Psalm 40 opens with a wonderful tune of thanksgiving, but just as the melody of this gratitude sweeps us away in its beauty, a shrill note tears at the harmony. The high-flying thankfulness crash lands into a lament (v. 12). As he sings in church, evils assault him. Bad things besiege and molest the psalmist. What are these evils? Are they foreign enemies, hostile neighbors, or miserable providences? No, these evils are his iniquities. Evils encompass; sins overtake. Such evils are not external forces but internal depravities. It is the wild passions of sin that prey upon us from within and infect us with their poison. And the sins that defeat the psalmist are not few. They are not a little here and a bit there, but they outnumber the hairs on his head. An avalanche of transgression sweeps over him, burying him under guilt and shame. And the effect of this mountain of sin adds up to delirium.
He cannot see; his heart forsakes him. The shame blackens his vision so that he cannot see straight. The flood of sins destroy his sanity. He feels like he is losing his mind. And why do the sins drive him crazy? Because he just vowed to please the Lord completely. He affirmed the law was written on his heart, that his pure intention to obey would be consistently actualized in every part of life. But now, despite this sincere promise, sins overwhelm him. He thought success was certain, but iniquities laid him to waste. His world was rocked, his mind unmoored.
How can his best intentions yield countless sins? His mind cannot make sense of it, but there is one thing he can do—cry for help. Be pleased to save me. Hurry, O Lord, to help me (v. 13). As he cried out previously to be delivered from death, now he prays again to be saved from sin. With his mind not working properly, he reverts to his old, good habits, to pray in faith. And what does this rescue look like?
His petitions request the shaming of hostiles (v. 14–15). These are those who wanted his life to end; they took pleasure in his demise; and they loved to cheer over the defeat of the psalmist. Simply put, this group wanted the psalmist to be convicted as sinner, executed as a felon, and to celebrate in the stands as they watched him perish. They mocked the psalmist’s faith as being in vain. They ridiculed his hope as that of a fool. “The Lord won’t save him; his hope is worthless.” But the psalmist contends that it is those who blaspheme the Lord as being untrustworthy and label hope in God as rubbish who must be shamed. The Lord’s fidelity to be merciful has to be vindicated over those who scorn it.
On the flip side, he prays for those loyal to God to rejoice (v. 16). May they be glad in God who seek the Lord continually, who trust in him unfailingly. Let their hope and faith be ratified by enjoying the grace of God. Indeed, he prays that those who love the salvation of God would constantly chant, Yahweh is great. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. This is the soundtrack of their life, the happiness of their soul, and their chief end. For those who put their faith in God and place their hope in the Lord will not be put to shame but proven effective as they become heirs of God’s deliverance. So then, the salvation prayed for will shame unbelief and vindicate true faith with joyful worship.
Until the Lord answers, however, the psalmist is mired down in his weakness (v.17). He is plagued by spiritual poverty and moral neediness. His hope holds on to the Lord, but his grip is feeble. He trusts in God, but his faith is weak. So he urgently pleads for the Lord to be quick. Do not delay, my helper and deliverer. Under the urgency of overwhelming sin, the psalmist requires redemption and fast. Nevertheless, even though he is desperate, a solid seed of faith remains evident in the psalmist. This closing petition is not riddled with doubt but is infused with assurance. How is this felt?
The latter half of this psalm, which is a lament, follows the first half. And the first part was a thanksgiving for a past rescue. The previous deliverance from death gives the psalmist certitude that the Lord will also save him from sin. The wonders God had already done are surety for the ones he will yet do. But how does this work? The psalmist promised obedience in his thanksgiving, but he failed due to sin. The answer is found in the voice of the speaker. David authored this psalm, and as God’s anointed, he had two voices or accents. As the chosen line of the Messiah, his first dialect aligned with Christ. Positively, David foreshadowed Jesus, both his person and his work. Though as a fallen human, David’s second voice matched our sinful accent. Like us, he had to confess sin, admit to weak faith, and hope in the salvation of God.
David uses both of his voices in Psalm 40. In the first half, we hear the voice of Christ himself. In fact, in chapter 10, Hebrews quotes from this psalm, particularly verses 5–7, as coming from the mouth of Jesus. In coming into the world, our Savior took this vow of perfect obedience. He took on human flesh to do the will of God. The righteousness of the law was upon his heart. His delight was to complete everything that was written in the Old Testament scroll. But Hebrews tweaks the language of Psalm 40. The psalmist says, “you have given me an open ear,” which was the ability to obey. Hebrews 10:5 reads this line as “a body you prepared for me,” which also expresses the capacity to obey. The ear represents whole body righteousness. The overall thrust of these lines are the same. Yet, the shift in anatomy from ear to body does shape the nature of obedience. Thus, the body prepared for Jesus was the righteousness to offer himself as the one sacrifice for sin. The sacrifices that did not delight the Lord, then, were animal offerings. The blood of cows and lambs did not put the smile of atonement on God’s face.
But, there was one offering that did delight the Father—the righteousness of the Son to lay down his life as our atonement. Bovine blood could not wash away our sins or appease wrath, but the holy blood of Christ did. The miraculous work of Jesus upon the cross worked our marvelous redemption, once and for all. Therefore, David speaks with the voice of Jesus here in Psalm 40:6–8, and he talks about the sacred obedience of Christ to die as our sacrifice. And this voice of Jesus provides the sure foundation for the second half of the psalm.
In verse 12, David’s accent switches from messianic to sinner. He confesses his countless sin, he humbles himself under the guilt and shame of his constant depravity. And he prays to be saved from these encompassing transgressions. David speaks as one of us. He expresses his affinity with we who are sinners. And what is the cause of redemption from sin? It is the obedient offering of Christ vowed and fulfilled. The work of God in the first half of the psalm is the fountain for deliverance in the latter half.
This is highlighted by the math that does not compute in verse 12 where the vastness of the psalmist’s sins were too numerous to count. But something else was innumerable—the wondrous deeds of God in verse 5. The uncountable can only be conquered by the uncountable. The power of human sin is only vanquished by the miracles of God’s love. And if numbers fail us at any point, it is at the cross. The Divine Son died for us ungrateful sinners. The bottomless debts of our transgressions were paid for by the infinite righteousness of Jesus. The terrifying wrath of justice was appeased by the blood of the Holy One. While we hated God, Jesus became our sacrifice. These are, without a doubt, miracles of God, and the richness of this grace cannot be counted.
Additionally, by his death, Jesus also fulfilled verse 8 in us. Here, David thinks that the law was written on his heart, but he soon found out that he was mistaken as sin overcame him. Thus, this benefit of a law-inscribed heart became a chief tenet of the new covenant promise. As Jeremiah preached, in the coming everlasting covenant, God will write the law on hearts. He will regenerate us from death to life. He justifies us to be the righteousness of God. And he sanctifies us so that we actually please the Lord. By grace, God gives us ears to heed his word, he gives us eyes to see his truth, and he fashions a new heart in us that delights to please God. The mercy of God enables us to do what we dream of doing but cannot do.
His love strengthens our feeble faith; his fidelity works the virtues of the Spirit in us. And his kindness equips us to hope ever in the Lord. Christ fashions patient waiting on Him, a sure hope that will not be put to shame. For, waiting upon the Lord is still a chief part of our piety as we await the final deliverance from death and this body of depravity at the resurrection. We are forgiven but not yet fully holy. We are justified but yet to be glorified. And during this time gap from the cross to the second coming, Jesus gives us a living hope—one that is able to praise God continually in the great congregation. So, let us ever chant, “Great is the Lord,” now and until our hope becomes the reality of eternity glorifying God in heaven.
©Zach Keele. All Rights Reserved.
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Zach Keele
Rev. Zachary Keele grew up on a ranch in a small town named Crawford, Colorado. He attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California. He has served as the pastor of Escondido OPC since 2006.
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