Psalm 40:1

The psalm is headed “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.” David wrote it and gave it to the leader of Israel’s music for public worship, so his own rescue became a song for the whole people. The psalm leaves the occasion unnamed, and David’s life held many such times of distress, from fleeing Saul (1 Samuel 23) to Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15).

“I waited patiently” translates a doubled verb in Hebrew, qavah qiviti, literally “waiting, I waited.” The verb qâvâh means to wait for, to look for and to hope for, and saying it twice makes the waiting stronger and longer. David set his hope on the LORD and kept it there for as long as the trouble lasted. This is the waiting Scripture commends: “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart” (Psalm 27:14), and “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). The one he waited for is the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of Israel’s God, so David’s patience rested on a God who had bound himself to his people and keeps his word in his own time.

“And he inclined unto me.” The verb nâṭâh means to stretch out or to bend, and here it pictures the LORD bending down from his height to listen closely to one man. Scripture speaks of God in human terms so that we can grasp his care, the way a parent leans down to hear a child. A later psalm uses the same picture: “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live” (Psalm 116:1–2).

“And heard my cry.” Shâmaʻ is the ordinary word for hearing, and when God is the one who hears, it carries the attention that goes on to act. The cry, shavʻâh, is a crying out, a call for help. The verse runs straight from David’s waiting to God’s answer, and in one line it sums up the rescue that the next two verses tell in full. The waiting was real and long, and it ended in God’s hearing.

David calls the place he was in “an horrible pit.” The Hebrew is šāʾôn bôwr. Bôwr is a pit or hole, the word used for a cistern or a dungeon, and šāʾôn means an uproar or a rushing noise, and so ruin, which makes the phrase literally a “pit of tumult” or “pit of noise.” In Israel a cistern or well could be deep in mud at the bottom, and a man who fell into one would die there unless someone above pulled him up.

“The miry clay” deepens the picture. Ṭîyṭ means mud or clay, and yâvên means mire, the dregs of mud at the bottom. Together they describe deep, oozing mud where a man sinks further with every struggle and can find nowhere to plant his feet. Another psalm cries, “I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing” (Psalm 69:2).

Then God “set my feet upon a rock.” The word is çelaʻ, a crag or cliff, a great mass of rock, larger than a single stone (ʼeben). David is moved from sinking mud to the firmest ground there is, high above the pit he was in. Scripture often gives God himself this name: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (Psalm 18:2).

Last, God “established my goings.” He gave David a sure place to stand and he also steadied the steps David would take from there, so that his walk was firm and directed by God. Proverbs promises this guidance to everyone who trusts him: “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).

“And he hath put a new song in my mouth.” The verb nâthan means to give, and it is used very broadly for putting, setting and making, so here God gives the song and places it in David’s mouth. The praise comes from God as surely as the rescue did. The word for new, châdâsh, means fresh or recently made, something different from what came before. A fresh act of salvation calls for a fresh song, and the song is named at once as “praise unto our God.” Scripture calls for a new song again and again: “Sing unto him a new song” (Psalm 33:3), “O sing unto the LORD a new song” (Psalm 96:1), and in heaven the redeemed sing a new song to the Lamb (Revelation 5:9).

“Many shall see it.” What they see is the whole of it, the rescue and the praise that followed it. God’s work in one man’s life became open to everyone around him, and his song told them who had done it. Paul says that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17), and David’s testimony is one of the ways God brings people to trust him.

Verse 4 turns from David’s story to a truth for everyone. “Blessed” is ʼesher, happiness or blessedness, and it is used as an exclamation: “How happy is the man!” The book of Psalms opens with the same word (Psalm 1:1). The man it describes is fortunate and blessed by God.

He “maketh the LORD his trust.” The Hebrew puts two words together: sûwm, to put or set, and mibṭâch, a trust, the thing a person relies on, his refuge and security. This man sets the LORD in that place in his life. “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8). After verses 1 to 3, this is David’s own experience turned into a word for all: he waited for the LORD, and the LORD lifted him out. The many in verse 3 who “shall trust in the LORD” will find the same blessing.

He “respecteth not the proud.” The verb pânâh means to turn or to face, so this man keeps his face turned away from the proud. The proud, râhâb, are the insolent and arrogant, people who trust in their own strength, wealth or standing. The blessed man gives them none of his regard and refuses to take them as his pattern, for “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6), and “Pride goeth before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18).

“Nor such as turn aside to lies.” Sûwṭ means to turn aside or swerve from the path, and kâzâb is a lie or falsehood, anything untrue that fails the one who leans on it. These lies take in spoken deceit and empty promises, and in Israel they took in false gods above all, which promise help and give none. Jeremiah says of the idol-maker, “his molten image is falsehood” (Jeremiah 10:14). The blessed man holds to God’s truth, and Jesus said, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Verse 5 turns to God directly: “Many, O LORD my God.” David names the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, and in the same breath claims him as “my God.”

“Thy wonderful works which thou hast done.” The word comes from pâlâ, to be extraordinary or marvellous, and it describes deeds that only God can do. For Israel the words would call to mind the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea, God’s provision in the wilderness and the conquest of Canaan, and David’s own rescue from the pit is one more of them.

“And thy thoughts which are to us-ward.” Machăshâbâh means an intention, plan or design. Beside the works God has done, David sets the purposes God holds toward his people, and “to us-ward” means toward us. God’s mind is turned toward his people for their good, as he says through Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:11). Another psalm says the same: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:17–18).

“They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee.” Even if someone tried to lay them out one by one before God, the list would run on past any reckoning. “If I would declare and speak of them” joins nâgad, to declare, with dâbar, to speak or tell, and “they are more than can be numbered” uses ʻâtsam, to be many or mighty, with çâphar, to count. The same verb çâphar is used elsewhere for recounting and telling, which suits a verse about a man who wants to tell God’s works and finds them too many to count. Scripture speaks of God this way throughout: “his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3), his thoughts and ways are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth (Isaiah 55:8–9), and “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33). Another psalm says simply that “his understanding is infinite.”

Psalm 40 moves from thanksgiving in verses 1 to 10 to a fresh plea for help in verses 11 to 17. Right after these five verses David offers himself to God’s will, “Lo, I come” (Psalm 40:7), “I delight to do thy will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8), and he tells of preaching righteousness in the great congregation (Psalm 40:9–10). The letter to the Hebrews quotes verses 6 to 8 (Psalm 40:6–8) as the words of Christ coming into the world (Hebrews 10:5–7), so the whole psalm leads us to Jesus, and its opening verses find their fullest meaning in him.

Jesus waited on his Father in perfect obedience, “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). His cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), was heard, and the Father answered by raising him up, “having loosed the pains of death” (Acts 2:24), and seating him at his right hand (Hebrews 1:3). Through him God still bends down to hear us, because he “ever liveth to make intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25) and we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).

Christ is also the rock. Jesus said that whoever hears his sayings and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock, which stood when the storm came (Matthew 7:24–27). Humanity lay in the pit of sin and death, unable to climb out, and God has “raised us up together” with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), the one who establishes our goings and leads us to the Father.

The new song is his as well. The redeemed sing to the Lamb, “thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood” (Revelation 5:9–10). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and God has given him “a name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9–11), so that the many who see what he has done fear God and trust him.

Jesus is the blessed man of verse 4 in full. He trusted his Father completely, he confronted the pride and hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23), and he exposed the devil, who is “a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Those who receive him are given power to become the sons of God (John 1:12), and they learn from him to put on the new man, “created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:20–24).

And he is the greatest of God’s wonderful works and the clearest showing of God’s thoughts toward us. By him all things were created, and by him they hold together (Colossians 1:15–17). He is “the power of God, and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and Paul preached “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). What David found too many to tell, the Son makes known, for “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).

When you wait for the LORD, you wait for one who bends down to listen. David’s long wait ended with God’s hearing, and your cry reaches the same God. When he lifts someone out of trouble, he also steadies their steps for the road ahead, so his help reaches beyond the moment of rescue.

What God does for you is meant to be told. Your thanks may be the song that helps someone else fear God and trust him. Verse 4 asks each of us where we place our trust, and it points us away from admiring the proud and away from the lies that promise much and give nothing. And verse 5 gives us a task we will never finish: to keep counting God’s works and his good thoughts toward us, and to keep telling them.