GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 40:1-3
Psalms 36-41 fall under a general theme of suffering, and within that group, Psalms 37-40 describe waiting for the Lord to answer prayers. This psalm (40) shows the answer to the prayer. This psalm and the next one are also Messianic. Together they bring to an end the first book of the psalms (1-41), the songs of David’s troubles.
40 For the music director. A psalm of David.
1 I waited for the LORD, and I waited,
and then he turned to me and heard my cry.
God does not always answer our prayers immediately, but he always answers the prayers of believers. When our prayer falls within his will, he will grant our request, although there are times, as we have seen, when he will ask us to wait. David describes his waiting with an interesting Hebrew construction, the same verb (qavah, “wait”) as an infinitive and then as a finite, past-tense verb. The pairing of these two forms is not uncommon, but usually the order is the other way around. Here it might mean, “I waited and I waited,” or it might emphasize that David didn’t give up (“I waited, indeed I waited”) or that “All (David) did was wait.”
The Lord answered the king. David pictures him “turning” or “inclining” to hear his prayerful cry. We might think that David has a touch of self-rebuke here, or at least the understanding that a king is often occupied by one person’s request while another stands waiting to be heard. But the Lord is not limited to hearing and answering one prayer at a time like a human leader. This falls under the doctrine of his infinite nature and his perfection. We can be comforted that our perfect and infinite Lord God will also wipe out our imperfections (1 Corinthians 13:10). This moves us naturally to love God all the more, since we all know what it is to love a creature (a human being) who is imperfect in so very many ways, but how can we help but love and adore God, who has “all goodness” (Exodus 33:19)? When he bends down to hear our prayers and answer them, we are grateful that he has answered us. This also leads us to be sorry for those times when we have ignored a request from someone or gave a sinful reply, and we are overwhelmed with God’s goodness once again, since God has forgiven our sin and has shown us yet again his absolute goodness.
2 He pulled me up from the roaring pit,
out of the bog of quicksand,
and set my feet on a rock
to make my steps secure.
The pit is usually a deep hole, like the cistern used to imprison Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38:6) or the one the sons of Israel threw Joseph into (Genesis 37:24). Pits were used the way modern police use handcuffs, to detain a prisoner before they could be transferred, to “drag them from the pit unto the prison” (Titus Andronicus II:3). David’s pit was much worse. He saw his troubles as a death trap. The Hebrew could mean “roaring pit” or “noisy pit,” but since water doesn’t roar in a pit, the noise would have come from foes shouting down, or from others also captured in the pit. If he is describing the foes shouting at him, this fits with the Psalm as a Messianic prophecy (more about that later). If David saw himself slipping into the punishment of hell, this noise would have been the shouts and cries of the damned souls already suffering agony before the resurrection and judgment (Luke 16:24). God in his grace has rescued us from that pit, that quicksand, and set us onto the solid ground of his forgiveness. He has given us a sure and certain footing so that we can walk in his ways and according to his will. Paul said: “God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2 Timothy 2:19).
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
When we are reminded of our rescue from sin, death, the devil, and every danger, we respond with a prayer of thanks, like Anna in the temple when she saw the infant Jesus (Luke 2:36). Sometimes this prayer is also a song. The Hebrew word tehilah is usually translated “psalm,” but here our versions say “hymn.” This might seem inconsistent, but David’s meaning is not simply a song played on a harp (psalm), but a song of thanksgiving that is also a form of worship. The pagans sometimes sang “solemn hymns” in grief, but this is a happy song. It is one of the only times our translations use the word “hymn” in the Old Testament (see also Nehemiah 12:27 in the EHV). In the Scriptures, “hymns” are only the music of believers. “A hymn of praise is not fitting on the lips of a sinner… for a hymn of praise should be uttered in wisdom [faith], and the Lord will prosper it” (Sirach 15:9-10).
The first purpose of a hymn of praise is simply to give praise and glory to God. This is clear from the language of so many of the psalms: “My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song” (Psalm 28:7). “I will give you thanks forever” (Psalm 30:12).
The second purpose of a hymn of praise is to proclaim God’s works to those who will hear the song. “O God we give thanks, for your Name is near; men tell of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 75:1). “Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done” (Psalm 105:1). Whether our preaching and teaching is spoken or sung, we declare the gospel in public and in private. For “how can they believe in the one that they haven’t heard about?” (Romans 10:14). The goal of our preaching is to bring people to faith or to strengthen their faith, or, in the case of the unrepentant, to bring them to repentance through law and gospel.
The third purpose of a hymn is to help our memories. Music makes a truth more memorable, and the tune helps us to remember all of the words. A happy message is set to a happy tune, and sad words are set to a sad tune. “My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing” (Job 30:31).
Finally, the fourth purpose of a hymn, as with all Christian poetry, is to portray God exactly and truly as he is. Aristotle states that in language, whether literature, poetry, or music, the author or composer will choose to portray mankind in one of three ways: First, as they actually are (as in the case of Cleophon, the Athenian poet “who lacked idealism”). Second, as better than they are (as Homer does). Third, as is the case of the ancient parodies and almost all comedy and drama today, as worse than they are (Poetics, II:3-4). A hymn seeks to portray both God as he is and man as he is: The sinless Savior and the sinful one in need of salvation. This final purpose combines the others, as David shows us here by saying that God listens to our prayers and answers them, that many will see and fear, and that those who do will come to faith, “to put their trust in the Lord.”
Later in the Psalm, we will see that David is not only thinking of himself and his troubles, but he is also prophesying about the Messiah. He depicts the prayer of Jesus before his death. There were many times when Christ was delivered from his enemies, but God first allowed the enemies to show their intention, to attack him with their venomous words, and to plot together to find a way to murder him. This permitted their evil to be fully exposed, and God used their wickedness to play a part in the sacrifice of Christ for the sin of all mankind.
We can also see the Psalm as a prayer of the Savior after his resurrection from the dead. When he returned to life out of the grave (the pit), the “new song” of the gospel went out on the lips of the apostles throughout the world. What greater miracle has God worked than our salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection? “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). Like baptism, the gospel “saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). His forgiveness covers your life of sin with his life of sinlessness, and his love and mercy carries you along throughout this life and on into the life of the world to come.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 40:1-3 Out of the quicksand and bursting with song