Psalm 40:15

The first ten verses of the psalm (Psalm 40:1–10) are thanksgiving. David waited patiently for the LORD, who brought him up out of a horrible pit and the miry clay, set his feet upon a rock and put a new song in his mouth. He goes on to speak of his delight in doing God’s will and of telling God’s righteousness in the great congregation. With verse 11 the psalm turns to lament and petition, and the troubles David lists in verse 12 show why.

The turn is a lesson in itself. A man who has just told of God’s faithfulness finds himself surrounded again, sees his own sin, and has to ask once more. His past deliverance gives him the ground for this prayer, because he is asking the God he has already found faithful. The life of faith is lived in dependence on God from one day to the next, and an old rescue makes the next request bolder.

The psalm is David’s, and Scripture leaves its occasion unnamed. His life held many such seasons: persecution by Saul, betrayal by Absalom, wars, and the long consequences of his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11–12). The second half of this prayer, from verse 13 to the end, appears again in almost the same words as Psalm 70, so God’s people had this cry for help in their songs twice over.

“Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” David calls on the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of Israel’s God, and names three things in him that he asks to keep him.

“Tender mercies” translates rachamim, the plural of racham, a word that also means the womb. It is the deep, tender compassion a parent has for a child, the pity that moves someone to act for the weak and the suffering. “Lovingkindness” is cheçed, one of the great words of the Old Testament, which the newer versions render “steadfast love” or “covenant loyalty”. It is the faithful love God keeps toward his people in spite of their failures. “Truth” is ʼemeth, a word for stability, certainty and truth. Said of God, it means that he is trustworthy and his promises are sure.

So the first word speaks of God’s tender compassion, the second of his loyal love bound to his promises, and the third of his reliability, and together they cover his dependable character. God proclaimed his own name in words like these: “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6–7). The Psalms praise him the same way: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Psalm 103:8), “Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds” (Psalm 36:5), and “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 107:1). Lamentations says that his compassions fail not and are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23).

David asks that God’s lovingkindness and truth “preserve” him. It is God himself who keeps him, and his mercy and truth are the way he does it. “Preserve” is nâtsar, to guard, watch over and keep safe. “Continually” is tâmîyd, a word for what goes on always or is regularly repeated. David is asking for a keeping that lasts as long as his need lasts, and the Psalms give God’s people that promise: “The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul” (Psalm 121:7–8).

“For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”

David’s distress comes from two sides. From outside, evils surround him. The word raʻ covers whatever is bad, from affliction and calamity to the wickedness and mischief that others do, and “innumerable” comes from miçpâr, number: these troubles are past counting. “Compassed” is ʼâphaph, to surround, so he pictures himself encircled with nowhere to turn.

From inside, his own iniquities have seized him. The word ʻâvôn comes from a root meaning to bend or twist, and it means perversity, moral fault, and the guilt and punishment that go with sin. “Taken hold upon” is nâsag, to reach, overtake or seize, as if his sins had chased him down. He says they are “more than the hairs of mine head”, a deliberate overstatement that shows how crushing the weight felt. Another psalm of David says the same: “For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:4).

The two burdens make each other heavier. Trouble from outside is hard to bear, and guilt within can break a man’s strength even further. David owns both plainly, and this is the right way to come to God. His words stand with his confession in another psalm: “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3–4).

“Therefore my heart faileth me.” The verb is ʻâzab, to loosen, let go or forsake, and with lêb, the heart, it says that his heart has let go of him. The heart is the seat of courage, will and feeling, and his has given out.

“Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.” Twice he calls on the LORD, and the double cry shows how earnest and how personal the prayer is.

“Be pleased” is râtsâh, to be pleased with, delight in, accept or favour. David appeals humbly to God’s own good pleasure, asking him to delight in rescuing his servant, and so he rests his request on who God is, a God who loves to show mercy. “Deliver” is nâtsal, to snatch away, rescue or recover. The one it rescues is David himself, pulled clear of all that surrounds him. “Make haste” is chûwsh, to hurry or be eager, and here it is a call for God to come at once.

The same prayer opens Psalm 70: “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD” (Psalm 70:1). In another psalm David prays, “But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me” (Psalm 22:19). His help has one source: “My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1–2). He trusts the God whose lovingkindness is excellent (Psalm 36:7), who hears the righteous when they cry and delivers them out of all their troubles (Psalm 34:17). The New Testament calls us to the same boldness: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

“Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.”

His enemies are after his life. “Seek” is bâqash, to search out and strive after, and here it is a determined pursuit. “My soul” is his nephesh, his life and his whole self, which they mean to destroy. David asks that they be “ashamed”, bûwsh, disgraced because their plan has failed, and “confounded”, châphêr, a word that often stands beside bûwsh for the dismay of a schemer whose scheme has come to nothing. “Together” puts all the plotters under one disgrace. “Driven backward” pictures an attacking force turned round and sent into retreat. In Israel public shame was a heavy blow, and to be turned back in front of everyone meant a loss of face and of power. The second half of the verse widens the circle from those who plot his death to all “that wish me evil.”

The same words stand in Psalm 70:2, and David prays this way again in Psalm 35: “Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt” (Psalm 35:4). Psalm 37 says that the wicked plot against the just, and that their sword shall enter into their own heart (Psalm 37:12–15).

“Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.”

Here the prayer reaches out to all God’s people. The verb “seek” is the same verb, bâqash, that verse 14 used of the enemies: they seek David’s soul to destroy it, and the faithful seek God. To seek him is to pursue his presence, his will and his favour in earnest, in prayer and worship and in keeping his word, as Joshua was told to meditate in the book of the law day and night (Joshua 1:8).

Their gladness is “in thee”, in God himself, and so it holds when circumstances fail. Habakkuk, with the fig tree bare and the stalls empty, could say, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17–18). Paul writes, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4), and joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Another psalm says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD” (Psalm 37:4).

“Salvation” is tᵉshûwʻâh, rescue: deliverance, help, safety or victory. Those who love it are people God has rescued and who treasure what he did, from Israel brought through the sea (Exodus 14) to David lifted from the pit. Their love comes out in words they keep saying: “The LORD be magnified.” “Magnified” is gâdal, to be or make great, and to magnify the LORD is to declare how great he truly is and honour him for it before others. Psalm 34 calls, “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3), and Mary sang, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:46–47). The praise is to go on “continually”, handed from one generation to the next (Psalm 145:4), in worship and in daily life, as believers use their gifts “that God in all things may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:10–11).

“But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.”

David comes back to himself and calls himself ‘ânîy wĕ’eḇyôwn, “poor and needy”. The first word comes from a verb meaning to depress or afflict, and it describes someone brought low in mind or circumstances: afflicted, humble, lowly, poor. The second, ‘ebyôwn, means destitute, a beggar, a needy man. In the Psalms the pair can mean real poverty, and it also describes anyone afflicted and without a human protector, who looks to God alone for justice, protection and provision. From a king it is honest humility, a true account of himself before God, and it carries no self-pity.

God has a special regard for such people. “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” (Psalm 34:6). “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them” (Isaiah 41:17). “To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit” (Isaiah 66:2). And Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

God’s tender mercies, lovingkindness and truth have come to us in Jesus. He was moved with compassion on the crowds “as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). God commended his love toward us in that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus calls himself “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and he is “the Amen, the faithful and true witness” (Revelation 3:14). David’s prayer to be kept continually is answered in the Good Shepherd, who says of his sheep, “neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28–29). He “ever liveth to make intercession” for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25), at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34), and he has sent the Comforter, the Holy Ghost (John 14:26).

David laments iniquities that were his own. Jesus had none, yet God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and on the cross he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Because he bore that weight, people whose sins have taken hold of them can lift their eyes, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

In Gethsemane Jesus too prayed to his Father for deliverance, and he yielded to his Father’s will: “nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Through his death and resurrection God has “delivered us from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13–14) and given us the victory over death “through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). By his death he destroyed him that had the power of death and delivered those who were held in fear of it (Hebrews 2:14–15). God sent his Son “when the fulness of the time was come” (Galatians 4:4), at the time he had set.

Jesus heard his own “Aha”. The passers-by wagged their heads, and the chief priests mocked, “He saved others; himself he cannot save” (Matthew 27:39–43). He was “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3), and “when he was reviled, reviled not again” (1 Peter 2:23). He prayed for those who crucified him, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Then God highly exalted him and gave him a name above every name, that every knee should bow (Philippians 2:8–11). On the cross he spoiled principalities and powers and made a shew of them openly (Colossians 2:15), and he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25). The shame David asked for his enemies will fall at last on all that opposes God, and those who belong to Christ will share his glory where God shall wipe away all tears (Revelation 21:4).

Jesus also made himself poor for us: “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). His name means “the LORD saves”, and those who love God’s salvation are those who have received it by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9). He gives his joy to his people so that their joy may be full (John 15:11). In him, “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), we see the greatness we magnify, and heaven sings, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Revelation 5:12–13).

These seven verses give us words for the hard day that can follow a good one. They let a rescued person ask for mercy again, confess outward trouble and inward sin in one breath, and ask God to hurry. They show a God whose compassion, loyal love and truth keep his people continually, who takes pleasure in delivering them, who turns back those who gloat over them, and who fills those who seek him with gladness. And they end with a sentence for the lowest moment: “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” The one who prays it may still be waiting, and the Lord is already thinking on him.