the Lord deserved those sacrifices, but he’s saying that was not your primary goal in just having us offer a bunch of sacrifices to you. So what did he say? Sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired, but my ears you have opened. Father’s Day. How many times have you, fathers, said to your children, is anything getting through there? Are your ears open? It’s like I’m speaking to a brick wall sometimes. Mothers, too, yes, I know I know you have the same verbiage in your language. What is David saying here? You’ve not just demanded of me sacrifice and offerings, you have opened my ears. Why is that significant? Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, Behold, I come, in the scroll of the book, it is written on me.

I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. Well, how did the law get within his heart? Because my ears were opened. I have listened to your will, O God. Yes, there are sacrifices and burnt offerings within that will, but I have taken your will in, and that law is now within my heart, and so my desire is to do your will. This is David’s trust being shown in his actions. Not just by going and making sacrifices, but by doing the very will of God. Go back in the law, and if you’re wondering, how does this matter of in the scroll of the book it is written of me? We will understand that more easily, perhaps, of Jesus, and certainly throughout the book, throughout the scroll, Jesus was spoken of.

But how can David say, in the scroll of the book it was written of me? Go back, if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 17. Deuteronomy chapter 17 does not mention David specifically, but does mention what David was. And that is, of course, King. Within the scroll of the book, within the very law of God, the Torah, it was described of what the king was supposed to be, beginning in verse 14 of Deuteronomy 17. When you enter the lamb which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. One from among your countrymen, you shall set his king over yourselves.

You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countrymen. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way. He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself. So if he’s not doing any of these things, what is he going to do? Now it shall come to pass, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priest. It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, and he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes.

That his heart may not be lifted up above above his countrymen, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel. And the book of the scroll was written of me, David says. What was written of you? That here is to be the behavior of the king. That the king was to exemplify to all Israel one who knew the law because he himself had written the scroll of the law, and one who followed the law. When you read that passage in Psalm 40, perhaps your mind went to Samuel’s rebuke of Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 15. You recall when Saul failed to follow the ways of the Lord in destroying the Amalekites.

And David has come, I’m sorry, Samuel has come to rebuke him. And Samuel says to him in verse 22, after Saul has made yet another excuse about how they were going to use all these things and make sacrifices to the Lord. And Samuel says, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. What is really meant by that is not simply that you, as a child of Israel, are to obey the Lord, but you as the king.

5. Proclaiming the Ways of the Lord

It was written about the king. And what would the king do? He would trust in the Lord by knowing the law of the Lord and by following the law of the Lord. His purpose is to do the will of the Lord. But not only that, to also proclaim the ways of the Lord, verses 9 and 10. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, you know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth in the great congregation. Here are the reasons why David can be assured that God is hearing him and that God will deliver him.

That he can say, You, O Lord, will show your compassion to me. Because God’s done it before. And because David can come to one, even though he has sinned, he can come to the Lord as one who ultimately trusts in the Lord above all other things. And one who has shown that trust in the Lord by following the will of the Lord, as was the duty of the king. Not just to make sacrifices and burnt offerings, but to give himself wholly to doing the will of God. And then by proclaiming the praises of God.

6. Fulfilled in Jesus: I Have Come to Do Your Will

Hebrews chapter 10. If we can understand the prophecy within the context of David, and I think this is another one of those occasions that, yes, Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8 has two applications. The first application is of David. David can say these things because of who he is. But the ultimate fulfillment of this is, of course, in Jesus. And what we hope to do as we conclude this morning is to see how that is really so. Hebrews chapter 10, as Brother Guy read for us this morning. The beginning of this is the insufficiency of the Old Testament sacrifices. And we’ll just read verse 4 again. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Those sacrifices, and the reason why God could say throughout the Old Testament, that I am not just looking for sacrifices because those sacrifices are not sufficient in and of themselves.

The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. So what was needed? One who could take away sin. The very Son of God, that by his blood, and of course, within the section of Hebrews, it is brought to our attention that not only would this sacrifice take away our sins, this sacrifice would close the old covenant, usher in the new covenant, all these things being applied here in Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 to Jesus. But it’s within this context that the quote from Psalm 40 verses 6 through 8 is given. There are slight modifications. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. And there’s some interesting things you can look at there as to how the ear and the body and some of the intertestamental literature were kind of equated in the Septuagint reading.

But the point being that just as David could say in Psalm 40 and verse 6 that you have given me ears, or you have opened my ears, those ears were to be given to the Lord. Now in Hebrews 10, the point is the whole body was given to the Lord. You have prepared a body for me. And of course, applied to Jesus, we think of the incarnation into this world. We think of his birth. Yes, he was even given a literal body, but for what purpose? In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I come. In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. If David could point to this and perhaps point back to Deuteronomy 17, then certainly our Lord could point back to every passage really of the Old Testament and say, Behold, it is written of me.

Going back all the way to the earliest of the prophecies in Genesis 3, of the one who would come and ultimately bruise the head of the serpent. Going back to the promise to Abraham, the promise of Moses that a lawgiver, a prophet would come after him. All of it has been spoken of him. But for what reason? To do your will, O God. Did Jesus offer sacrifices while on this earth? Yes. We know that even as after he was born, there were sacrifices given in accordance to the law for Jesus. Not that he needed forgiveness of sins. We know of the night of his betrayal that he and his disciples had partaken of the Passover. So there were sacrifices that Jesus made while on this earth, not because he needed forgiveness of sins, but because it was a part of the law.

But that’s not the reason why Jesus came. He came to do the will of the Father. He came to do the will of God. Just as David could say, My uh whole trust in God is not limited to making these sacrifices. My faith and my trust in God is ultimately in doing the will of God. So Jesus could say, but much more so. I have come to do the will of God. And of course, what was that will? Verses 9 and 10. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. That’s the will of God, to bring about the order, to bring about the new covenant that God had promised. This covenant where now the law will not only be written down, but it’ll be written in the hearts of the people.

This law where they would not have princes and shepherds who would fail the people, but now they would be ruled over by the very Son of God. I’ve come to take away the first in order to establish the second. And to do that, he says in verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And so while Jesus did not come to make sacrifices, he came to do the will of the Father. Ultimately, the will of the Father was to make the ultimate sacrifice, the final sacrifice, the one that would in fact take away sins. Now let’s just for a moment tie this back to Psalm 40. And why the Hebrew writer would use that passage.

Think again. David in Psalm 40 is crying out for deliverance. And as a part of that, he is showing to God this trust that David has in God. That I do your will. I’m not just making sacrifices, but I am giving myself to doing your will. You’ve opened my ears, so your laws within my heart, I do your will. But David would also confess within the same Psalm, My iniquities have overtaken me. One who longed to do the will of God, not just make sacrifices, but to follow God wholeheartedly, still would see within himself, I have iniquities. And so while he could be assured that yes, God would deliver him, there must still come one who, without iniquities, would do the will of the Father and ultimately achieve the salvation that even David was longing for back in Psalm 40.

That Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8 have their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus because he and he alone did the Father’s will and did it perfectly. And by doing so, assured that salvation could come to David, to Abraham, to Moses, to Israel, to God’s people. And that’s why we find ourselves today. That we would say that my iniquities have overtaken me. My sins have separated me from God. It’s not that I’m a bad person per se. I love the Lord. I long to do the will of the Lord, and yet I still have sin. But it was written in the book of the law of one who would come and would do the will of the Father perfectly. And in doing that will of the Father, he would make a sacrifice for sin.

And now you and I can be sanctified by.

Conclusion

That we can know that, yes, God is going to forgive. God is going to raise us up out of the pit of destruction. God is going to set our feet on firm ground. God is going to forgive us of our sins if we will put our faith, our trust in Him, give our lives to Him, but ultimately tied into the fact that Jesus gave Himself to the will of the Father. So could we aid you in some way this morning? Whether it be by praying with you and for you that God would again forgive, or whether it be even by helping you to obey the gospel, that as you believe in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and you repent of your sins and are baptized, so that you may have those sins forgiven.

Can we aid you in some way? Won’t you come as we stand and sing?

So I shall be.

We’re going to go to our God in prayer, and again, as we’ve been doing, we’ll use the words of the psalm to go to our God in prayer, and at the end of that prayer, you’ll be dismissed to your Bible classes. Pray with me, please. We have waited patiently for the Lord. And truly, Father, you have inclined to us, and you have heard our cries. For you, Father, have brought us up out of the pit, and you have set our feet upon rock, making our footsteps firm. Father, you have put a new song in our mouths, a song of praise to you. And we would pray, Father, that many will, in fact, see and fear you and trust in you. How blessed, Father, are those who would make you their trust.

And we pray, Father, that we would not turn to the proud or to those who lapse in falsehood. For Father, many are your wonders which you have done and your thoughts toward us. There is none to compare with you. And if we would declare and speak of them, Father, they would be too numerous to count. And so, Father, we come before you this day acknowledging that you have not desired simply sacrifice and offerings. But that, Father, you have opened our ears. And so, Father, we come to you, delighting to do your will. And we would pray that our that your law would forever be within our heart. May we, Father, proclaim glad tidings of righteousness among the world and among this congregation. Let us not restrain our lips, Father, for you know.

And you have not hidden your righteousness within us. You have not spoken. We, Father, will continue to speak of your faithfulness and your salvation. And so, Father, we would simply pray as we conclude this morning that you will not withhold your compassion from us, and that your loving kindness and your truth will continually preserve us. And it’s in the name of your Son, the one who came to do your will, that we pray. Amen.