Psalm 40

Psalms 40:1

“He tells us, not merely that he had waited, but by the repetition of the same expression, he shows that he had been a long time in anxious suspense. In proportion then as his trial was prolonged, the evidence and proof of his faith in enduring the delay with calmness and equanimity of mind was so much the more apparent.”

Psalms 40:1

“I waited patiently for the Lord. Patient waiting upon God was a special characteristic of our Lord Jesus. Impatience never lingered in his heart, much less escaped his lips. All through his agony in the garden, his trial of cruel mockings before Herod and Pilate, and his passion on the tree, he waited in omnipotence of patience. No glance of wrath, no word of murmuring, no deed of vengeance came from God's patient Lamb; he waited and waited on; was patient, and patient to perfection, far excelling all others who have according to their measure glorified God in the fires.”

Psalms 40:2

“Christ has heard the prayer of his own servants and has brought us out from the pit of misery and from the mire of dregs. We were drowning there; our whole flesh was clinging to the mire, trapped in the whirlpool of our sins. Our soul was powerless to save itself; fallen and ruined as it was by the multiplicity and dreadfulness of our offenses. Thanks be to the Lord Jesus, God's only Son, who came down from heaven to forgive us our sins.”

Psalms 40:2

“And he drew me out of the roaring pit. Some translate, from the pit of desolation, because the verb s'h, shaah, from which the noun s'vm, shaon, is derived, signifies to destroy or to waste, as well as to resound or echo. But it is more appropriate to consider that there is here an allusion to the deep gulfs, where the waters gush with a tumultuous force.”

Psalms 40:2

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit. When our Lord bore in his own person the terrible curse which was due to sin, he was so cast down as to be like a prisoner in a deep, dark, fearful dungeon, amid whose horrible glooms the captive heard a noise as of rushing torrents, while overhead resounded the tramp of furious foes. Our Lord in his anguish was like a captive in the oubliettes, forgotten of all mankind, immured amid horror, darkness, and desolation.”

Psalms 40:3

“In place of the impious worship of the idols I was taught to sing the praises of the true God and offer a song—not an old one but a new one, suited to the new favors. I no longer make supplication in dirges, you see; …”

Psalms 40:3

“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. At the passover, before his passion, our Lord sang one of the grand old Psalms of praise; but what is the music of his heart now, in the midst of his redeemed! What a song is that in which his glad heart for ever leads the chorus of the elect! Not Miriam's tabor nor Moses' triumphant hymn over Miriam's chivalry can for a moment rival that ever new and exulting song.”

Psalms 40:4

“Blessed. This is an exclamation similar to that of the first Psalm, "Oh, the happiness of the man." God's blessings are emphatic, "I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, "indeed and in very truth. Is that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Faith obtaineth promises. A simple single eyed confidence in God is the sure mark of blessedness.”

Psalms 40:4

“Turn - From God, in whom alone they ought to trust. To lies - To lying vanities, such as worldly power and wisdom, and riches, and all other earthly things, or persons, in which men are prone to trust: which are called lies, because they promise more than they perform.”

Psalms 40:5

“Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Creation, providence, and redemption, teem with wonders as the sea with life. Our special attention is called by this passage to the marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it. The accomplished redemption achieves many ends, and compasses a variety of designs; the outgoings of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun.”

Psalms 40:5

“This is but one instance of many. The use of the plural accords with the union of Christ and His people. In suffering and triumph, they are one with Him.”

Psalms 40:5

“Many - This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses.”

Psalms 40:6

“Here we enter upon one of the most wonderful passages in the whole of the Old Testament, a passage in which the incarnate Son of God is seen not through a glass darkly, but as it were face to face. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire. In themselves considered, and for their own sakes, the Lord saw nothing satisfactory in the various offerings of the ceremonial law.”

Psalms 40:6

“Sacrifice - These and the following words, may in an improper sense belong to the time of David; when God might be said, not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively.”

Psalms 40:7

“He calls the "roll of the book" every divinely inspired Scripture, both the legal and the prophetic. In these Scriptures things are written concerning the memory of the Savior among us. The psalmist calls it a roll because everything is summed up into one.”

Psalms 40:7

“In either case, the Pentateuch, or law of Moses, is meant, and while it contains much respecting Christ directly, as Ge 3:15; De 18:15, and, indirectly, in the Levitical ritual, there is nowhere any allusion to David. I have preached--literally, "announced good tidings." Christ's prophetical office is taught.”

Psalms 40:7

“Them - These words literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is this; seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I offer myself to come, and I will in due time come, into the world, as this phrase is explained in divers places of scripture, and particularly Heb. x, 5, where this place is expressly applied to Christ.”

Psalms 40:8

“Because there is one will, there is one substance, there is inseparable majesty and the power of the Trinity. But there is another voice, that of the flesh; and yet, it too consents to God's will.… Christ accepted death and crucifixion so as to crucify the flesh. For my sake he took on himself the combat, so that he might conquer me. Though Christ's flesh was strong and not liable to sin, he nevertheless took on my sins.”

Psalms 40:8

“I delight to do thy will, O my God. Our blessed Lord alone could completely do the will of God. The law is too broad for such poor creatures as we are to hope to fulfil it to the uttermost: but Jesus not only did the Father's will, but found a delight therein; from old eternity he had desired the work set before him; in his human life he was straitened till he reached the baptism of agony in which he magnified the law, and even in Gethsemane itself he chose the Father's will, and set aside his own.”

Psalms 40:8

“I delight - This is eminently true, of Christ, and is here observed as an act of heroic obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in doing the will of God, or what God had commanded him, which was to die, and that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death.”

Psalms 40:9

“I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. The purest morality and the highest holiness were preached by Jesus. Righteousness divine was his theme. Our Lord's whole life was a sermon, eloquent beyond compare, and it is heard each day by myriads. Moreover, he never shunned in his ministry to declare the whole counsel of God; God's great plan of righteousness he plainly set forth. He taught openly in the temple, and was not ashamed to be a faithful and a true witness.”

Psalms 40:9

“Righteousness - Thy faithfulness. Great congregation - In the most public and solemn assemblies: not only to the Jews, but also to all nations; to whom Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed Eph. ii, 17.”

Psalms 40:10

“A person can speak of his own justice without arrogance, … if he has faith in God and believes that on account of his faith he will be reckoned as just. … It was for this reason that Christ came, to establish faith and to grant us forgiveness of sin.”

Psalms 40:10

“I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. On the contrary, "Never man spake like this man." God's divine plan of making men righteous was well known to him, and he plainly taught it. What was in our great Master's heart he poured forth in holy eloquence from his lips. The doctrine of righteousness by faith he spake with great simplicity of speech. Law and gospel equally found in him a clear expositor. I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation.”

Psalms 40:11

“Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord,.... this is a petition of Christ to his Father, when in the midst of his sorrows and sufferings, before related; and particularly when he hid his face from him, and withheld the discoveries of his tender and affectionate love; let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me; as he had promised; of which promise some notice is given, Isa 49:8, in the fulfilment of which the lovingkindness, truth, and faithfulness of God, would appear.”

Psalms 40:11

“Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Alas! these were to be for awhile withheld from our Lord while on the accursed tree, but meanwhile in his great agony he seeks for gentle dealing; and the coming of the angel to strengthen him was a clear answer to his prayer. He had been blessed aforetime in the desert, and now at the entrance of the valley of the shadow of death, like a true, trustful, and experienced man, he utters a holy, plaintive desire for the tenderness of heaven.”

Psalms 40:11

“With-hold not - David, having been transported by the spirit of God to the commemoration of the great mystery of the Messiah, he now seems to be led back by the same spirit, to the consideration of his own case.”

Psalms 40:12

“For innumerable evils have compassed me about. On every side he was beset with evils; countless woes environed the great Substitute for our sins. Our sins were innumerable, and so were his griefs. There was no escape for us from our iniquities, and there was no escape for him from the woes which we deserved. From every quarter evils accumulated about the blessed One, although in his heart evil found no place. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.”

Psalms 40:12

“Taken hold - Mens sins are figuratively said to take hold of them, as an officer takes hold of a man whom he arrests. To look - Unto God or men, with any comfort: I am ashamed and confounded.”

Psalms 40:12

“This was it that made the discovery he was now favoured with of a Redeemer very welcome to him. He saw his iniquities to be evils, the worst of evils; he saw that they compassed him about; in all the reviews of his life, and his reflections upon each step of it, still he discovered something amiss. The threatening consequences of his sin surrounded him.”

Psalms 40:13

“Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me,.... From the innumerable evils which compassed him about; from sinful men, and from devils, signified by the sword, dog, and lion, Psa 22:20; and from the power and dominion of death and the grave; all which was done when he was raised from the dead, and as the fruit and effect of God's well pleasedness in him, and with what he did and suffered; see Psa 22:8; O Lord, make haste to help me; See Gill on Psa 22:19.”

Psalms 40:13

“Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. How touching! How humble! How plaintive! The words thrill us as we think that after this sort our Lord and Master prayed. His petition is not so much that the cup should pass away undrained, but that he should be sustained while drinking it, and set free from its power at the first fitting moment. He seeks deliverance and help; and he entreats that the help may not be slow in coming; this is after the manner of our pleadings. Is it not?”

Psalms 40:13

“The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Ps 5:11), though the former sense is not inconsistent with Christ's prayer for the forgiveness of His murderers, inasmuch as their confusion and shame might be the very means to prepare them for humbly seeking forgiveness (compare Ac 2:37).”

Psalms 40:14

“Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Whether we read this as a prayer or a prophecy it matters not, for the powers of sin, and death, and hell, may well be ashamed as they see the result of their malice for ever turned against themselves.”

Psalms 40:15

“Let them be desolate, or amazed; even as Jesus was desolate in his agony, so let his enemies be in their despair when he defeats them. The desolation caused in the hearts of evil spirits and evil men by envy, malice, chagrin, disappointment, and despair, shall be a fit recompense for their cruelty to the Lord when he was in their hands. For a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Did the foul fiend insult over our Lord? Behold how shame is now his reward!”

Psalms 40:15

“Both the conversion of a sinner and the glorification of a saint are great disappointments to Satan, who does his utmost, with all his power and subtlety, to hinder both. Now, our Lord Jesus having undertaken to bring about the salvation of all his chosen, we may in faith pray that, in both these ways, that great adversary may be confounded.”

Psalms 40:16

“Let all those that seek thee, rejoice and be glad in thee. We have done with Ebal and turn to Gerizim. Here our Lord pronounces benedictions on his people. Note who the blessed objects of his petition are: not all men, but some men, "I pray for them, I pray not for the world." He pleads for seekers: the lowest in the kingdom, the babes of the family; those who have true desires, longing prayers, and consistent endeavours after God. Let seeking souls pluck up heart when they hear of this.”

Psalms 40:17

Truly, what higher or holier poverty can there be than this, that a person knowing he is defenseless of his own, asks help for daily life from another's generosity and realizes his life and being to depend every moment on God's help. Such a one truly confesses himself "the beggar of the Lord," like the psalmist, who said, "I am a beggar and a poor man, and God helps me."

Psalms 40:17

“But I am poor and needy. The man of sorrows closes with another appeal, based upon his affliction and poverty. Yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Sweet was this solace to the holy heart of the great sufferer. The Lord's thoughts of us are a cheering subject of meditation, for they are ever kind and never cease. His disciples forsook him, and his friends forgat him, but Jesus knew that Jehovah never turned away his heart from him, and this upheld him in the hour of need. Thou art my help and my deliverer.”

Psalms 40:17

“A summary of his condition and hopes. thinketh upon--or provides for me. "He was heard," "when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto Him that was able to save him from death" [Heb 5:7].”

Psalms 40:17

“David himself was one of these: I am poor and needy (a king, perhaps now on the throne, and yet, being troubled in spirit, he calls himself poor and needy, in want and distress, lost and undone without a Saviour), yet the Lord thinketh upon me in and through the Mediator, by whom we are made accepted.”