About this sermon
In Psalm 40 David waited patiently for the Lord, and the Lord brought him up out of the pit and set his feet on a rock. God does not delight in sacrifice alone, and Hebrews 10 hears Christ speaking in this psalm: ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’ Christ is the perfect King whose obedience secures his people forever. When crises come, believers remember God’s past mercies and wait for him to deliver them again.
Sermon transcript
Please remain standing for the reading of God’s word as we continue our study of the book of Psalms. We are nearing the end of book one of the Psalter. Tonight we consider Psalm 40. The title of my sermon tonight is Up from the Pit. Psalm 40. Dear friends, Here, with reverence and awe, the word of our God. This is entitled, for the choir director, A Psalm of David. 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. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust and is not turned to the proud nor to those who lapse into 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. Sacrifice and meal offering. You have not desired my years. You have opened burnt offering and 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. Oh, my God, your law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the greatest great congregation. Behold, I will not restrain my lips. Oh, 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 from the great congregation.
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. They are more numerous than the hairs of my head and my heart has failed me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. Make haste, O Lord, to help me. Let those be ashamed and humiliated together who seek my life to destroy it. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified since I am afflicted and needy. Let the Lord be mindful of me.
You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay. Oh, my God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word. Our faithful Lord and covenant God, we do ask that once again you would grant the powerful presence of your spirit to attend the preaching of your word. We ask, Lord, that you would take the message that is proclaimed this evening, that it might be faithful and grounded upon your word and that it would be used of you to bring spiritual life to us and to sustain us in our life in Christ. Build us up, Lord, as we hear the word this evening and we pray that our souls would be fed and that Jesus would be exalted in the proclamation of your word.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. There’s quite a lot of options for words to be listening for in my sermon tonight, if you’re following along with your with your sermon outline. Again, the title of my sermon this evening is Up from the Pit. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when you and I face troubles in our lives and the flame of our faith burns low, what should we do to fan the flame fan the flame of faith and bolster our confidence in the Lord’s power to deliver us through our troubles and to bring us to a better, more stable, more secure footing. After all, we live in a fallen, sin-cursed world, and as those who live in a fallen, sin-cursed world, even we as God’s people face many obstacles, many crises, many troubles, and even hostilities and threats. from the ungodly who would love to see us sink into the pit of despair and destruction and ruin.
In the face of the pits, it is tempting to sink into despair, it’s tempting to lose our joy and to find our faith in the Lord crumbling into ruins. This precious portion of God’s holy word that is known to us today is Psalm 40. gives us, as God’s covenant people, some wonderful encouragement and hope. Beloved, in this psalm of David, we are shown that remembering God’s mercies to us in the past and God’s answers to our past prayers for deliverance can stir up within us faith in Yahweh’s faithfulness to intervene and to deliver in the face of the present crises that confront us. We sing that hymn Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. God, our faithful covenant Lord, has indeed been faithful to us in ages past as his covenant people.
And so on the basis of what God has done for us in the past, on the basis of his delivering mercies to us in the past, we can be confident that he will act to be our hope in the future. So as our God has been our help and deliverer in ages past, So he will be our hope. Indeed, he will be ultimately our eschatological consummate hope for years to come and even into eternity, all because of what he has done for us in and through Christ, our Savior and Messianic King. In this powerful portion of Holy Scripture, a portion of Scripture that seems to combine the literary characteristics of both a Thanksgiving psalm and a lamentation, We, as God’s people, are encouraged to trust in Yahweh, our faithful covenant God and Redeemer, to look to him as our help, as our deliverer, as our salvation, and thus to wait patiently for him to act, to act for us in his good timing.
For just as Yahweh had heard David’s cries and had brought him up from the pit of death and destruction, So through his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, our faithful God and Heavenly Father, here’s our Christ for mercy. And he brings us up out of the pit of judgment and wrath and destruction, making our footsteps firm and secure in Christ, our Lord. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior God, our Heavenly Father, has brought us up from the pit out of the miry clay, and he has set our feet upon a rock, not just upon a rock, but upon the eternal rock of Christ our Lord, and he has made our footsteps stable and secure. Now, as we consider the contents of this beautiful and powerful psalm, you may have noticed as we worked our way through the reading of Psalm 40 that there’s a sort of a change of mood in this psalm.
There’s two major sections of this psalm. one reflecting thanksgiving, and the final section reflecting lamentation. And because of the strong change in mood that can be detected within this psalm, again, the first part of this psalm reflecting a focus on thanksgiving for past mercies, and the latter part of this psalm having the characteristics of lamentation in the face of a new crisis where David again cries out to the Lord to deliver and not to delay. In light of all of this, some Bible scholars have suggested that Psalm 40 was originally two psalms, two separate individual psalms that a later editor decided to kind of stitch together into one. Now, if that is the literary, in fact, the literary history of Psalm 40, then that in no way undermines the inspiration of this psalm, because if that’s what happened, then obviously the Holy Spirit was at work in the work of the editor to bring these two different Psalms together into one liturgical whole, if that’s what happened.
And some might point to Psalm 70 as evidence that that, in fact, is what happened. After all, if you compare verses 13 through 17 with Psalm 70, you will notice that the wording of Psalm 70 is almost exactly the same as verses 13 through 17 of And so, as one commentator has put it, Psalm 70 is, quote, a somewhat revised duplicate of verses 13 through 17 of this psalm. Brothers and sisters, I would suggest to you that the different themes and moods that we see in this psalm do not need to be viewed as somehow undermining the literary unity of this beautiful poem. David, because the two themes actually fit together and they flow one into another. If we view this psalm as a cohesive unity, cohesive whole. In this psalm, again, David begins by remembering Yahweh’s past mercies to him, and he renews his commitment as the Lord’s anointed king to doing the will of God.
And then this This remembrance of past mercies and this renewal of David’s commitment to the Lord as the Lord’s anointed king is the basis for David finding hope in the Lord in the face of new crises that confront him and confront the nation of Israel. So I would suggest to you that we regard Psalm 40 as, indeed, as it’s presented to us in the canon of Scripture as a literary unity. Well, that being the case, let’s dive into the contents of the psalm. And first of all, we focus on verses one through five. Notice here, beloved, in this opening section of Psalm 40, what we have here is a testimony of joyous praise for God’s past deliverance, a testimony of joyous praise for God’s past deliverance. David says, I waited patiently for the Lord. And he inclined to me and heard my crying.
Yes, though David had to wait for the Lord, the Lord in that waiting was not ignoring David. It’s not that the Lord was had to be stirred up from sleep. The Lord has his reasons for his timing when it comes to inclining his ear and hearing our cries. God answers our cries and our prayers in his timing as it is best for us And then verse two, he brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the mirey clay, and he set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm. You see the contrast there. The pit of destruction, which is a pit of mirey clay. If you are in a pit of mirey clay, you have no firm footing. There’s no stability there. But the Lord has brought David out of that pit of destruction and often in the Old Testament this language of the pits or the pit of destruction is a picture or a way of speaking about death.
So some have suggested that perhaps David is reflecting upon a time when he encountered a serious illness that threatened his life and he cried out to the Lord and the Lord brought him out of that time of illness and and set his feet upon a rock. In other words, brought him back to stable, healthy life. Whatever the case may be, whatever the circumstances may have been that that David is reflecting upon, the result is clear in verse three. God, the Lord Yahweh, he says he put a new song in my mouth. A new song because it is a celebration of a new act of deliverance from the Lord. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear many who knew about this situation and saw the Lord’s intervention, saw that God acted, and as a result, they feared the Lord.
They came to reverence the Lord and to trust in the Lord. Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. And then he goes on to reflect on the blessedness of the one who trusts in the Lord. How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust and has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. The word for falsehood, there may be an indication of false worship or idolatry. How blessed is the man instead of falling into idolatry and looking to other gods for for intervention and help, looks to Yahweh the Lord alone. And then he goes on to say in verse five, many, oh Lord, my God, are the wonders which you have done and your thoughts toward us. There is none to compare with you.
So why look to the idols of the pagans when there’s none to compare with Yahweh, the true and living God? If I would declare and speak of them, they would be too numerous to count. Oh, God’s wonders are too numerous indeed to count. Now, how are we to, again, Stepping back a few moments and asking ourselves, what particular circumstances is David reflecting here as he recounts God’s past mercies? Well, it is possible that David, as I said, could be expressing his own personal experience of Yahweh’s deliverance, perhaps God’s deliverance from a personal sickness. But given the overall context of this psalm, and also given the fact that in the New Testament, in particular, in Hebrews 10 verses 5 through 7, verses 6 to 7 of this psalm are interpreted as being fulfilled in Christ, David’s greater son.
It is perhaps better to understand David as speaking here in his capacity as Israel’s anointed theocratic king. And therefore, David here, when he says, I waited patiently for the Lord, he brought me up. David may be speaking as a representative of the nation, the covenant nation of Israel. David, the anointed King, speaking representatively, personifying in his person the people of Israel, the covenant people of God. And if that is the case, then David speaks, maybe referring to a situation where Yahweh had delivered the nation of Israel in battle from the destruction and death that was threatened by a hostile foreign adversary. I think this may very well be the way we ought to view this, especially since verse five clues us into the fact that there is a corporate focus to this psalm. Many, oh Lord, my God, are the wonders which you have done and your thoughts, as David say, and your thoughts toward me.
No, and your thoughts toward us. Your thoughts toward us. And perhaps there’s a little bit of both going on here. Perhaps David reflects both a personal experience, but also personifies the experience of Israel as a nation. But whatever the case may be, beloved dear ones, as we consider how this psalm would apply to us today in our new covenant situation, let us reflect upon the fact that many dear ones, many are the wonders that Christ has done for us. Many are his thoughts toward us. And his thoughts toward us who are in union with Christ are thoughts of mercy, thoughts of grace, thoughts of salvation. In him, we who trust in and wait patiently for him are brought up out of the pit and have our feet planted firmly on the rock. Indeed, Jesus Christ himself is our rock, our redemption, our solid ground, our stability, our security, our eternal home.
And so this psalm gloriously begins again with a testimony of joyous praise for God’s past deliverance. In particular, I believe God’s past deliverance is for his people as personified in their anointed King, King David. But next, as we move on to the second section of this psalm, verses six through ten, notice next the king’s commitment to do God’s will and to proclaim his righteousness. We see next the king’s commitment to do God’s will and to proclaim his righteousness. Verse six, David says, Sacrifice and meal offering. You have not desired my ears. You have opened literally could be translated. You have dug into my ears, my ears. You have dug burnt offering and sin offering. You have not required. Now, let’s put the brakes on for a moment. Is David here denying that God had commanded his people under the Old Covenant to offer these animal sacrifices, these meal offerings and burnt offerings and thin offerings?
Is that what’s going on here? Some liberal commentators see attention here in David’s wording, or this psalm’s wording, as opposed to the priestly aspects of the Old Testament, and they think there was theological conflict going on in Old Testament times, that there were some who were for the animal sacrifices, and others that said, no, we don’t need animal sacrifices. God doesn’t want that. He wants the sacrifice of a broken heart, a thankful heart, and so forth. Friends, if we hold to a high view of Scripture, if we believe that the Scriptures are, in fact, what they are, the very Word of God, then there is no conflict here. David, in this wording, he’s not denying that God had indeed ordained and commanded animal sacrifices as part of the old covenant legislation. Rather, he speaks by way of comparison.
He speaks of sacrifices which are offered apart from a heart of true faith and repentance. God, indeed, he wants these sacrifices and burnt offerings and sin offerings. He wanted them. They were provided for him for a time. They were types of the and pictures of the sacrifice that Christ would offer when the Messiah would come and make atonement, perfect atonement for sin. But what God is not interested in is the offering of such sacrifices with a ritualistic out of ritualism with a hypocritical or unbelieving heart. And indeed, I think that is the best way to understand of the wording here. Again, oftentimes in Old Testament history, the people of God fell into a kind of formalism and ritualism where they honored God as we considered this morning in the sermon, how they honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from the Lord and and that took place.
That happens sometimes in when it came to the sacrificial system. And he goes on to say, My ears, you have opened again. To quote from another commentator, this difficult phrase in Hebrew may be idiomatic. The Hebrew more literally translated would be dug rather than opened. This would mean that God gave the psalmist ears to hear and obey. The phrase is important because it is cited in Hebrews 10, 5 through 7. Hebrews uses the Septuagint, that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is translated a body you have prepared for me. The meaning is the same. The ears are to the body as the parts to the whole. The obedience of Jesus in the body is to offer himself once and for all, replacing the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament. So it is also in that redemptive historical sense that a fulfillment of those sacrifices is coming.
It is in that sense as well as David speaks prophetically as a type of Christ in verse six that Ultimately, sacrifice and meal offering and burnt offerings and sin offerings are not desired of God in the sense that they’re going to be passing away because the perfect sacrifice is coming. The sacrifice that the Messiah would offer when he came to this earth. And then verse seven. Then I said, David is speaking again as the royal theocratic anointed king of Israel. I said, behold, I come In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. What scroll is David speaking of there? In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. Well, it is very likely that this is David is referring here to Deuteronomy 17, verses 14 through 20, where Moses spoke of the requirements that were to be observed by by the king that God would raise up for Israel.
Let me just read this section, Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14 through 20. God, through Moses, says to the Israelites, When you enter the land 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 as king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not of 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 or gold for himself.
Kind of makes you think of Solomon, right? King Solomon didn’t exactly follow these prescriptions here, but then notice verse 18. Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall do what? Verse 18. He shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life. that 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 his countrymen and 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.
David is saying here in verse seven, I’ve come in the scroll of the book. It is written of me. I delight to do your will. Oh, my God, your law is within my heart. One of the things we need to understand is that in the covenantal arrangement that God made with Israel, as the king’s heart went, so went the people. If the king was obedient to the Lord and faithful to the covenant, the people would be blessed because the king personifies and represents the people. But if the king fell away from the Lord or was rebellious or idolatrous, then God’s judgment would come upon the people whom he represented. And David is expressing his intention as the theocratic anointed king to render obedience to the Lord. He’s recommitting himself in light of the Lord’s gracious intervention and deliverance.
David is recommitting himself to obey the Lord. And in this sense, too, he points to Christ because Christ perfectly obeyed the Lord. Unlike the theocratic Davidic kings under the Old Covenant, the best of whom were flawed and sinful men like David. David was the great sweet psalmist of Israel, a man after God’s own heart. But we know David was also a very sinful man. But Jesus is the perfect King, whose perfect righteousness secures the people of God forever. And in verse eight, David, though, expresses inner delight in doing the will of God, and then he goes on to say in verse nine, I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. In other words, I’ve not kept Lord, I’ve not kept your mercies to myself. I’ve proclaimed I’ve made it known to the people All that you have done and your glory and your righteousness, he says, Behold, I will not restrain my lips.
Oh, Lord, you know, I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I’ve spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great congregation. Again, David has openly declared and proclaimed Yahweh’s righteousness, faithfulness and salvation in the great congregation. So what are some of the takeaways from this second section of Psalm 40? Well, again, as I pointed out, David’s commitment to the Lord as the theocratic anointed king of Israel was a type of Christ’s obedience to his father and obedience that was an obedience unto death upon the cross. David fell short in his obedience, of course. David, though a type and picture of Christ in his kingly role in Israel as the anointed one. Nevertheless, David also fell short of being that perfect messianic king that was needed to render perfect security for the people of God.
But again, David’s commitment to the Lord as the theocratic anointed king of Israel typifies Christ’s commitment to do his father’s will, even unto death on the cross of Calvary. And beloved, Christ’s finished work on the cross has done away with the old covenant sacrificial system, as we learn from our consideration of that passage in Hebrews 10 that I read and which quotes from verses six through eight of our passage here. The author of Hebrews makes it clear that Christ came in the body to set aside to fulfill the meaning of these old covenant sacrifices by his once and for all perfect, complete sacrifice on the cross. Praise be to God that by his obedience, by Christ’s obedience unto death, he accomplished our redemption. Dear listener, have you trusted in him as your savior from sin?
But finally, in this closing section of Psalm 40, we find a plea for deliverance in the face of a new crisis. Again, do you get the flow of this Psalm? David begins reflecting upon remembering God’s past mercies, how the Lord has graciously intervened and answered his cries in the past. And thus he recommits himself to the Lord as Israel’s theocratic king. But now a new crisis has arisen, probably a national crisis, perhaps perhaps the crisis involving renewed hostilities from a foreign adversary. We don’t know for sure. Many different circumstances could fit the description here in this latter section of the wording here. But nevertheless, we find here a plea for deliverance in the face of a new crisis. Verse 11, David says to the Lord, You, O Lord, O Yahweh, will not withhold your compassion from me.
Your loving kindness and your truth will continually preserve me. Here we see David expressing again, I believe, as the personification of Israel, David is expressing Yahweh’s continual preservation of his people. We should have confidence that God will preserve those who are his own. And then verse 12, for evils beyond number have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me so that I’m not able to see. David certainly had many iniquities in his own personal life and Israel, the covenant nation under David’s rule, also had many iniquities that had overtaken them. So that they were not able to see they are more than numerous than the hairs on my head. And my heart has failed me. David here in verse 12 confesses his iniquities, and that that’s significant. It appears that he admits that this current crisis has been brought on, at least in part by his sins.
And remember, when David, as the theocratic king, sins against the Lord, that has an impact on the people of God who he represents and rules over. As one commentator has pointed out, while the elements of royal dedication to the will of God, as we find in verses six through eight, are indeed a prophecy and a type of Jesus Christ, the royal and priestly Messiah who was to come. Nevertheless, David’s confession of sin here serves to show, quote, how short his meaning Jesus’s human prototypes fell of his matchless perfection. In other words, the point that that is being made is that biblical figures, figures, you know, redemptive figures, redemptive historical figures like like David, or you think of Joseph, for example, who was also a picture of type of Christ as a deliverer. We think of Noah, Noah as a deliverer, a man after God’s own heart, righteous in his own generation.
And of course, we think of David and also of Moses, for example, these Old Testament men who were types of Christ, pictures of Christ. They typified and pictured Christ, both by way of comparison and by way of contrast. King David, at one level, King David was like Jesus Christ, his greater son, Great David’s greater son, in that David was God’s chosen, anointed, theocratic king who was called to reign over God’s covenant people, Israel. But David was very much unlike Jesus in that David was also a deeply flawed and sinful man. David, in his kingly vocation, pictured Jesus the coming Messiah, the ultimate anointed king. But David, in his sinfulness, showed that he himself was not that Messiah. Indeed, his sins revealed the need for a perfect, sinless king to come. and establish his Messianic eternal kingdom, a kingdom where perfect righteousness, holiness and justice would reign forever and ever.
And so we need to keep that in mind as we read of David crying out to the Lord here, and then we see the plea for deliverance in the light of this new crisis being brought to our attention in verses 13 through 17. David says, Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. Make haste, O Lord, to help me. In other words, don’t delay. Don’t make me wait. As I waited patiently in the past, don’t make me wait now. Don’t delay. Let those be ashamed and humiliated together who seek my life to destroy it. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my heart. Oh, there were many in David’s day who delighted in his harm, who desired his destruction. Just as in Christ’s time, there were many who desired our Lord’s destruction, and they sought to destroy his life.
David here is not speaking out of personal sinful vindictiveness. David, rather, is speaking out of a concern for justice to be done. And I think we also should see in this imprecation, this calling down of judgment upon his enemies. We should see this in the context of spiritual warfare going on, that indeed The Lord Jesus also brings this judgment against all of his and our enemies who refuse to repent. There’s a sense, by the way, as an aside, there’s a sense in which when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. One of the things we imply in that prayer is, Lord, may Satan’s kingdom be crushed and defeated and may his his servants be judged. So even in the Lord’s Prayer, We include an imprecation, if you will, in that.
Verse 15, let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha, these are not just wayward sinners who don’t get it. These are those who are sinners who are hostile to the kingdom of God, hostile to God’s anointed King David, hostile to the God of Israel. David says, let those be appalled because of their shame. Let all who seek you, on the other hand, rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. And then as David wraps up this earnest petition before the Lord, he says in verse 17, since I am afflicted and needy, let the Lord be mindful of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay. Oh, my God, do not delay. In closing, beloved, we as God’s people sometimes experience life in this present age as one crisis after another.
But as our Lord has been faithful to deliver us, his people in the past, let us continue to trust in him and to wait patiently for him. Let us trust that he will continue to bring us up from the pit and make our footsteps firm, firmly planted upon Jesus Christ, our rock. Our redemption, our security. Amen. Let us pray. Gracious Lord and Father in heaven. We do thank you and praise you, our God. For the covenant faithfulness of Jesus, that he has indeed secured for us an eternal redemption. We thank you for his perfect sacrifice. We thank you that his blood cleanses us from all sin. and that he has indeed brought us out of the ultimate pit, the pit of hell. He has secured our redemption from the pit, and he has placed our feet firmly upon the rock.
We ask, Lord, that when we face crises in our lives, that we would be reminded of your past mercies to us, indeed, your ongoing mercies to us in Christ. And may we have confidence that you will indeed be pleased to deliver us and help us in your good timing. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, Amen.
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