I Waited Patiently for the LORD

2013-09-22

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 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. 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. Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 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. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. (Psalm 40:1-8)

Psalm 40:1-8 seems to be a reverse lament psalm. David starts off with his praise, and later on he entreats the LORD for his troubles and confesses his trust in him. We will concentrate on this former part where David proclaims the LORD’s deliverance.

In this psalm, we see a logical progression occurring rather than randomness. David, who had a difficult life running from King Saul and his son Absalom, we very much could see this psalm reflecting his trials. We also could see this as reflective of his spiritual life. Either way, the application of the psalm to our lives is the same. We can directly correlate this experience with the deliverance from sin by our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the first verse, we see that David first waited on the LORD. His trust elicited an action from the LORD, who heard his cry. Verse 2 describes how the LORD then took David out of the pit in which he was hopelessly stuck; he was taken from what was much like quicksand, with no escape, to the rock where his footing was firm. David was established anew; he no longer was in a hopeless state.

Only when David’s deliverance was complete, God did something amazing in his life: he put a new song in his mouth. This should remind us of Revelation 5:9, where the 24 elders sung a new song when they see the overcoming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But we see here this new song is actually defined after the word “even” in 40:3: “even praise unto our God.” Praising God is our new song.

But this song is not mere melody without substance; because of this, people who hear his public testimony of the Lord’s deliverance also will begin to fear the LORD and trust in him. These people who will trust in him at the testimony of David are described in 40:4. They will not only trust in the LORD, but they also will not respect the proud. In other words, the proud have no place in the LORD’s plan. David was delivered by the LORD ONLY when he was humbled to a very low estate as we saw in Psalm 40:1. Not only do they shun pride, they also turn away from lies. The reason for this is because God is the ultimate truth, and cannot lie (Titus 1:2).

By verse 5, we see that David exclaims that the wonderful works to his people are beyond numbering. But in verse 6, he begins to explain just a little bit as to what these wonderful works are. It was not David’s sacrifice, or any power of David that delivered him. Instead, we see that the LORD opened his ears in understanding. In other words, David’s hopeless circumstance and God’s miraculous deliverance helped David understand that it is the LORD who saves. It is not our effort, but God’s deliverance. Think about how understanding our plight before God in Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Understanding God’s Word of the Gospel stimulates faith in the Lord.

Note the phrase “mine ears hast thou opened” is replaced in Hebrews 10:5 with “but a body hast thou prepared me” when the psalm was applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus did not need his ears opened to understand the gospel! He was the sacrifice, and his rising again initiated the deliverance of humankind, so it was appropriate for this clause to be different from the original.

After David understands that he was saved unilaterally by the LORD God, he offers himself to the LORD’s service in verse 7: “Lo, I come.” Because who God is and what he has done, David delights to do his will. Remember where we came from, and our condition before the LORD’s deliverance occurred in our lives. That will cause us too to say, “Lo, I come... I delight to do thy will, O my God.”