Psalm 40--My Help and My Deliverer

Psalm 40
English Standard Version

My Help and My Deliverer
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
40 I waited patiently for the LORD;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
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.
3 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.

4 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!
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.

6 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.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.”

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance
    in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O LORD.
10 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.

11 As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
12 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.

13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!
    O LORD, make haste to help me!
14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

​16 But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
17 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!

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David may have been talking about an actual victory where he was close to defeat and the LORD saved him, but this also is our story about our salvation in Christ.  We are caught in a miry muck that we could not escape from without His doing all the work for us.  He set us on solid ground, washed us, clothed us in new garments (the righteousness of Christ) and put a new song in our mouths--the song of our salvation.  By seeing this miraculous resurrection power of taking those who were dead in sin and making them alive in Christ, people will praise the LORD with awe and wonder for the great things He has done.

David says that men should put their trust only in the LORD, and not in strong men, or proud men (like the politically connected, the rich, famous, and well-educated).  David says that the LORD has done so much for us that we can't count all the ways so there's no need to think He will not provide everything we need if we wait on Him and turning to anyone else shows us that we put our faith in others more than and before we put our faith in God.

Now comes one of the most interesting verses in the Old Testament (and we'll see David and some of the prophets say this a again and again, yet we so often miss is).  David says that it is not a sacrifice that he brings that the LORD requires, but that the Law (the scroll and book that David is referring to) tells him that the LORD requires a changed heart and a changed will--for us to be completely and radically transformed--so that we desire to do what the LORD commands and that we love Him and His commandments.  This is not legalism whereby we are saying that if we do good works, then we will be saved.  No, this is the evidence that God has changed us, for all those who are in rebellion to God sin because they are sinners and that is what they love to do, but those who love God will obey Him.  Jesus says as much in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commands."  How can this be?  David says that it is because the Law is no longer something external that is written on stone tablets, but it has been written on our hearts.  Now let's go back and look at the "new covenant" that we've mentioned over and over again (this is still a prophet years after David, but let's see how they say the same thing).


Jeremiah 31:31-34
English Standard Version

The New Covenant
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

David and Jeremiah had the same Holy Spirit within them giving them the same message to give to everyone else.  God's requirements are a changed heart (see Psalm 51 which David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba).  So what is David's response to this?  It is that He is going to sing of all the great things that the LORD is and has done to all the people of the congregation (all of the people that call themselves by the name of the LORD) whom the LORD has chosen to reveal His goodness and salvation to--David knows that the world is not going to understand this praise because they have not experienced these things, but the gospel is not just for evangelizing the lost, but we are to continue to tell it to each other who are saved so that we are to remember that it is all about who He is and what He has done.  It is the story and song that will always be on our lips for all eternity (see the book of Revelation), so we best not get tired of hearing it, saying it and singing it.

David asks the LORD that He be pleased to save David.  Isn't that a odd wording to use?  David understands the doctrine of Election and that the LORD will save a remnant for Himself for His own good pleasure and to bring glory unto Himself.  David prays that he will be one of the ones that the LORD saves and that it will please the LORD to do so and in doing so that David's enemies would be dishonored and brought to shame--probably those who claimed that God had abandoned David and that he had no hope of salvation because of his sin.

David wants to join with all the others to say "Great is the LORD" because of His salvation.  Though David is a rich and powerful king who has wealth beyond our imagination, he identifies himself as poor and needy in the eyes of the LORD.  "Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."  David realizes that he has no currency with which to buy the LORD's salvation and that when he stands before the LORD, he is as poor and needy as the poor man that stands before him and has nothing to offer the king.  Such a poor man depends solely on the goodness and generosity of the king and his character to bring his needs to the king and that the king will take care of the needs of all of his kingdom's citizens, even those who are poor and cannot give anything back to him.  So it is with David before the LORD and David asks that the LORD act quickly to save and deliver him.  That salvation was already secure though it would not be seen for nearly another thousand years.

While not directly in the words of this psalm, another song comes to mind here that I will post as something for you to listen to.  Hopefully this is something you can sing along with me if you have experienced the LORD's salvation.