Text -- Psalms 40:2-17 (NET)

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, out of the slimy mud. He placed my feet on a rock and gave me secure footing. 40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, praising our God. May many see what God has done, so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! 40:4 How blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord and does not seek help from the proud or from liars! 40:5 O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things; you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us. No one can thwart you! I want to declare them and talk about them, but they are too numerous to recount! 40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. You make that quite clear to me! You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings. 40:7 Then I say, “Look! I come! What is written in the scroll pertains to me. 40:8 I want to do what pleases you, my God. Your law dominates my thoughts.” 40:9 I have told the great assembly about your justice. Look! I spare no words! O Lord, you know this is true. 40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; I spoke about your reliability and deliverance; I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. 40:11 O Lord, you do not withhold your compassion from me. May your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me! 40:12 For innumerable dangers surround me. My sins overtake me so I am unable to see; they outnumber the hairs of my head so my strength fails me. 40:13 Please be willing, O Lord, to rescue me! O Lord, hurry and help me! 40:14 May those who are trying to snatch away my life be totally embarrassed and ashamed! May those who want to harm me be turned back and ashamed! 40:15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” be humiliated and disgraced! 40:16 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you! May those who love to experience your deliverance say continually, “May the Lord be praised!” 40:17 I am oppressed and needy! May the Lord pay attention to me! You are my helper and my deliverer! O my God, do not delay!

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Wesley: Psa 40:2

Desperate dangers and calamities.

Wesley: Psa 40:2

A place of strength and safety.

Wesley: Psa 40:2

Kept me from falling into mischief.

Wesley: Psa 40:3

Shall stand in awe of that God, whom they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy.

Wesley: Psa 40:4

Or, the mighty, the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust.

Wesley: Psa 40:4

From God, in whom alone they ought to trust.

Wesley: Psa 40:4

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.

Wesley: Psa 40:5

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.

Wesley: Psa 40:6

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. Thou didst desire obedience rather than sacrifices, but in a proper sense, they belong only to the person and times of the Messiah, and so the sense is, God did not desire or require them, for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of mens sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his father's will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7-8. So here is a prediction concerning the cessation of the legal sacrifice, and the substitution of a better instead of them.

Wesley: Psa 40:6

Heb. bored. I have devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears, according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5-6. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5, translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me.

Wesley: Psa 40:7

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 10:5, where this place is expressly applied to Christ.

Wesley: Psa 40:7

These two words, volume and book are used of any writing, and both express the same thing. Now this volume of the book is the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically called the book, and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew books generally were. And so this place manifestly points to Christ, concerning whom much is said in the books of Moses.

Wesley: Psa 40:8

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.

Wesley: Psa 40:8

I do not only understand it, but receive it with heartiest love, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield obedience to it.

Wesley: Psa 40:9

Thy faithfulness.

Wesley: Psa 40:9

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 2:17.

Wesley: Psa 40:9

From preaching it, even to the face of mine enemies.

Wesley: Psa 40:11

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.

Wesley: Psa 40:12

Mens sins are figuratively said to take hold of them, as an officer takes hold of a man whom he arrests.

Wesley: Psa 40:12

Unto God or men, with any comfort: I am ashamed and confounded.

Wesley: Psa 40:15

Their sinful and shameful actions.

JFB: Psa 40:1-3

In this Psalm a celebration of God's deliverance is followed by a profession of devotion to His service. Then follows a prayer for relief from imminent dangers, involving the overthrow of enemies and the rejoicing of sympathizing friends. In Heb 10:5, &c., Paul quotes Psa 40:6-8 as the words of Christ, offering Himself as a better sacrifice. Some suppose Paul thus accommodated David's words to express Christ's sentiments. But the value of his quotation would be thus destroyed, as it would have no force in his argument, unless regarded by his readers as the original sense of the passage in the Old Testament. Others suppose the Psalm describes David's feelings in suffering and joy; but the language quoted by Paul, in the sense given by him, could not apply to David in any of his relations, for as a type the language is not adapted to describe any event or condition of David's career, and as an individual representing the pious generally, neither he nor they could properly use it (see on Psa 40:7, below). The Psalm must be taken then, as the sixteenth, to express the feelings of Christ's human nature. The difficulties pertinent to this view will be considered as they occur. (Psa. 40:1-17)

The figures for deep distress are illustrated in Jeremiah's history (Jer 38:6-12). Patience and trust manifested in distress, deliverance in answer to prayer, and the blessed effect of it in eliciting praise from God's true worshippers, teach us that Christ's suffering is our example, and His deliverance our encouragement (Heb 5:7-8; Heb 12:3; 1Pe 4:12-16).

JFB: Psa 40:1-3

(the ear, Psa 17:6), as if to catch the faintest sigh.

JFB: Psa 40:3

(See on Psa 33:3).

JFB: Psa 40:3

Revere with love and faith.

JFB: Psa 40:4

(Psa 1:1; Psa 2:12).

JFB: Psa 40:4

Literally, "turns towards," as an object of confidence.

JFB: Psa 40:4

From true God and His law to falsehood in worship and conduct.

JFB: Psa 40:5

(compare Psa 5:3; Psa 33:14; Isa 44:7), too many to be set forth regularly. 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.

JFB: Psa 40:6-8

In Paul's view this passage has more meaning than the mere expression of grateful devotion to God's service. He represents Christ as declaring that the sacrifices, whether vegetable or animal, general or special expiatory offerings, would not avail to meet the demands of God's law, and that He had come to render the required satisfaction, which he states was effected by "the offering of the body of Christ" [Heb 10:10], for that is the "will of God" which Christ came to fulfil or do, in order to effect man's redemption. We thus see that the contrast to the unsatisfactory character assigned the Old Testament offerings in Psa 40:6 is found in the compliance with God's law (compare Psa 40:7-8). Of course, as Paul and other New Testament writers explain Christ's work, it consisted in more than being made under the law or obeying its precepts. It required an "obedience unto death" [Phi 2:8], and that is the compliance here chiefly intended, and which makes the contrast with Psa 40:6 clear.

JFB: Psa 40:6-8

Whether allusion is made to the custom of boring a servant's ear, in token of voluntary and perpetual enslavement (Exo 21:6), or that the opening of the ear, as in Isa 48:8; Isa 50:5 (though by a different word in Hebrew) denotes obedience by the common figure of hearing for obeying, it is evident that the clause is designed to express a devotion to God's will as avowed more fully in Psa 40:8, and already explained. Paul, however, uses the words, "a body hast thou prepared me" [Heb 10:5], which are found in the Septuagint in the place of the words, "mine ears hast thou opened." He does not lay any stress on this clause, and his argument is complete without it. It is, perhaps, to be regarded rather as an interpretation or free translation by the Septuagint, than either an addition or attempt at verbal translation. The Septuagint translators may have had reference to Christ's vicarious sufferings as taught in other Scriptures, as in Isa 53:4-11; at all events, the sense is substantially the same, as a body was essential to the required obedience (compare Rom 7:4; 1Pe 2:24).

JFB: Psa 40:7

In such case, without necessarily referring to order of time.

JFB: Psa 40:7

I am prepared to do, &c.

JFB: Psa 40:7

Roll of the book. Such rolls, resembling maps, are still used in the synagogues.

JFB: Psa 40:7

Or on me, prescribed to me (2Ki 22:13). The first is the sense adopted by Paul. In either case, the Pentateuch, or law of Moses, is meant, and while it contains much respecting Christ directly, as Gen 3:15; Gen 49:10; Deu 18:15, and, indirectly, in the Levitical ritual, there is nowhere any allusion to David.

JFB: Psa 40:9-10

Literally, "announced good tidings." Christ's prophetical office is taught. He "preached" the great truths of God's government of sinners.

JFB: Psa 40:11

May be rendered as an assertion, that God will not withhold (Psa 16:1).

JFB: Psa 40:12

Inflicted by others.

JFB: Psa 40:12

Or penal afflictions, and sometimes calamities in the wide sense. This meaning of the word is very common (Psa 31:11; Psa 38:4; compare Gen 4:13, Cain's punishment; Gen 19:15, that of Sodom; 1Sa 28:10, of the witch of En-dor; also 2Sa 16:12; Job 19:29; Isa 5:18; Isa 53:11). This meaning of the word is also favored by the clause, "taken hold of me," which follows, which can be said appropriately of sufferings, but not of sins (compare Job 27:20; Psa 69:24). Thus, the difficulties in referring this Psalm to Christ, arising from the usual reading of this verse, are removed. Of the terrible afflictions, or sufferings, alluded to and endured for us, compare Luk 22:39-44, and the narrative of the scenes of Calvary.

JFB: Psa 40:12

(Mat 26:38), "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."

JFB: Psa 40:12

Literally, "I cannot see," not denoting the depression of conscious guilt, as Luk 18:13, but exhaustion from suffering, as dimness of eyes (compare Psa 6:7; Psa 13:3; Psa 38:10). The whole context thus sustains the sense assigned to iniquities.

JFB: Psa 40:13

(Compare Psa 22:19).

JFB: Psa 40:14-15

The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Psa 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 Act 2:37).

JFB: Psa 40:15

Literally, "in consequence of."

JFB: Psa 40:15

(Compare Psa 35:21, Psa 35:25).

JFB: Psa 40:16

(Compare Psa 35:27).

JFB: Psa 40:16

Delight in its bestowal on others as well as themselves.

JFB: Psa 40:17

A summary of his condition and hopes.

JFB: Psa 40:17

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].

Clarke: Psa 40:2

A horrible pit - Literally, the sounding pit; where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beasts, or the hollow sounds of winds reverberated and broken from the craggy sides and roof

Clarke: Psa 40:2

The miry clay - Where the longer I stayed the deeper I sank, and was utterly unable to save myself. The Syriac and Arabic translate "The pit of perdition, and the mud of corruption."These are figurative expressions to point out the dreary, dismal, ruinous state of sin and guilt, and the utter inability of a condemned sinner to save himself either from the guilt of his conscience, or the corruption of his heart

Clarke: Psa 40:2

Set my feet upon a rock - Thou hast changed my state from guilt to pardon; from corruption to holiness; in consequence of which my goings are established. I have now power over all sin, and can walk steadily in the way that leads to God’ s kingdom.

Clarke: Psa 40:3

A new song - Cheerfulness and joy had long been strangers to him. He seemed to live to utter the most doleful complaints, and be a prey to suffering and wretchedness. Praise for a sense of God’ s favor was a new song to him. The word is often used to signify excellence: I will sing a most excellent and eminent song

Clarke: Psa 40:3

Many shalt see it - I will publish it abroad and fear-to sin against the Lord, knowing by my example what a grievous and bitter thing it is

Clarke: Psa 40:3

And shall trust in the Lord - Even the worst of sinners shall not despair of mercy, being penitent, when they see that I have found favor in his sight.

Clarke: Psa 40:4

Blessed is that man - The man must be blessed and happy who casts his soul with all its burden of sin and wretchedness, at the footstool of God’ s mercy; for he will save all who come to him through the Son of his love.

Clarke: Psa 40:5

Many - are thy wonderful works - The psalmist seems here astonished and confounded at the counsels, loving-kindnesses, and marvellous works of the Lord, not in nature, but in grace; for it was the mercy of God towards himself that he had now particularly in view.

Clarke: Psa 40:6

Sacrifice and offering - The apostle, Heb 10:5, etc., quoting this and the two following verses, says, When he (the Messiah) cometh into the world - was about to be incarnated, He saith - to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not - it was never thy will and design that the sacrifices under thy own law should be considered as making atonement for sin; they were only designed to point out my incarnation and consequent sacrificial death: and therefore a body hast thou prepared me, by a miraculous conception in the womb of a virgin; according to thy word, The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent

Clarke: Psa 40:6

A body hast thou prepared me - The quotation of this and the two following verses by the apostle, Heb 10:5, etc., is taken from the Septuagint, with scarcely any variety of reading: but, although the general meaning is the same, they are widely different in verbal expression in the Hebrew. David’ s words are אזנים כרית לי oznayim caritha lli , which we translate, My ears hast thou opened; but they might be more properly rendered, My ears hast thou bored; that is, Thou hast made me thy servant for ever, to dwell in thine own house: for the allusion is evidently to the custom mentioned Exo 21:2, etc.: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free: but if the servant shall positively say, I love my master, etc., I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him to the doorpost, and shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.

But how is it possible that the Septuagint and the apostle should take a meaning so totally different from the sense of the Hebrew? Dr. Kennicott has a very ingenious conjecture here: he supposes that the Septuagint and apostle express the meaning of the words as they stood in the copy from which the Greek translation was made; and that the present Hebrew text is corrupted in the word אזנים oznayim , ears, which has been written through carelessness for אז גוה az gevah , Then, a Body The first syllable, אז az , Then, is the same in both; and the latter, Myn, which, joined to אז makes אזנים oznayim , might have been easily mistaken for גוה gevah , Body; נ nun being very like ג gimel ; י yod like ו vau ; and h he like final ם mem ; especially if the line on which the letters were written in the MS. happened to be blacker than ordinary, which has often been a cause of mistake, it might then have been easily taken for the under-stroke of the mem, and thus give rise to a corrupt reading; add to this, the root כרה carah signifies as well to prepare, as to open, bore, etc. On this supposition the ancient copy translated by the Septuagint, and followed by the apostle, must have read the text thus: אז גוה כרית לי az gevah charitha lli ; Σωμα δε κατηρτισω μοι· Then a body thou hast prepared me: thus the Hebrew text, the version of the Septuagint, and the apostle, will agree in what is known to be an indisputable fact in Christianity; namely, that Christ was incarnated for the sin of the world

The Ethiopic has nearly the same reading: the Arabic has both, "A body hast thou prepared me, and mine ears thou hast opened."But the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Vulgate, agree with the present Hebrew text; and none of the MSS. collated by Kennicott and De Rossi have any various reading on the disputed words

It is remarkable, that all the offerings and sacrifices which were considered to be of an atoning or cleansing nature, offered under the law, are here enumerated by the psalmist and the apostle, to show that none of them, nor all of them, could take away sin; and that the grand sacrifice of Christ was that alone which could do it

Four kinds are here specified, both by the psalmist and the apostle: viz. Sacrifice, זבח zebach , θυσια ; Offering, מנחה minchah , προσφορα ; Burnt-Offering, עולה olah , ὁλοκαυτωμα ; Sin-Offering, חטאה chataah , περι ἁμαρτιας . Of all these we may say, with the apostle, it was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats, etc. should take away sin

Clarke: Psa 40:6

Thou hast had no pleasure - Thou couldst never be pleased with the victims under the law; thou couldst never consider them as atonements for sin, as they could never satisfy thy justice, nor make thy law honorable.

Clarke: Psa 40:7

In the volume of the book - במגלת ספר bimegillath sepher , "in the roll of the book."Anciently, books were written on skins, and rolled up. Among the Romans, these were called volumina, from volvo, I roll; and the Pentateuch in the Jewish synagogues is still written in this way. There are two wooden rollers; on one they roll on, on the other they roll off, as they proceed in reading. One now lying before me, written on vellum, is two feet two inches in breadth and one hundred and two feet long. To roll and unroll such a MS. was no easy task, and to be managed must lie flat on a table. This contains the Pentateuch only, and is without points, or any other Masoretic distinction. The book mentioned here must be the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; for, in David’ s time no other part of Divine revelation had been committed to writing. This whole book speaks about Christ, and his accomplishing the will of God, not only in "the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent,"and "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;"but in all the sacrifices and sacrificial rites mentioned in the law.

Clarke: Psa 40:8

To do thy will - God willed not the sacrifices under the law, but he willed that a human victim of infinite merit should be offered for the redemption of mankind. That there might be such a victim, a body was prepared for the eternal Logos, and in that body he came to do the will of God; that is, to suffer and die for the sins of the world

1.    Hence we see that the sovereign Will of God is that Jesus should be incarnated; that he should suffer and die; or, in the apostle’ s words, taste death for every man; that all should believe on him, and be saved from their sins; for this is the Will of God, our sanctification

2.    And as the apostle grounds this on the words of the Psalm, we see that it is the Will of God that that system shall end; for as the essence of it is contained in its sacrifices, and God says he will not have these, and has appointed the Messiah to do his will, i.e., to die for men, hence it necessarily follows, from the psalmist himself, that the introduction of the Messiah into the world is the abolition of the law; and that his sacrifice is that which shall last for ever.

Clarke: Psa 40:9

I have preached righteousness - I think it best to refer these words to Christ and his apostles. In consequence of his having become a sacrifice for sin, the Jewish sacrificial system being ended, the middle wall of partition was broken down, and the door of faith, the doctrine of justification by faith, opened to the Gentiles. Hence the Gospel was preached in all the world, and the mercy of God made known to the Gentiles; and thus righteousness - justification by faith, was preached in the great congregation - to Jews and Gentiles, throughout the Roman empire

The great congregation, both in this and the following verse, I think, means the Gentiles, contradistinguished from the Jews

Clarke: Psa 40:9

The word righteousness means the plan or method of salvation by Jesus Christ - God’ s method of justifying sinners by faith, without the deeds of the law. See Rom 3:25-26 (note), and the notes there.

Clarke: Psa 40:10

Thy faithfulness - This means the exact fulfillment of the promises made by the prophets relative to the incarnation of Christ, and the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles

Clarke: Psa 40:10

Loving-kindness - Shows the gift itself of Jesus Christ, the highest proof that God could give to a lost world of his mercy, kindness, and loving-kindness.

Clarke: Psa 40:11

Thy tender mercies - רחמיך rachameycha , such propensities and feelings as a mother bears to her child; or animals in general to their young

Clarke: Psa 40:11

Let thy loving-kindness - חסדך chasdecha , thy overflowing and superabundant mercy

Clarke: Psa 40:11

And thy truth - What is revealed in thy word: continually preserve me. Mercy to help me, truth to direct me; and, by the operation of both, I shall be continually preserved from sin and evil.

Clarke: Psa 40:12

Innumerable evils have compassed me about - This part does not comport with the preceding; and either argues a former experience, or must be considered a part of another Psalm, written at a different time, and on another occasion, and, were we to prefix the two first verses of the seventieth Psalm to it we should find it to be a Psalm as complete in itself as that is

Clarke: Psa 40:12

They are more than the hairs of mine head - This could not be said by any person who was exulting in the pardoning mercy of God, as David was at the time he penned the commencement of this Psalm.

Clarke: Psa 40:15

That say unto me, Aha, aha - האח האח . See on Psa 35:21 (note).

Clarke: Psa 40:16

Let all those that seek thee - be glad - In making prayer and supplication to thee, let them ever find thee, that they may magnify thee for the blessings they receive

Clarke: Psa 40:16

Love thy salvation - Who earnestly desire to be saved from sin: saved in thy own way, and on thy own terms

Clarke: Psa 40:16

The Lord be magnified - Let God be praised continually for the continual blessings he pours down.

Clarke: Psa 40:17

But I am poor - עני ani , afflicted, greatly depressed

Clarke: Psa 40:17

And needy - אביון ebyon , a beggar. One utterly destitute, and seeking help

Clarke: Psa 40:17

The Lord thinketh upon me - The words are very emphatic; אדני Adonai , my prop, my support, thinketh, יחשב yachshab , meditateth, upon me. On which he concludes: "Thou art my help and deliverer."Seeing that my miserable state occupies thy heart, it will soon employ thy hand. Thou, who meditatest upon me, wilt deliver me

Clarke: Psa 40:17

Make no tarrying - Seeing thou art disposed to help, and I am in such great necessity, delay not, but come speedily to my assistance. The old Psalter speaks to this effect: "Let us not be so long under distress and misery that we lose our patience, or our love to thee.

Calvin: Psa 40:2

2.And he drew me out of the roaring pit Some translate, from the pit of desolation, ⁸⁰ because the verb שאה , shaah, from which the noun שאום , 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. ⁸¹ By this similitude he shows that he was placed in as imminent peril of death as if he had been cast into a deep pit, roaring with the impetuous rage of waters. To the same purpose also is the similitude of the miry clay, by which he intimates that he had been so nearly overwhelmed by the weight of his calamities, that it was no easy matter to extricate him from them. Next, there follows a sudden and incredible change, by which he makes manifest to all the greatness of the grace which had been bestowed upon him. He declares that his feet were set upon a rock, whereas formerly he had been overwhelmed with water; and that his steps were established or upheld, whereas before they were not only unsteady and slippery, but were also stuck fast in the mire.

Calvin: Psa 40:3

3.And he hath put into my mouth a new song In the first clause of the verse he concludes the description of what God had done for him. By God’s putting a new song into his mouth he denotes the consummation of his deliverance. In whatever way God is pleased to succor us, he asks nothing else from us in return but that we should be thankful for and remember it. As often, therefore, as he bestows benefits upon us, so often does he open our mouths to praise his name. Since God, by acting liberally towards us, encourages us to sing his praises, David with good reason reckons, that having been so wonderfully delivered, the matter of a new song had been furnished to him. He uses the word new in the sense of exquisite and not ordinary, even as the manner of his deliverance was singular and worthy of everlasting remembrance. It is true, that there is no benefit of God so small that it ought not to call forth our highest praises; but the more mightily he stretches forth his hand to help us, the more does it become us to stir up ourselves to fervent zeal in this holy exercise, so that our songs may correspond to the greatness of the favor which has been conferred upon us.

Many shall see it Here the Psalmist extends still farther the fruit of the aid which he had experienced, telling us, that it will prove the means of instruction common to all. And certainly it is the will of God that the benefits which he bestows upon any individual of the faithful should be proofs of the goodness which he constantly exercises towards all of them, so that the one, instructed by the example of the other, should not doubt that the same grace will be manifested towards himself. The terms fear, and hope, or trust, do not seem at first view to harmonise; but David has not improperly joined them together; for no man will ever entertain the hope of the favor of God but he whose mind is first imbued with the fear of God. I understand fear in general to mean the feeling of piety which is produced in us by the knowledge of the power, equity, and mercy of God. The judgment which God executed against the enemies of David served, it is true, to inspire all men with fear; but, in my opinion, David rather means, that by the deliverance which he had obtained, many would be induced to yield themselves to the service of God, and to submit with all reverence to his authority, because they would know him to be the Judge of the world. Now, whoever submits cordially to the will of God will of necessity join hope with fear; especially when there is presented to his view the evidence of the grace by which God commonly allures all men to himself; for I have already said that God is presented to our view as merciful and kind to others, that we may assure ourselves that he will be the same towards us. As to the word see, of which David makes use, we are to understand it as referring not only to the eyes, but chiefly to the perception of the mind. All without distinction saw what had happened, but to many of them it never occurred to recognize the deliverance of David as the work of God. Since, then, so many are blind regarding the works of God, let us learn, that those only are considered to see clearly to whom the Spirit of understanding has been given, that they may not occupy their minds in dwelling upon the mere events which take place, but may discern in them by faith the secret hand of God.

Calvin: Psa 40:4

4.Blessed is the man who hath set Jehovah for his confidence David here relates what ground for good hope his deliverance would give to all the faithful; inasmuch as, setting aside all the allurements of the world, they would thereby be encouraged to commit themselves with confidence to the protection of God; persuaded not only that they are happy who trust in him alone, but that all other expectations at variance with this are deceitful and cursed. This assurance is not natural to us, but is derived partly from the word of God, and partly from his works; although, as I have said before, the contemplation alone of the works of God would not kindle this light within us, unless God, illuminating us by his word, should show us his benevolence. After having promised to be gracious to us, in manifesting also his goodness by indubitable proofs, he confirms with his own hand what he had previously uttered with his lips. David, therefore, from the fact of his having been restored to life from the abyss of death, justly declares that the faithful are taught from this proof — what men are naturally so reluctant to believe — that they are happy who trust in God alone.

As the instability of our nature commonly tends to draw us downward, and as all of us, from our proneness to yield to delusions, are tempted by many wicked examples, David immediately adds, that he is blessed who regardeth not the proud Some, indeed, render רהבים , rehabim, the rich, or the great of this world, but improperly, in my opinion; because pride, and turning aside to lies, are two things which David here joins together. To regard the great of the earth, therefore, does not signify, as they suppose, to rely upon their power and riches, as if a man’s welfare depended thereupon, but it rather means to be carried away by their examples, to imitate their conduct. When we are everywhere constantly seeing men puffed up with pride, who despise God, and place their highest felicity in ambition, in fraud, in extortion, in guile, a perverse desire of imitating them steals upon us by degrees; and, especially when every thing turns out according to their wishes, a vain and delusive expectation solicits us to try the same course. David, therefore, wisely, and not without good reason, warns us, that in order to have our mind constantly fixed in simple reliance upon God alone, we must guard against those evil examples which ever seek to allure us on all sides to apostatise from him. Moreover, when he says that the proud turn aside to lying, or vanity, ⁸⁴ in this way he describes briefly the foolish confidence of the flesh. What else is the pride of those who put their own fancies in the place of God but a vain illusion? Certainly the man who, puffed up by the breath of fond conceit, arrogates any thing in the least degree to himself, flatters himself to his own destruction. In short, pride and vanity are opposed to the holy confidence which relies upon God alone; for there is nothing more difficult to the flesh than to trust in God alone, and the world is always full of proud and haughty men, who, soothing themselves with vain allurements, would soon corrupt the minds of the godly, if this arrest were not laid upon them, to restrain, as with a bridle, their erroneous and extravagant opinions.

Calvin: Psa 40:5

5.Many are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, O Jehovah! Interpreters are not entirely agreed as to these words; but it is generally admitted that David here contemplates with admiration the providence of God in the government of mankind. And first of all, he exclaims that the wonders of God’s works are great or many; ⁸⁵ meaning by this, that God in his inscrutable wisdom so governs human affairs, that his works, which come to be little thought of by men, from their constant familiarity with them, far surpass the comprehension of the human understanding. Thus we find, that from one particular species he ascends to the whole class; as if he had said, God has proved not only by this particular act the paternal care which he exercises towards men, but that, in general, his wonderful providence shines forth in the several parts of creation. Then he adds, that the counsels of God concerning us are so high and so hidden, that it is impossible to reckon them up in order distinctly and agreeably to their nature. Some think that the word אלינו , elenu, towards us, is employed by way of comparison, in this sense, The counsels of God are far beyond the reach of our understanding, (but David rather commends the care which God vouchsafes to take of us;) and as, in this way, the connection of the words is broken, they are constrained to render the word ערוד , aroch, which I have rendered to count in order, differently, namely, that none is equal to God, or can be compared with him. ⁸⁶ But that I may not enter upon any lengthened refutation, the intelligent reader will agree with me in considering that the true meaning is this: That God, by his incomprehensible wisdom, governs the world in such a manner that we cannot reckon up his works in their proper order, seeing our minds, through their very dulness, fail us before we can reach to so great a height. It follows, to thee, for although we should in so far reflect how wonderfully the Lord can make provision for our wants, yet this consideration is limited by the imperfection of our understanding: and hence it falls far short of the infinite glory of God. Those who give this explanation, that the counsels of God are not referred to him, because the greatest part of men imagine that every thing is subject to chance and fortune, as if David meant in passing to censure the ingratitude of those who defraud God of his praise, are no doubt mistaken as to the meaning. In stating, as David does, immediately after, that however much he might set himself to rehearse the works of God, he yet would fail ere he could declare the half of them; — in stating this he shows with sufficient plainness that the godly and devout meditation, in which the children of God are often engaged, gives them only, as it were, a slight taste of them and nothing more. We have now arrived then at the Psalmist’s meaning. Having spoken before of the deliverance which God had vouchsafed to him, he takes occasion from it to set forth the general providence of God in nourishing and sustaining men. It is also his design in this to exhort the faithful to a consideration of God’s providence, that they may not hesitate to cast all their cares upon it. Whilst some are in constant pain by reason of their own anxiety and discontent, or quake at the slightest breeze that blows, and others labor hard to fortify and preserve their life by means of earthly succours, — all this proceeds from ignorance of the doctrine, that God governs the affairs of this world according to his own good pleasure. And as the great majority of men, measuring the providence of God by their own understanding, wickedly obscure or degrade it, David, placing it on its proper footing, wisely removes this impediment. The meaning of the sentence, therefore, amounts to this, that in the works of God men should reverently admire what they cannot comprehend by their reason; and whenever the flesh moves them to contradiction or murmuring, they should raise themselves above the world. If God cease to work, he seems to be asleep, because, binding up his hands to the use of outward means, we do not consider that he works by means which are secret. We may therefore learn from this place, that although the reason of his works may be hidden or unknown to us, he is nevertheless wonderful in his counsels.

This verse is closely connected with the preceding. No man places, as he ought, entire trust in God, but he who, shutting his eyes upon external circumstances, suffers himself to be governed by him according to his good pleasure. Moreover, having spoken hitherto in the third person, David now suddenly addresses his discourse, not, however, unadvisedly, to God, that he might lead us the more effectually to this sobriety and discretion. When, however, he affirms that the works of God cannot be distinctly known by us, it is not for the purpose of deterring us from seeking the knowledge of them, or from the examination of them, but only to lay a restraint upon our rashness, which would otherwise go beyond the proper boundaries in this respect. To this end, the words to thee, or before thee, are expressly employed, by which we are admonished that however diligently a man may set himself to meditate upon the works of God, he can only attain to the extremities or borders of them. Although then so great a height be far above our reach, we must, notwithstanding, endeavor, as much as in us lies, to approach it more and more by continual advances; as we see also the hand of God stretched forth to disclose to us, so far as it is expedient, those wonders, which we are unable of ourselves to discover. There is nothing so preposterous as to affect, of one’s own accord, a gross ignorance of the providence of God, because as yet we cannot comprehend it perfectly, but only discern it in part; even as at this day we find some who employ all their endeavors to bury it in oblivion, for no other pretense than that it surpasses our understanding, as if it were unreasonable to allow to God anything more than what appears right and proper, according to our carnal reason. David acts very differently regarding it. Feeling all his senses absorbed by an inconceivable majesty and brightness, which he could not bear to look upon, ⁸⁷ he confesses frankly that these are wonderful things of which he could not comprehend the reason; but still he does not abstain wholly and everywhere from making mention of them, but, according to the measure of his capacity, sets himself devoutly to meditate upon them. From this we learn how foolish and vain a thing it is to say, by way of caution, that none should speak of the counsels or purposes of God, because they are high and incomprehensible. David, on the contrary, though he was ready to sink under the weight, ceased not to contemplate them, and abstained not from speaking of them, because he felt unequal to the task of rehearsing them, but was content, after having declared his faith on this subject, to finish his discourse in admiration.

Calvin: Psa 40:6

6.In sacrifice and oblation thou hast not taken pleasure Here David offers not only the sacrifice of praise, or, as the prophet Hosea calls it, (Hos 14:2,) “the calves of the lips,” but, in token of his gratitude, offers and consecrates himself entirely to God; as if he had said, I am now wholly devoted to God, because, having been delivered by his wonderful power, I am doubly indebted to him for my life. At the same time, treating of the true worship of God, he shows that it consists not in outward ceremonies, but rather that it is spiritual. Accordingly, the meaning is, that he came into the presence of God not only in the outward pomp or ceremony and figures of the law, but that he brought with him the true devotion of the heart. We know, indeed, that all men have some sense of religion impressed upon their hearts, so that no one dares to withdraw openly and wholly from his service, and yet the greater part of men turn aside into winding and crooked paths; and hence it happens, that in serving God in a perfunctory manner, their worship is scarcely anything else than a mockery of him. We see then the reason why David, on the present occasion, shows in what the true worship of God consists; it is, that he may distinguish between himself and hypocrites, who draw near to God with their lips only, or at least seek to pacify him with cold and unmeaning ceremonies.

We now come to the exposition of the words. I have no doubt that David, under the four different kinds of sacrifices which he here enumerates, comprehends all the sacrifices of the law. His meaning, to express it in a few words, is, that God requires not mere ceremonies of those who serve him, but that he is satisfied only with sincerity of heart, with faith and holiness of life: and that he takes no pleasure merely in the visible sanctuary, the altar, the burning of incense, the killing of beasts, the lights, the costly apparel, and outward washings. From this he concludes, that he ought to be guided by another principle, and to observe another rule in the service of God, than a mere attention to these — that he should yield himself wholly to God.

Thou hast bored my ears Some think that in using this form of expression, David has a reference to the ordinance under the Law of which we read in Exo 21:6. If any bond-servant, when the time of his being discharged from servitude had arrived, made no account of his freedom, he was brought to the public place of judgment, and having there declared that he wished to continue in servitude, his master pierced his ear with an awl, as a mark of perpetual bondage. But this mode of interpretation appears to be too forced and refined. ⁸⁸ Others more simply consider that it is of the same meaning as to render fit, or qualify for service, for David mentions not one ear only, but both. Men, we know, are naturally deaf, because they are so dull, that their ears are stopped until God pierce them. By this expression, therefore, is denoted the docility to which we are brought and moulded by the grace of the Holy Spirit. I, however, apply this manner of expression more closely to the scope of the passage before us, and explain it in this sense, That David was not slow and dull of hearing, as men usually are, so that he could discern nothing but what was earthly in the sacrifices, but that his ears had been cleansed, so that he was a better interpreter of the Law, and able to refer all the outward ceremonies to the spiritual service of God. He encloses the sentence, Thou hast bored my ears, as it were, in parenthesis, whilst he is treating professedly of sacrifices, so that the sentence might be explained in this way: Lord, thou hast opened my ears, that I may distinctly understand whatever thou hast commanded concerning the sacrifices, namely, that of themselves they afford thee no pleasure: for thou, who art a Spirit, takest no delight in these earthly elements, and hast no need of flesh or blood; and, therefore, thou requirest something of a higher and more excellent nature. If, however, it is objected that sacrifices were offered by the express commandment of God, I have just said that David here distinguishes between the spiritual service of God, and that which consisted in outward types and shadows. And in making this comparison, it is no great wonder to find him saying that the sacrifices are of no value, since they were only helps designed to lead men to true piety, and tended to a far higher end than that which was at first apparent. Seeing, then, God made use of these elements, only to lead his people to the exercises of faith and repentance, we conclude that he had no delight in being worshipped by sacrifices. We must always bear in mind, that whatever is not pleasing to God for its own sake, but only in so far as it leads to some other end, if it be put in the place of his true worship and service is rejected and cast away by him.

Calvin: Psa 40:7

7.Then said I, Lo! I come By the adverb then he intimates, that he had not been a good scholar, and capable of profiting by instruction, until God had opened his ears; but as soon as he had been instructed by the secret inspirations of the Spirit, he tells us, that then his heart was ready to yield a willing and cheerful obedience. Here true obedience is very properly distinguished from a constrained and slavish subjection. Whatever service, therefore, men may offer to God, it is vain and offensive in his sight, unless at the same time they offer themselves; and, moreover, this offering of one’s self is of no value unless it be done willingly. These words, Lo! I come, ought to be observed, and likewise the words, I have delighted to do thy will; for the Hebrew word חפצתי , chaphatsti, means, I was well pleased, or, I willingly condescended. Here David indicates his readiness to yield obedience, as well as the cordial affection of his heart and persevering resolution. His language implies, that he cordially preferred the service of God to every other desire and care, and had not only yielded a willing subjection, but also embraced the rule of a pious and holy life, with a fixed and steady purpose of adhering to it. This he confirms still further in the third clause of the verse, in which he says, that the Law of God was deeply fixed in the midst of his bowels ⁸⁹ It follows from this, first, that however beautiful and splendid the works of men may appear, yet unless they spring from the living root of the heart, they are nothing better than a mere pretense; and, secondly, that it is to no purpose that the feet, and hands, and eyes, are framed for keeping the Law, unless obedience begin at the heart. Moreover, it appears from other places of Scripture, that it is the peculiar office of the Holy Spirit to engrave the Law of God on our hearts. God, it is true, does not perform his work in us as if we were stones or stocks, drawing us to himself without the feeling or inward moving of our hearts towards him. But as there is in us naturally a will, which, however, is depraved by the corruption of our nature, so that it always inclines us to sin, God changes it for the better, and thus leads us cordially to seek after righteousness, to which our hearts were previously altogether averse. Hence arises that true freedom which we obtain when God frames our hearts, which before were in thraldom to sin, unto obedience to himself.

In the roll of the book As the Septuagint has made use of the word head instead of roll, ⁹⁰ some have been inclined to philosophise upon this clause with so much refinement of speculation, that they have exposed themselves to ridicule by their foolish and silly inventions. But the etymology of the word במגלת , bemegilath, is the same as the Latin word volumen, ⁹¹ which we call a roll It is necessary to ascertain in what sense David claims peculiarly to himself what is common or alike to all men. Since the Law prescribes to all men the rule of a holy and upright life, it does not appear, it may be said, that what is here stated pertains to any one man or any set of men. I answer, that although the literal doctrine of the Law belongs to all men in common, yet as of itself it is dead, and only beats the air, God teaches his own people after another manner; and that, as the inward and effectual teaching of the Spirit is a treasure which belongs peculiarly to them, it is written of them only in the secret book of God, that they should fulfill his will. The voice of God, indeed, resounds throughout the whole world, so that all who do not obey it are rendered inexcusable; but it penetrates into the hearts of the godly alone, for whose salvation it is ordained. As a general, therefore, enrols the names of his soldiers, that he may know their exact number, and as a schoolmaster writes the names of his scholars in a scroll, so has God written the names of his children in the book of life, that he may retain them under the yoke of his own discipline.

There still remains another difficulty connected with this passage. The Apostle, in Heb 10:5, seems to wrest this place, when he restricts what is spoken of all the elect to Christ alone, and expressly contends that the sacrifices of the Law, which David says are not agreeable to God in comparison of the obedience of the heart, are abrogated; and when quoting rather the words of the Septuagint, ⁹² than those of the prophet, he infers from them more than David intended to teach. As to his restricting this passage to the person of Christ, the solution is easy. David did not speak in his own name only, but has shown in general what belongs to all the children of God. But when bringing into view the whole body of the Church, it was necessary that he should refer us to the head itself. It is no objection that David soon after imputes to his own sins the miseries which he endures; for it is by no means an uncommon thing to find our errors, by a mode of expression not strictly correct, transferred to Christ. As to the abrogation of the sacrifices that were under the Law, I answer thus: That their abrogation may be fairly inferred from the language of the prophets; for this is not like many other places in which God condemns and rejects the sacrifices which were offered by hypocrites, and which were deservedly offensive to him on account of their uncleanness: for in these God condemns the outward ceremony, on account of the abuse and corruption of it, which rendered it nothing but a vain mockery; whereas here, when the Prophet speaks of himself as one who worshipped God sincerely, and yet denies that God had pleasure in these sacrifices, it may easily be inferred, that the rudiments which God had enjoined upon his ancient people for a time had some other end in view, and were only like infantile instructions designed to prepare them for some higher state. But if their truth and substance are contained in Christ, it is certain that they have been abolished by his coming. They were indeed still in use in the time of David: and yet he admonishes us that the true service of God, even when performed without sacrifices, was perfect and complete in all its parts, and every where; and that the ceremonies are things which might be regarded as non-essential, and, as we speak, adventitious. This is worthy of being noticed, that we may know that God, even after he has removed the figures which he had commanded for a time, does not cease always to resemble himself; for in these outward services he had respect solely to men. As to this, that the Apostle, following the Septuagint, has made subservient to his own use the word body, which is not used here by David, in such an allusion there is no inconsistency; for he does not undertake expressly to unfold and explain in every point the Psalmist’s meaning: but as he had said, that by the one sacrifice of Christ all the others had been abolished, he adds at the same time that a body had been prepared for Christ, that by the offering up of it he might fulfill the will of God.

Calvin: Psa 40:9

9.I have proclaimed thy righteousness in the great assembly Here David again brings forward his own thankfulness, and for no other reason but to induce God to continue his goodness towards him. God, whenever he manifests his liberality towards us, encourages us to render thanks to him; and he continues to act in a similar manner towards us when he sees that we are thankful and mindful of what he has done for us. In the first place, David makes use simply of the word righteousness; but it must be understood of the righteousness of God, which he expressly mentions soon after. Nor does he say, that it was only in the secret affection of the heart, or in private, that he offered praise to God, but that he had openly proclaimed it in the solemn assembly, even as the faithful in those days were wont to testify their devotion by presenting peace-offerings to God when they had been delivered from any great danger. The great assembly of which he speaks is not to be understood of the concourse of people that assemble at courts of law, or at the public market-places, but it denotes the true and lawfully constituted Church of God, which we know assembled in the place of his sanctuary. Accordingly, he declares that he had not concealed in his heart the righteousness of God, which it becomes us publicly to make known for the edification of one another. Those who keep it hid in their hearts are surely seeking as much as in them lies that the memory of God may be buried in oblivion. He calls upon God as a witness of this, not only to distinguish between himself and hypocrites, who often proclaim loudly, and with all their might, the praises of God, and yet do so without the least spark of affection; but also to make it the more abundantly obvious that he had sincerely and heartily uttered the praises of God, and was careful not to defraud him of any part of them. This affirmation teaches us that the subject which is here treated of is one of no small importance; for although God stands in no need of our praises, yet it is his will that this exercise for many reasons should prevail amongst us.

Calvin: Psa 40:10

10.I have not hidden thy righteousness within my heart Here it is necessary to observe the accumulation of terms which are employed to denote the same thing. To the righteousness of God the Psalmist adds his truth, his salvation, and his mercy. And what is the design of this, but to magnify and set forth the goodness of God by many terms or expressions of praise? We must, however, notice in what respects these terms differ; for in this way we may be able to ascertain in what respects they apply to the deliverance of which David here discourses. If these four things should be taken in their proper order, mercy will hold the first place, as it is that by which alone God is induced to vouchsafe, to regard us. His righteousness is the protection by which he constantly defends his own people, and the goodness by which, as we have already said elsewhere, he preserves them. And, lest any should doubt that it will flow in a constant and uninterrupted course, David adds in the third place truth; by which we are taught that God continues always the same, and is never wearied of helping us, nor at any time withdraws his hand. There is, at the same time, implied in this an exhibition of the promises; for no man will ever rightly take hold of the righteousness of God but he who embraces it as it is offered and held forth in the Word. Salvation is the effect of righteousness, for God continues to manifest his free favor to his people, daily affording them aid and assistance, until he has completely saved them.

Calvin: Psa 40:11

11.O thou Jehovah! withhold not thy tender mercies from me We now see more clearly, what I have just adverted to, that David speaks of his own thankfulness, that he might secure a continuance of God’s favor towards him; and that he opened his mouth in the praises of God, that he might continue to acquire new favors, against which our perverse and ungrateful silence very often closes the gate. We ought, therefore, carefully to observe the relation which the clause, in which David affirms that he closed not his lips, bears to what follows, namely, that God on his part would not contract or stop up the course of his tender mercies; for by this we are taught that God would always be ready to relieve us by his goodness, or rather that it would flow down upon us as from a never-failing fountain, if our own ingratitude did not prevent or cut off its course. The tender mercies of God, which he expresses by the word רחמיד , rachamecha, and of which he here speaks, differ little from his goodness. It was not, however, without cause that David chose to make this distinction. It could only be, first, because he was unable otherwise to satisfy himself in extolling the grace of God; and, secondly, because it was requisite to show that the source from which the mercy and goodness of God proceed, when he is moved in compassion for our miseries to aid and succor us. Then he places his confidence of salvation in the goodness and faithfulness of God, for we must of necessity begin (as I have said a little before) at the free favor of God, that his bounty may extend even to us. But as we are unable to discern that God is gracious to us until he grant us some assurance of his love, his constancy is, with much propriety, placed in connection with his truth in keeping his promises.

Calvin: Psa 40:12

12.For innumerable evils have compassed me on all sides This phrase, in the original, denotes more than can be expressed in an English translation; for he says, עלי alay, upon me, meaning by this, that he was not only beset on all sides, but that also an accumulation of evils pressed upon his head. He, however, does not now complain of being punished unjustly, or above his desert, but rather confesses plainly that it is the just recompense of his sins which is rendered to him. For although the word עון , avon, which we have rendered iniquity, signifies also the punishment of iniquity, (as we have elsewhere seen more than once;) yet we must take into consideration the derivation of the word. ⁹⁵ Accordingly, since David calls the afflictions which he endures the fruit or effect of his transgressions, there is implied in this a humble confession, from which we may ascertain with what reverence and meekness he submitted to the judgments of God, seeing that, when overwhelmed with an accumulation of miseries, he sets forth his sins in all their magnitude and aggravation, lest he should suspect God of undue severity. When we see David treated so severely, let us also learn, when we are oppressed with extreme afflictions, and are groaning under them, humbly to implore the grace and mercy of our Judge. Nor is it his design to show that he had been stupid or hardened, when he says that his heart failed or forsook him. His language means, that he was not only broken-hearted, but that he lay as if he had been dead. We must, however, understand this fainting or failing of the heart as referring to the sense of the flesh; for his perseverance in prayer is a certain proof that his faith was never altogether extinguished. But since he was, in so far as man was concerned, destitute of counsel, and was altogether without strength, it is not without cause that he says that his heart failed him.

Calvin: Psa 40:13

13.Be thou pleased, O Jehovah! to deliver me The verb which David here makes use of, signifies to desire a thing from pure kindness and good-will. ⁹⁶ He desires, therefore, to be delivered by the free mercy of God. As to his desire, that God would make haste, we have elsewhere spoken of it. Even when God delays to help us, it is our duty to contend against a feeling of weariness; but such is his goodness, that he permits us to use this form of prayer, That he would make haste according to our desires. Then, according to his usual practice, citing his enemies to the judgment-seat of God, he feels confident, that, on account of their cruelty, and unjust and wicked hatred, he shall obtain what he asks. We must maintain it as a fixed principle, that the more unjustly our enemies afflict us, and the more cruelly they wrong us, God is so much the more disposed to give us help. And it is no slight consolation that the mercy of God strives against their wickedness, so that the more fiercely our enemies pursue us to effect our hurt, the more ready is he to bring us help. We have already frequently spoken of the feelings with which David uttered these imprecations, and it is necessary here again to refresh our memories on the subject, lest any man, when giving loose reins to his passions, should allege the example of David in palliation or excuse. This wicked and counterfeit imitation on the part of those who follow the powerful impulse of the flesh, instead of being guided by the zeal of the Spirit, is always to be held up to condemnation.

Calvin: Psa 40:15

When the Psalmist prays (verse 15) that his enemies may be destroyed for a reward of their shame, the meaning is this: As their sole desire has been to overwhelm me with shame, in order that, while thus dismayed and confounded, they might make me the object of their derision; so let a similar confusion fall upon their own heads. In the second clause of the verse he describes the nature of this confusion by relating the terms of their wicked triumphing, by which they poured contempt upon him while he was so oppressed with misery and affliction. We are here taught that, when our enemies shall have persecuted us to the uttermost, a recompense is also prepared for them; and that God will turn back, and cause to fall upon their own heads, all the evil which they had devised against us; and this doctrine ought to act as a restraint upon us, that we may behave ourselves compassionately and kindly towards our neighbors.

Calvin: Psa 40:16

16.Let all those that seek thee be glad and rejoice in thee David here uses another argument — one which he often adduces elsewhere — in order to obtain deliverance; not that it is necessary to allege reasons to persuade God, but because it is profitable to confirm our faith by such supports. As, then, it is the will of God that he should be known in his gracious character, not only of one or two, but generality of all men, whenever he vouchsafes deliverance to any of his children, it is a common benefit which all the faithful ought to apply to themselves when they see in the person of one man in what manner God, who is never inconsistent with himself, will act towards all his people. David, therefore, shows that he asks nothing for himself individually but what pertains to the whole Church. He prays that God would gladden the hearts of all the saints, or afford them all common cause of rejoicing: so that, assured of his readiness to help them, they may have recourse to him with greater alacrity. Hence we conclude, that, in the case of every individual, God gives a proof of his goodness towards us. What is added, those that love thy salvation, is also worthy of being observed by us. We may infer from this, that our faith is only proved to be genuine when we neither expect nor desire preservation otherwise than from God alone. Those who devise various ways and means of preservation for themselves in this world, despise and reject the salvation which God has taught us to expect from him alone. What had been said before, those who seek thee, is to the same purpose. If any individual would depend wholly upon God, and desire to be saved by his grace, he must renounce every vain hope, and employ all his thoughts towards the reception of his strength. Here, again, we must observe that two things are contrasted with each other. Formerly David had said that the wicked sought his life; now he ascribes to the faithful quite a contrary feeling, namely, that they seek God. In like manner he had related the reproaches and derision of the ungodly, while they said, Aha, aha! and now he introduces the godly speaking very differently, saying, The Lord be magnified!

Calvin: Psa 40:17

17.But I am poor and needy In this concluding clause he mingles prayer with thanksgiving, although it may be that he records a request which he had made when he was placed in extreme danger. The first clause of the verse might be rendered thus: Although I was miserable and poor, God did think upon me. As according to the extent in which any one is afflicted, so is he despised by the world, we imagine that he is disregarded by God, we must, therefore, steadfastly maintain that our miseries in no respect produce on the part of God a feeling of weariness towards us, so that it should become troublesome to him to aid us. In this way, however, let us rather read the clause: When I was miserable and poor, the Lord looked upon my necessity: So that by this circumstance he enhances the grace of God. If God anticipate us with his goodness, and do not wait till adversity presses upon us, then his favor towards us is not so apparent. This comparison, therefore, illustrates very clearly the glory of God in the deliverance of David, inasmuch as he vouchsafed to stretch forth his hand to a man who was despised and rejected of all men, nay, who was destitute of all help and hope. Now, if it was necessary that David should have been reduced to this extremity, it is no wonder if persons in a more private station are often humbled after this manner, that they may feel and acknowledge in good earnest that they have been delivered out of despair by the hand of God. The simple and natural meaning of the prayer is this, Lord, thou art my help and my deliverer, therefore delay not to come to my aid. As it is a foolish thing to approach God with a doubtful and wavering mind, the Psalmist takes courage, as he was wont to do from his own experience, and persuades himself that the help of God, by which he had been hitherto preserved, would not fail him.

Defender: Psa 40:6

The "opened ear" refers to the boring of a hole in the ear of a bond servant who after becoming eligible for freedom, chooses to remain forever in the service of his master (Exo 21:6). This ritual symbolized the dedication of the servant to hear and obey his master's orders."

Defender: Psa 40:7

That this psalm is a Messianic psalm is certain because of its application in Heb 10:5-10. It is prophetic of the thoughts in the heart of Christ, possibly as He hung on the cross, remembering how and why He had come into the world."

Defender: Psa 40:8

Just as the servant with the "opened ear", Christ had come solely to do the will of the One who sent Him. It is significant that in quoting the psalm the author of Hebrews translated "mine ears hast thou opened" by "a body hast thou prepared me" (Heb 10:5). Not just the ear but the whole body was to be made an offering for sins forever (Heb 10:10-12)."

TSK: Psa 40:2

brought : Psa 18:16, Psa 18:17, Psa 71:20, Psa 86:13, Psa 116:3, Psa 142:6, Psa 142:7, Psa 143:3; Isa 24:22; Jon 2:5, Jon 2:6; Zec 9:11; Act 2:24, Act 2:27-31

horrible pit : Heb. pit of noise, Mat 13:50

the miry : Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14, Psa 69:15; Jer 38:6-12; Lam 3:53-55

set : Psa 27:5, Psa 61:2; Mat 7:24, Mat 7:25

established : Psa 17:5, Psa 18:36, Psa 37:23, Psa 119:133

TSK: Psa 40:3

And he : Psa 33:3, Psa 144:9; Rev 5:9, Rev 5:10, Rev 14:3

praise : Psa 103:1-5; Isa 12:1-4

many : Psa 34:1-6, Psa 35:27, Psa 52:6, Psa 64:9, Psa 64:10, Psa 142:7; Hos 3:5; Act 2:31-41, Act 4:4

TSK: Psa 40:4

Blessed : Psa 2:12, Psa 34:8, Psa 84:11, Psa 84:12, Psa 118:8, Psa 118:9; Jer 17:7, Jer 17:8; Rom 15:12, Rom 15:13

respecteth : Psa 15:4, Psa 101:3-7, Psa 119:21

as turn : Psa 125:5; Isa 44:18-20; Jer 10:14, Jer 10:15; Jon 2:8; 2Th 2:9-11

TSK: Psa 40:5

Many : Psa 136:4; Exo 11:8, Exo 15:11; Job 5:9, Job 9:10, Job 26:14

thoughts : Psa 71:15, Psa 92:5, Psa 139:6, Psa 139:17, Psa 139:18; Isa 55:8, Isa 55:9; Jer 29:11

they cannot : etc. or, none can order them unto thee, Job 37:19, Job 37:20

TSK: Psa 40:6

Sacrifice : Psa 50:8, Psa 51:16; 1Sa 15:22; Isa 1:11, Isa 66:3; Jer 7:21-23; Hos 6:6; Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7; Heb 10:5-12

mine ears : Exo 21:6; Job 33:16; Isa 50:4, Isa 50:5

opened : Heb. digged

TSK: Psa 40:7

Lo : Heb 10:7-9

in the : Gen 3:15; Luk 24:27, Luk 24:44; Joh 5:39; Act 10:43; 1Co 15:3, 1Co 15:4; 1Pe 1:10, 1Pe 1:11; Rev 19:10

TSK: Psa 40:8

I delight : Psa 112:1, Psa 119:16, Psa 119:24, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:92; Job 23:12; Jer 15:16; Joh 4:34; Rom 7:22; Rom 8:29

yea : Psa 37:30, Psa 37:31; Pro 3:1; Jer 31:33; 2Co 3:3

within my heart : Heb. in the midst of my bowels

TSK: Psa 40:9

preached : Psa 22:22, Psa 22:25, Psa 35:18, Psa 71:15-18; Mar 16:15, Mar 16:16; Luk 4:16-22; Heb 2:12

not : Psa 119:13, Psa 119:171, Psa 119:172

thou knowest : Psa 139:2; Joh 21:17

TSK: Psa 40:10

not hid : Eze 2:7, Eze 3:17, Eze 3:18; Act 20:20, Act 20:21, Act 20:26, Act 20:27; Rom 10:9, Rom 10:10; 1Th 1:8; Rev 22:17

righteousness : Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17, Rom 3:22-26, Rom 10:3; Phi 3:9

faithfulness : Act 13:32, Act 13:33; Rom 15:8, Rom 15:9

salvation : Isa 49:6; Luk 2:30-32, Luk 3:6; 1Ti 1:15

lovingkindness : Psa 25:10, Psa 34:6; Mic 7:20; Joh 1:17, Joh 3:16, Joh 3:17

TSK: Psa 40:11

Withhold : From this verse to the end, we have quite a new subject; for the former contains a thanksgiving, and this contains a supplication. It is nearly the same as the seventieth, and probably formed a distinct Psalm. Psa 69:13, Psa 69:16

let thy : Psa 23:6, Psa 43:3, Psa 57:3, Psa 61:7, Psa 85:10; Heb 5:7

TSK: Psa 40:12

innumerable : Psa 22:11-19; Heb 4:15

mine : Psa 38:4; Isa 53:6; Luk 18:13, Luk 18:14; 1Pe 3:18

they are : Psa 19:12, Psa 69:4

heart : Psa 73:26; Gen 42:28; Luk 21:26

faileth : Heb. forsaketh

TSK: Psa 40:13

Be : Psa 25:17, Psa 25:18; Mat 26:36-44

make : Psa 38:22, Psa 70:1-5

TSK: Psa 40:14

Let them be ashamed : The verbs in the preceding verse, in which the psalmist simply prays for deliverance, are in the imperative; but here, and in the following verses, they are in the future tense, and naturally express the language of lively faith and hope, rather than that of wishing the destruction foreseen and predicted. Psa 31:17, Psa 31:18, Psa 35:4, Psa 35:26, Psa 70:2, Psa 70:3, Psa 71:13; Isa 41:11, Isa 45:24

that : Mat 21:38-41

driven : Psa 9:3; Joh 18:6; Act 9:4-6, Act 12:23, Act 12:24

TSK: Psa 40:15

desolate : Psa 69:24, Psa 69:25, Psa 70:3, Psa 73:19, Psa 109:6-20; Luk 19:43, Luk 19:44, Luk 21:23, Luk 21:24

say : Psa 35:21, Psa 35:25, Psa 70:3, Psa 70:4

TSK: Psa 40:16

all : Psa 22:26, Psa 35:27, Psa 68:3, Psa 105:3; Isa 65:13, Isa 65:14

love : Psa 119:81, Psa 119:111, Psa 119:123, Psa 119:166, Psa 119:167; Mat 13:45, Mat 13:46; Phi 3:7-9

say : Psa 35:27; Luk 1:46, Luk 1:47; Act 19:17

TSK: Psa 40:17

I am poor : Psa 40:5, Psa 34:6, Psa 69:33, Psa 70:5; Isa 41:17; Mat 8:20; 2Co 8:9; Jam 2:5

the Lord : 1Pe 2:23, 1Pe 5:7

help : Psa 54:4; Isa 50:7-9; Heb 13:6

make : Psa 143:7, Psa 143:8; Rev 22:20

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Psa 40:2

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit - Margin: "A pit of noise."The word used here means a pit; a cistern; a prison; a dungeon; a grave. This last signification of the word is found in Psa 28:1; Psa 30:4; Psa 88:4; Isa 38:18; Isa 14:19. It may refer to any calamity - or to trouble, like being in a pit - or it may refer to the grave. The word rendered "horrible"- שׁאון shâ'ôn - means properly "noise, uproar, tumult,"as of waters; of a crowd of men; of war. Then it seems to be used in the sense of "desolation"or "destruction,"as applicable to the grave. DeWette understands it here of a pit, a cavern, or an abyss that roars or is tumultuous; that is, that is impassable. Perhaps this is the idea - a cavern, deep and dark, where the waters roar, and which seems to be filled with horrors. So Rosenmuller understands it. The Septuagint renders it: ἐκ λάκκου ταλαιπωρίας ek lakkou talaipōrias , "a lake of misery."It is a deep and horrid cavern, where there is no hope of being rescued, or where it would seem that there would be certain destruction.

Out of the miry clay - At the bottom of the pit. Where there was no solid ground - no rock on which to stand. See Jer 38:6; Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14.

And set my feet upon a rock - Where there was firm standing.

And established my goings - Or, fixed my steps. That is, he enabled me to walk as on solid ground; he conducted me along safely, where there was no danger of descending to the pit again or of sinking in the mire. If we understand this of the Redeemer, it refers to that time when, his sorrows ended, and his work of atonement done, it became certain that he would never be exposed again to such dangers, or sink into such a depth of woes, but that his course ever onward would be one of safety and of glory.

Barnes: Psa 40:3

And he hath put a new song in my mouth - See the notes at Psa 33:3. The idea is, that he had given a new or fresh "occasion"for praise. The deliverance was so marked, and was such an addition to former mercies, that a new expression of thanks was proper. It was an act of such surprising intervention on the part of God that the language used on former occasions, and which was adapted to express the mercies then received, would not be sufficient to convey the sense of gratitude felt for the present deliverance. As applied to the Messiah, and referring (as it was supposed in the notes at Psa 40:2) to his being raised up to glory after the depth of his sorrows, it would mean that no language hitherto employed to express gratitude to God would be adequate to the occasion, but that the language of a new song of praise would be demanded to celebrate so great an event.

Even praise unto our God - " To our God;"identifying himself, as the Messiah does, with his people, and expressing the idea that the new song of praise was appropriate to them as well as to "himself,"since they would be benefited by his work, and since God was their God as well as his. Compare Joh 20:17.

Many shall see it - Great numbers of the human race shall be made acquainted with the occasion which there was for such a song.

And fear - Learn to reverence, to worship, to honor God, as the result of what had been done.

And shall trust in the Lord - Shall confide in God; shall put their trust in him; shall become his true worshippers and friends:

(a) as the effect of this merciful interposition in behalf of him who had been thus in trouble or distress, and who was enabled to triumph;

(b) as the result of the work accomplished by him.

The effect of the Redeemer’ s sorrows, and of God’ s merciful help, would be that great numbers would learn to put their trust in God, or would become his true friends. No man, in fact, can compute the "numbers"of those who, in consequence of the work of the Messiah, will turn to God and become his true worshippers and friends.

Barnes: Psa 40:4

Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust - See the notes at Psa 34:8. Compare Psa 27:1. Literally, here, "The blessings of the man who places Yahweh for his confidence;"that is, who makes Him his seeurity, or who feels that his security for happiness and salvation is in Him.

And respecteth not the proud - The haughty, or those who are confident in themselves. Literally, "who looks not to the proud;"that is, who does not depend on them for help and for salvation.

Nor such as turn aside to lies - Who depart from the straight path, and incline to that which is false and deceitful. The reference is to those who are easily made to swerve from that which is true and honest to that which is delusive and false. Their integrity cannot be confided in. There is no security that they will be disposed to do right. The idea is, that the man who trusts in God is blessed or happy, as compared with one who trusts in man; man confident in himself; man liable to fall into error; man who is easily led astray; man who is deceitful, and who cannot, therefore, be relied on. God is mighty, but not haughty; God never is drawn aside from the truth; he never deceives.

Barnes: Psa 40:5

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done - literally, "Many (things), O Lord my God, hast thou done; thy wonderful things and thy thoughts toward us, it is not (possible) to state unto thee."The recollection of the particular kindness shown to the speaker, as referred to in the previous verses, suggests the recollection of the great number of wonders that God had done for his people - the acts of his kindness which it would be hopeless to attempt to recount before him. And who "could"enumerate and record all the acts of God’ s benevolence toward men in the works of creation, providence, and redemption; all that he has done in the history of the Church, and for the individual members of the Church in past times; all that he has done to save his people in the days of persecution; all that has been accomplished in our own individual lives? Obviously these things are beyond all power of enumeration by man. They can be admired now only in the gross; eternity alone will be sufficient for us to look at them and to recount them in detail. The phrase "wonderful works"means here remarkable interventions; things fitted to excite astonishment; things that surpass what man could have anticipated; things that could have been done only by God.

And thy thoughts which are to us-ward - Toward us; or which pertain to us. The word "thoughts"here refers to the plans, purposes, arrangements of God designed for our welfare; the things that are the result of his thinking of our wants - of what we need - of what would do us good. See Psa 40:17.

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee - Margin, "None can order them unto thee."Literally, "There is no putting them in order before thee;"that is, there is no such arranging of them, or disposing of them in order, that they can all be brought into their proper place, so as to be perceived or numbered. The Hebrew word - ערך ‛ârak - means properly, to place in a row; to put in order; to arrange; as, to put an army in battle array, or to draw it up for battle, Jdg 20:20, Jdg 20:22; to put words in order for an argument, or to arrange thoughts so as to present an argument, Job 32:14; to set a cause in order before a judge, or to lay it before him, Job 13:18. The word also means to place together with anything, or by the side of anything - that is, to make a comparison. Gesenius (Lexicon) supposes that this is the idea here, and that the proper interpretation is, "Nothing can be compared unto thee."But the other interpretation seems best to accord with the connection, as referring to the wonderful works of God, and to his thoughts of mercy and goodness as being beyond the power of computation, or as too numerous to be brought into order and arrangement before the mind.

If I would declare and speak of them - If I should attempt to speak of them; or to recount them.

They are more than can be numbered - More than man can enumerate. They go beyond the power of language to express them. This is literally true. No language of man can describe what God has done and has purposed in fitting up this world as an abode for people, and in his mercy toward them.

Barnes: Psa 40:6

Sacrifice and offering - The first of the words used here - זבח zebach - means properly a bloody-offering; the other - מנחה minchāh - an offering without blood, as a thank-offering. See the notes at Isa 1:11. The four words employed in this verse - sacrifice, offering, burnt-offering, sin-offering - embrace all the species of sacrifice and offerings known among the Hebrews; and the idea here is, that such offering as they were accustomed to offer was required of him who is here referred to. A higher service was needed.

Thou didst not desire - The word here rendered desire means to incline to, to be favorably disposed, as in reference to doing anything; that is, to will, to desire, to please. The meaning here is, that he did not will this or wish it; he would not be pleased with it in comparison with obedience, or as a substitute for obedience. He preferred obedience to any external rites and forms; to all the rites and forms of religion prescribed by the law. They were of no value without obedience; they could not be substituted in the place of obedience. This sentiment often occurs in the Old Testament, showing that the design of all the rites then prescribed was to bring men to obedience, and that they were of no value without obedience. See the notes at Isa 1:10-20; compare 1Sa 15:22; Psa 51:16-17; Hos 6:6; see also the notes at Heb 10:5.

Mine ears hast thou opened - Margin: "digged."The Hebrew word - כרה kârâh - means "to dig;"as, to dig a well, Gen 26:25; to dig a sepulchre, Gen 50:5. As used here this would properly mean, "mine ears hast thou digged out;"that is, thou hast so opened them that there is a communication with the seat of hearing; or, in other words, thou hast caused me to hear this truth, or hast revealed it to me. Compare Isa 50:5, "The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious."The meaning here would be, that the ear had been opened, so that it was quick to hear. An indisposition to obey the will of God is often expressed by the fact that the ears are "stopped:"Zec 7:11; Psa 58:4-5; Pro 21:13. There is manifestly no allusion here, though that has been supposed by many to be the reference, to the custom of boring through the ear of a servant with an awl, as a sign that he was willing to remain with his master: Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17. In that case the outer circle, or rim of the ear was "bored through"with an awl; here the idea is that of "hollowinq out,"digging, excavating, that is, of making a passage "through,"so that one could hear; not the mere piercing of the outer ear. The essential idea is, that this truth had been communicated to him - that God preferred obedience to sacrifice; and that he had been made attentive to that truth, "as if"he had been before deaf, and his ears had been opened. The principal difficulty in the passage relates to its application in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 10:5. That difficulty arises from the fact that the Septuagint translates the phrase here by the words "a body hast thou prepared me;"and that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews founds an argument on that translation, with reference to the work of the Messiah. On this point, see the notes at Heb 10:5. It is perhaps not now possible to explain this difficulty in a way that will be entirely satisfactory.

burnt-offering - See the notes at Isa 1:11. The uniqueness of this offering was that it was consumed by fire.

And sin-offering - sin-offering was an offering or sacrifice made specifically for sin, with a view to expiate either sin in general, or some specific act of sin. In the Mosaic law there are two kinds of these offerings prescribed; "trespass-offerings,"or offerings for guilt or fault, denoted by the word אשׁם 'âshâm ; and sin-offering, denoted by the word used here. They are offerings which were consumed by fire, Lev. 5:1-19; Lev 6:1-7; Lev 14:10. But the essential "idea"was that they were for "sin,"or for some act of guilt. In a general sense, this was true of all bloody offerings or sacrifices; but in these cases the attention of the worshipper was turned particularly to the fact of sin or transgression.

Thou hast not required - That is, thou hast not required them as compared with obedience; in other words, thou hast preferred the latter. These offerings would not meet the case. More was necessary to be done than was implied in these sacrifices. They would not expiate sin; they would not remove guilt; they would not give the conscience peace. A higher work, a work implied in an act of "obedience"of the most exalted kind, was demanded in order to accomplish the work to be done. Compare Psa 51:16.

Barnes: Psa 40:7

Then said I - In Heb 10:7, the apostle applies this to the Messiah. See the notes at that verse. This is the most simple and satisfactory interpretation of the passage. The word "then"in this verse means, "since this is the case;"or, "things being thus."It does not refer to time, but to the condition of things. "Since it was certain that the work needful to be done could not be accomplished by bloody offerings - the sacrifice of animals - under these circumstances I said;"that is, I resolved or purposed to come.

Lo, I come - It is difficult to see how this could be applied to David; it is easy to see how it could be applied to the Messiah. When all bloody offerings under the law - all the sacrifices which men could make - did not avail to put away sin, it was true of the Messiah that he came into the world to perform a higher work that would meet the case - a lofty work of obedience, extending even unto death, Phi 2:8. This is precisely the use which the apostle makes of the passage in Heb 10:7, and this is clearly the most obvious meaning. It is in no sense applicable to David; it is fully applicable to the Messiah.

In the volume of the book - literally, "in the roll of the book."See the notes at Luk 4:17. The phrase would most naturally denote the "scroll of the law;"but it might include any volume or roll where a record or prophecy was made. In a large sense it would embrace all that had been written at the command of God at the time when this was supposed to be spoken. That is, as spoken by the Messiah, it would include all the books of the Old Testament. See the notes at Heb 10:7.

It is written of me - It is recorded; or, there is a record made of me; to wit, in this respect, that his great delight would be to do the will of God. The proper interpretation of this expression must he, that there must be some record to be found in the "book"or"volume"referred to, which was designed to describe him in this respect, or which had an original reference to him. The meaning is not that there was a general record on the point of obedience which might be applied to him as well as to others, but that the record was intended to be applied to him, and to describe his character. This is one of the passages in the Psalms which cannot with any propriety be applied to David himself. There was no such antecedent record in regard to him; no statement in any "book"or "volume"that this would be his character. There is no promise - no intimation - in any of the books of Scripture written before the time of David that he would come to do the will of God with a view to effect that which could not be done by the sacrifices and offerings under the law.

The reference of the language, therefore, must be to the Messiah - to some place where it is represented or affirmed that he would come to accomplish by his obedience what could not be done by the sacrifices and oblations made under the law. Thus understood, and regarded as the language of the Messiah himself, the reference might be to all the books of the Old Testament (for all were completed before he came), and not merely to those which had been written in the time of David. But still, it is true that no such declaration, in so many words, can now be found in any of those books; and the meaning must be that this was the language which was everywhere implied respecting the Messiah; that this was the substance of the description given of him; that this characterized his work as predicted there; to wit, that when all sacrifices and offerings under the law failed; when they had all shown that they were not efficacious to put away sin, One would come to perform some higher work that would be effectual in putting away transgression, and that this work might, in the highest sense, be described as "obedience,"or as "doing the will of God."This was true. The language and the institutions of the Old Testament contemplated him as the One who only could put away sin. The entire spirit of the Mosaic economy supposed that a Saviour would come to do the will of God by making an atonement for the sin of the world. The meaning then is, "I come to do thy will in making an atonement, for no other offering would expiate sin; that I would do this, is the language of the Scriptures in predicting my coming, and of the whole spirit and design of the ancient dispensation."

Barnes: Psa 40:8

I delight to do thy will, O my God - To wit, in obeying the law; in submitting to all the trials appointed to me; in making an atonement for the sins of men. See the notes at Heb 10:7. Compare Phi 2:8; Mat 26:39.

Yea, thy law is within my heart - Margin, "In the midst of my bowels."So the Hebrew. The idea is, that the law of God was within him. His obedience was not external, but proceeded from the heart. How true this was of the Redeemer it is not necessary here to say.

Barnes: Psa 40:9

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation - I have main tained and defended the principles of righteousness and truth among assembled multitudes. it would be difficult to see how this could be applied to David himself, or on what occasion of his life this could be said of him; but no one can doubt that this is applicable to the Messiah:

(a) He was a preacher.

(b) He addressed vast multitudes.

© Before them all, and at all times, he maintained and illustrated the great principles of "righteousness"as demanded by the law of God, and unfolded the way in which all those multitudes might become righteous before God.

Lo, I have not refrained my lips - I have not closed my lips. I have not kept back the truth.

O Lord, thou knowest - He could make this solemn appeal to God as the Searcher of hearts, in proof that he had faithfully uttered all that had been required of him in making known the will of God. Compare Joh 17:4, Joh 17:6,Joh 17:8, Joh 17:14, Joh 17:26.

Barnes: Psa 40:10

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart - The word "righteousness"here may denote the divine views on the subject of righteousness, or the divine method of making man righteous; that is, the method of justification, as the word is used in the New Testament. See the notes at Rom 1:17. The word, as it might have been employed by David, would have been used in the former sense, as meaning that, knowing what God requires of men, he had not concealed that in his heart, or had not kept it to himself; as used by the Messiah, as I suppose it to be here, it would be employed in the latter sense, or perhaps embrace both. The idea would be, that he had not concealed in his own mind, or had not kept to himself, the knowledge which he had of the requirements of the law of God, or of the way in which man can be justified or regarded and treated as righteous in his sight. He had fully communicated this knowledge to others. It is not necessary to say that this was literally fulfilled in the work of the Redeemer. He spent his life in making known the great truths about the righteousness of God; he died that he might disclose to man a way by which God could consistently regard and treat men as righteous. See the notes at Rom 3:24-26.

I have declared thy faithfulness - Thy truthfulness; I have showed that God is worthy of confidence. And thy salvation. Thy method of salvation, or of saving men.

I have not concealed thy loving kindness - Thy mercy or thy merciful disposition toward men. He had shown to the human race that God was a merciful Being; a Being who would pardon sin.

And thy truth - The truth which thou hast revealed; the truth on all subjects which it was important for men to understand.

From the great congregation - That is, as in Psa 40:9, the assembled multitudes - the throngs that gathered to hear the words of the Great Teacher. Compare Mat 5:1; Mat 13:2; Luk 8:4.

Barnes: Psa 40:11

Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord - Do not restrain or hold back thy compassions. Let thy mercies - the expressions of thy love - flow out freely toward me in connection with what I have done. As applicable to the Redeemer, this is a prayer that God would bestow upon him in connection with his work, and as a reward of his work, appropriate proofs of his goodness. And especially is this to be understood here as a prayer for support and deliverance in the sorrows that came upon him in the accomplishment of his work. The prayer is intermediate between the expression of his purpose to do the will of God when all other means of salvation had failed Psa 40:6-8, and the sorrows or sufferings that would come upon him in the accomplishment of his work Psa 40:12-13. He saw himself at this point of his life, as represented in the psalm, as about to sink into the depth of woes. He had kept the law of God, and had by his obedience thus far done His will. He had made known the truth of God, and had declared His great message to the assembled multitude that had crowded his path, and thronged to hear him. He saw himself now about to enter the vale of sorrow; to plunge into that depth of the unutterable woes connected with the making of an atonement. He prayed, therefore, that, in these approaching sorrows, God would not withhold the expression of his tender mercy. The point of time, therefore, in the Redeemer’ s life which the verse before us occupies, is that awful and sorrowful hour when, his public work of teaching and of miracles finished, he was about to endure the agonies of Gethsemane and of the cross.

Let thy loving-kindness - Thy mercy. "And thy truth."Thy promises; thy plighted support and strength; thy fidelity. That is, he prayed that God would show himself true and faithful in bearing him through the great work of the atonement.

Continually - Through the whole of these sorrows. Do not for a moment leave or forsake me.

Preserve me - Keep me from sinking under these woes; from speaking any improper word; from shrinking back; from being overcome by the tempter; from failing in the great work now to be accomplished. As the Redeemer had a human as well as a divine nature; as he was man, with all human susceptibilities to suffering, it was not inappropriate that he should utter this prayer, and lift up his heart with the utmost earnestness to God, that he might not be forsaken in the consummation of the great work of his life, and that this work might not fail.

Barnes: Psa 40:12

For innumerable evils have compassed me about - Have surrounded me, or have beset me on every side. The evils here referred to, understood as being those which came upon the Messiah, were sorrows that came upon him in consequence of his undertaking to do what could not be done by sacrifices and offerings Psa 40:6; that is, his undertaking to save men by his own "obedience unto death."The time referred to here, I apprehend, is that when the full effects of his having assumed the sins of the world to make expiation for them came upon him; when he was about to endure the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary.

Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me - On this passage, as constituting one of the main objections, and the strongest objection, to the application of the psalm to the Messiah, and on the way in which such objection may be met, see introduction to this psalm (3b).

So that I am not able to look up - This is not the exact idea of the Hebrew word. That is simply, I am not able to see; and it refers to the dimness or failure of sight caused by distress, weakness, or old age. 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4; compare Psa 6:7. The idea here is, not that he was unable to look up, but that the calamities which came upon him were so heavy and severe as to make his sight dim, or to deprive him of vision. Either by weeping, or by the mere pressure of suffering, he was so affected as almost to be deprived of the power of seeing.

They are more than the hairs of mine head - That is, the sorrows that come upon me in connection with sin. The idea is that they were innumerable - the hairs of the head, or the sands on the seashore; being employed in the Scriptures to denote what cannot be numbered. See Psa 69:4. Compare Gen 22:17; Gen 32:12; Jos 11:4; 2Sa 17:11.

Therefore my heart faileth me - Margin, as in Hebrew: "forsaketh."The idea is that he sank under these sufferings; he could not sustain them.

Barnes: Psa 40:13

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me - That is, in these troubles and sorrows. See Mat 26:39. The prayer is that, if possible, the cup of sorrow might be taken away.

O Lord, make haste to help me - This is the same form of prayer, and referring, I suppose, to the same occasion as that which occurs in Psa 22:19. See the notes at that verse.

Barnes: Psa 40:14

Let them be ashamed and confounded together - See at Psa 35:4, note; Psa 35:26, note. This may be understood here rather as a confident expectation than a wish or desire. It implies the certainty that they would thus be ashamed and confounded; that is, that they would not be successful, or would be foiled in their purposes. But understood as a wish or prayer, it could not be improper. There is no sin in the wish that the wicked may not be successful in their plans, and may not be suffered to injure us. As the language of the Messiah it was in every way an appropriate prayer that the purposes of those who would defeat his design in coming into the world might be foiled - for on the execution of that design depended the salvation of a lost race.

That seek after my soul to destroy it - That seek after my life; that would destroy me. That is, they seek to kill me; they would take my life before the full time is come. As understood of the Messiah, this would refer to the times when his life was in danger, as it often was, before the full period had arrived for him to die: Joh 7:6; Mat 26:18. The purpose of his enemies was to take his life; to prevent the spread of his doctrines; to cheek him in his work. The taking of his life at any time before the full period had arrived, or in any other way than that in which he had purposed to lay it down, would have been a defeat of his work, since in the plan of salvation it was contemplated that he should die at a certain time, and in a certain manner - that he should die at the time which had been predicted by the prophets, and in such a mode as to make an atonement for sin. All this would have been defeated if, before that time came, he had been put to death by stoning, or in any of the numerous ways in which his life was threatened.

Let them be driven backward, and put to shame, that wish me evil - Turned backward, as they are who are unsuccessful, or are defeated. Compare Joh 18:6.

Barnes: Psa 40:15

Let them be desolate - The word here employed means to be astonished or amazed; then, to be laid waste, or made desolate. As used here, it refers to their purposes, and the wish or prayer is that they might be wholly unsuccessful, or that in respect to success they might be like a waste and desolate field where nothing grows.

For a reward - The word used here - עקב ‛êqeb - means the end, the last of anything; then, the recompence, reward, wages, as being the end, the result, or issue of a certain course of conduct. That is, in this case, the desolation prayed for would be a proper recompence for their purpose, or for what they said. "Of their shame."Of their shameful act or purpose; their act as deserving of ignominy.

That say unto me, Aha, aha - That use language of reproach and contempt. This is a term of exultation over another; a word of rejoicing at the calamities that come on another; an act of joy over a fallen enemy: Eze 25:3; see Psa 35:21, note; Psa 35:25, note. As understood of the Messiah, this would refer to the taunts and reproaches of his enemies; the exultation which they manifested when they had him in their power - when they felt secure that their vexations in regard to him were at an end, or that they would be troubled with him no more. By putting him to death they supposed that they might feel safe from further molestation on his account. For this act, this note of exultation and joy, on the part of the Jewish rulers, and of the people as stimulated by those rulers, the desolation which came upon them (the utter ruin of their temple, their city, and their nation) was an appropriate reward. That desolation did not go beyond their desert, for their treatment of the Messiah - as the ruin of the sinner in the future world will not go beyond his desert for having rejected the same Messiah as his Saviour.

Barnes: Psa 40:16

Let all those that seek thee - All those who desire to know thee; to understand thy ways; to be thy friends. The phrase is used to denote the truly pious, because it is a characteristic of all such that they truly desire to be acquainted with God, and to find the way which leads to his favor.

Rejoice and be glad in thee -

(1) By finding thee, or securing the object which they sought;

(2) in thee, as the source of all true comfort and joy.

The prayer is that all such may be successful in their efforts, while those who have no such aim may be disappointed, Psa 40:14.

Let such as love thy salvation -

(a) Thy method of salvation, or the appointed way by which men may be saved; and

(b) the salvation itself - deliverance from the guilt and dominion of sin, and complete and eternal restoration to the favor of God.

Say continually, The Lord be magnified - See the notes at Psa 35:27, where the same expression occurs.

Barnes: Psa 40:17

But I am poor and needy - More literally, "I am afflicted and poor."The language would describe the condition of one who was afflicted and was at the same time poor; of one who had no resource but in God, and who was passing through scenes of poverty and sorrow. There were undoubtedly times in the life of David to which this language would be applicable; but it would be far more applicable to the circumstances in which the Redeemer was placed; and, in accordance with the interpretation which has been given of the other parts of the psalm, I suppose that this is designed to represent his afflicted and humble condition as a man of poverty and sorrow.

Yet the Lord thinketh upon me - The Lord cares for me; he has not forgotten me. Man forsakes me, but he will not. Man leaves me to poverty and sorrow, but, he will not. How true this was of the Redeemer, that the Lord, the Father of mercies; thought on him, it is not needful now to say; nor can it be doubted that in the heavy sorrows of his life this was a source of habitual consolation. To others also - to all his friends - this is a source of unspeakable comfort. To be an object of the thoughts of God; to be had in his mind; to be constantly in his remembrance; to be certain that he will not forsake us in our trouble; to be assured in our own minds that one so great as God is - the infinite and eternal One - will never cease to think on us, may well sustain us in all the trials of life. It matters little who does forsake us, if he does not; it would be of little advantage to us who should think on us, if he did not.

Thou art my help and my deliverer - Implying the highest confidence. See the notes at Psa 18:2.

Make no tarrying, O my God - Do not linger or delay in coining to my assistance. The psalm closes with this prayer. Applied to the Redeemer, it indicates strong confidence in God in the midst of his afflictions and sorrows, with earnest pleading, coming from the depth of those sorrows, that God would interpose for him. The vision of the psalmist extended here no farther. His eye rested on a suffering Messiah - afflicted, crushed, broken, forsaken - with all the woes connected with the work of human redemption, and all the sorrows expressive of the evil of sin clustering upon him, yet confident in God, and finding his last consolation in the feeling that God "thought"on him, and in the assurance that He would not ultimately forsake him. There is something delightful, though pensive, in the close of the psalm. The last prayer of the sufferer - the confident, earnest pleading - lingers on the ear, and we almost seem to behold the Sufferer in the depth of his sorrows, and in the earnestness of his supplication, calmly looking up to God as One that "thought"on him when all others had forgotten him; as a last, safe refuge when every other refuge had failed. So, in our sorrows, we may lie before the throne, calmly looking up to God with a feeling that we are not forgotten; that there is One who "thinks"on us; and that it is our privilege to pray to him that he would hasten to deliver us. All sorrow can be borne when we feel that God has not forgotten us; we may be calm when all the world forsakes us, if we can feel assured that the great and blessed God thinks on us, and will never cease to remember us.

Poole: Psa 40:2

I waited patiently Heb. in waiting I waited ; which doubling of the word notes that he waited diligently and earnestly, patiently and perseveringly, until God should please to help him. He inclined , or, bowed , to wit, himself , as this very word is rendered, Jud 16:30 ; or, his ear , as it is more fully expressed, Psa 17:6 31:2 . Such ellipses or defects are frequent in Scripture, as Psa 3:6 10:1 Ecc 6:3 7:15 .

Out of an horrible pit or, out of a sounding pit so called either from the clamours of men or beasts falling into it; or from the many waters which fall down into it, not without a great noise. I was not only upon the brink, but in the very bottom of the pit, i.e. in desperate dangers and calamities, as this phrase signifies, Psa 18:16 69:1,2 .

Out of the miry clay in which my feet stuck fast.

Upon a rock a place of strength and safety.

My goings or, my steps , i.e. kept me from stumbling or falling into mischief.

Poole: Psa 40:3

He hath put a new song in my mouth partly by giving me new matter or occasion for a song; and partly by inspiring me with the very words of it.

Shall see it i.e. shall observe God’ s wonderful mercies vouchsafed to me.

And fear i.e. shall stand in awe of that God, who by this instance they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy, and tremble at his judgments, and give him that reverence, and worship, and obedience which he requires. Yet their fear shall not drive them from God, or bring them into despair, but shall draw them to God, and be attended with trusting in God.

Poole: Psa 40:4

His trust i.e. his only trust or refuge, as appears from the following words: q.d. I said, many shall trust in the Lord ; and they shall not be losers by it, nor disappointed of their hope, but they are and shall be blessed.

Respecteth not Heb. looketh not towards , to wit, with love and delight, and desire to imitate them; or with confidence and expectation of relief from thence, as this phrase is oft used, as Psa 25:15 69:3 121:1 141:8 , and as the opposition of this clause to the foregoing seems to imply.

The proud or, the mighty , i.e. the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust, and in whom the psalmist forbids us to put our trust, Psa 146:3 .

Such as turn aside to wit, from God, in whom alone they ought to trust.

To lies i.e. 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 here, and Psa 4:2 62:9 Mic 1:14 , and elsewhere, because they promise more than they can perform. See also Psa 7:14 119:18 Hos 10:13 12:1 .

Poole: Psa 40:5

Thy wonderful works for which I and the rest of thy people, included in the pronoun plural us, have abundant cause to praise thee, and to trust in thee, as was said, Psa 40:3 ; and by which it will appear that he that trusteth in thee is in a most blessed and safe condition, as he said, Psa 40:4 . And this verse, wherein he passeth from the singular number to the plural, may seem 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 Messias, in the following verses.

Thy thoughts i.e. thy gracious counsels or contrivances.

To us-ward i.e. to me and to the rest of thy people, with whom David oft joins himself in this book. But these words may be, and are by some, joined to the following words, and the place thus rendered: It is not with us , or in our power , i.e. it passeth our skill, (and reach,) to order or to reckon them up in order unto thee, because indeed they are innumerable, and therefore cannot be digested into any order.

If I would declare so the particle if or when is wanting, and to be supplied here, as it is Psa 39:11 , and in many other places. Heb. yet I will declare and speak , to wit, some part of them; which accordingly he doth in the following verses.

They are more than can be numbered although I am not able to express or reckon them all.

Poole: Psa 40:6

These words may in an improper sense belong to the person and time of David; when God might be said not to desire or require legal sacrifices comparatively, as negative expressions are frequently understood, as Mat 9:13 1Co 1:17 , and in this very case of sacrifices, as Psa 51:16 Jer 7:22,23 Ho 6:6 . So the sense is, Thou didst desire obedience more or rather than sacrifices, as was said, 1Sa 15:22 . But in a proper and literal and full sense they belong only to the person and times of the Messias, in whose name David uttereth these words. And so the sense of the place is, God did not desire or require them for the satisfaction of his own justice, and the expiation of men’ s sins, which could not possibly be done by the blood of bulls or goats, as is said, Heb 10:4-6 ; but only by the blood of Christ, which was typified by them, and which Christ came into the world to shed, in pursuance of his Father’ s will, as it here follows, Psa 40:7,8 . So here is a prediction concerning the cessation and abolition of the legal sacrifices, and the substitution of a better instead of them.

Mine ears hast thou opened Heb. bored . The sense is either,

1. Whereas many men have no ears to hear, as is implied, Rev 2:7,11,17 , or stop their ears, as Psa 58:4 Zec 7:11 , thou hast given me open ears to hear and obey thy precepts, as this phrase is used, Isa 1:5 , although indeed there is another verb in that text, which much alters the case. Or,

2. I have wholly devoted myself to thy perpetual service, and thou hast accepted of me as such, and signified so much by the boring of mine ears , according to the law and custom in that case, Exo 21:5,6 De 15:17 . And whereas only one ear was then bored, and here it is ears , this may be either an ensilage of the plural number for the singular, whereof divers instances have been given; or else it may be so expressed emphatically, to intimate that Christ was more strictly obliged to a more universal obedience, not only active, to which the legal servants were bound, but passive also, to be obedient even unto the death, to which they were not obliged. The seventy Jewish interpreters, whom the apostle follows, Heb 10:5 , translate these words, a body hast thou prepared me ; wherein though the words differ, the sense is the same; for the ears suppose a body to whom they belong, and the preparing of a body implies the preparing Or disposing of the ears, and the obligation of the person for whom a body was prepared to serve him who prepared it; which the boring of the ear signifies.

Poole: Psa 40:7

Then when I understood and considered thy mind and will therein, expressed Psa 40:6 .

Said I either within myself, by a firm purpose; or unto thee by way of promise or engagement.

Lo, I come He may seem to speak like a servant, answering to the call of his master, and signifying his readiness to obey him; in which sense it may be accommodated to David. But the servant’ s answer is usually expressed in Scripture by another phrase, Here am I , and never to my remembrance in these words. Besides, this phrase in that sense seems not to be proper in this place, but rather, Lo, I hear , which best suits with the foregoing words, mine ears hast thou opened . But these words do most literally and truly belong to Christ, and the sense is this: Seeing thou requirest a better sacrifice than those of the law, lo, I do offer myself to come ; and I will in due time come , to wit, from heaven , or in the flesh , or into the world , as this phrase is more fully expressed and explained in divers places of Scripture, and particularly Heb 10:5 , where this place is explained and applied to Christ.

The two words volume and book are indifferently used

of any writing, and both words seem here to express the same thing, as may appear by comparing Jer 36 , where we have the very same words; and what is called the roll or volume of a book , Jer 36:2,4 , is called simply a roll or volume , Jer 36:6,20,21 , and the book , Jer 36:10,13 ; it being usual with the Hebrews to join two words together in like manner, of which we have an instance here above, Psa 40:2 , miry clay , Heb. clay of mire . Now this volume of the book, is meant , either,

1. Of the book of predestination, in which Christ was written, as being foreordained before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20 . But that is a secret book, not to be read by any man living, and therefore not fitly alleged as an evidence in this matter. Or,

2. Of a legal instrument, wherein the contract was drawn between God and him, wherein he did oblige himself to serve God, and to execute his will in all things; it being the manner of the Hebrews to write their contracts in a little volume or book . But,

1. We read of no such usage among the Hebrew in the contracts between master and servant, but only of the boring of the servant’ s ear, Exo 21:6 . So the foundation of this allusion is destroyed.

2. At least there was no such contract written between God and him. And if it be said that he only speaks thus by way of allusion, that is but a supposition without ground. And when the words may be properly understood as they sound, of a thing really done, why should we forsake the plain sense without necessity?

3. The phrase here used doth not agree to this sense; for then he should have said, I am written in the volume of the book , i.e. in the catalogue of thy servants; for in that case the persons or their names are constantly said to be written , as Exo 32:32,33 Ps 69:28 Dan 12:1 Luk 10:20 Heb 12:23 Rev 13:8 20:15 21:27 , and not any thing to be written of them, as it is here. Or,

3. Of the Holy Scriptures; in which something indeed was written concerning David; namely, that he was a man after God’ s own heart , 1Sa 13:14 . But it must be remembered that those books were not written till after David’ s death, in whose time here was no other book of Scripture extant but the five books of Moses, unless you will except the book of Job. And therefore this is meant of the law of Moses, which is commonly and emphatically called the book , and was made up in the form of a roll or volume, as the Hebrew books generally were. See Eze 3:1-3 Zec 5:1,2 Lu 4:17,20 . And so this place manifestly points to Christ, and must necessarily be understood of him, and of him only, concerning whom much is said in the books of Moses, as is evident from Luk 24:27,44 Joh 5:46 Act 3:22 26:22 28:23 . And this sense being plain, and natural, and unforced, and exactly agreeing both with the words and with the truth of the thing, and with the belief of all Christians, I see no reason why I may not acquiesce in it.

Poole: Psa 40:8

I delight to do thy will This, though in a general sense it may be true of David and of all God’ s people, yet if it be compared with the foregoing verse, and with the explication thereof in the New Testament, (in which those mysteries which were darkly and doubtfully expressed in the Old Testament are fully and clearly revealed,) must be appropriated to Christ, of whom it is eminently true, and is here observed as an act of heroical obedience, that he not only resolved to do, but delighted in doing, the will of God, or what God had commanded him and he had promised to do, which was to die, and that a most shameful, and painful, and cursed death. See Luk 12:50 Joh 10:18 Heb 10:9,10 .

Thy law is within my heart i.e. I do not only hear and understand it, but I receive it with heartiest love and affection, delighting both to meditate of it, and to yield obedience to it.

Poole: Psa 40:9

Righteousness to wit, thy righteousness , as it is expressed in the next verse, i.e. thy faithfulness, as it is there explained; or righteousness properly so called; for both were fully declared and demonstrated in Christ, the former in sending him into the world according to his promise, Act 13:23 , and the latter in inflicting death upon him for man’ s sin, Rom 3:25,26 . In the great congregation ; in the most public and solemn assemblies; not only to the Jews, but also to all other nations; to whom Christ preached by his apostles, as is observed, Eph 2:17.

I have not refrained my lips to wit, from preaching it, out of sloth, or fear, or self love, but have preached it publicly, and even to the face of mine enemies, though I knew my preaching would cost me my life.

Thou knowest I call thee to witness the truth of what I say.

Poole: Psa 40:10

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I had it there, Psa 40:8 , but I did not smother or shut it up there, but spread it abroad for thy glory, and the good of the world; which thou hast wrought both for me and by me.

Poole: Psa 40:11

This prayer is uttered by David, either,

1. In the person of Christ; to whom it may agree. Or,

2. In his own person. Having been transported and carried forth by the Spirit of God to the contemplation and commemoration of the great mystery of the Messias, of whom he was an illustrious type, now he seems to be led back by the same Spirit to the consideration of himself and his own particular case.

Poole: Psa 40:12

Mine iniquities either,

1. The punishment of mine iniquities, as Gen 4:13 1Sa 28:10 Psa 31:10 . Or,

2. The iniquities themselves. This phrase cannot be understood of Christ. For although our sins are said to be laid upon Christ , Isa 53 , and upon that account he is said to be made sin for us, 2Co 5:21 ; yet the Scripture every where represents him as one that never knew nor did any sin, as in that place, and 1Pe 2:22 , and elsewhere; and even when his punishment is described, yet it is expressly noted, that he did not suffer for himself, or for his own sins, but only for us, and for our sins, as Isa 53:4,5 Da 9:26 1Pe 2:24 . And therefore it is not probable that the Holy Ghost would use such an expression concerning the sinless Christ of God, as is never used in Scripture, but either of a man’ s own sins, or of the punishment deserved by his own sins.

Have taken hold upon me: men’ s sins are figuratively said to follow them, 1Ti 5:24 , and to find them out, Num 32:23 , and here to take hold of them , as a serjeant takes hold of a man whom he arrests.

To look up unto God or men, with any comfort and confidence; I am ashamed and confounded, by reason of my numberless sins. Or, so that I was not able to see ; either because he was as it were drowned or overwhelmed with his sins; or because his eyes did fail or were consumed through grief, as he complains, Psa 6:7 38:10 . Or he means that he could not foresee them; the simple verb being put for the compound, as it is frequently among the Hebrews. They came upon him unawares, and therefore were the more grievous to him. They , to wit, mine iniquities here mentioned, properly so called; for God’ s people are more apt to aggravate their sins than the punishments of them. See Ezr 9:13,14 .

Poole: Psa 40:13

Deliver me from my sins and the punishments due to them.

Poole: Psa 40:14

Let them be ashamed for the disappointment of their hopes and designs.

My soul i.e. my life, as Exo 4:9 1Sa 20:1 .

Poole: Psa 40:15

Desolate or amazed , or dismayed , or overthrown : of such imprecations I have spoken before.

Their shame i.e. their sinful and shameful actions, as shame is put for a shameful idol, Hos 9:10 , and as fear is oft put for the evil feared.

Poole: Psa 40:16

Such as love thy salvation either,

1. Such as desire and rejoice in the salvation and deliverance which thou givest to me and to others of thy people, which was a great eye-sore and grief to the wicked. Or,

2. Such as expect and seek for their salvation and happiness not from idols, nor from their wicked courses, nor from any creatures, as other men do, but from thee only, and gladly accept and embrace that salvation which thou hast promised, together with the conditions required to it, to wit, faith and repentance. Or,

3. Such as love thy Messias, upon whom both David’ s and other holy prophets’ and saints’ thoughts and affections were much fixed, as is evident from many places of Scripture, as Joh 8:58 Act 2:30,31 1Pe 1:10,11 ; who is called the desire of all nations , Hag 2:7 , and the glory and consolation of Israel , Luk 2:25,32 , yea, and by the very title here used, God’ s salvation , Isa 62:11 Luk 2:30 ; whose appearance or coming the godly of all ages did love and long for; and of whom David had so lately and clearly spoken, Psa 40:6,7 , &c.; all which considered, this cannot seem a forced or very far-fetched interpretation. The Lord be magnified : let them have continual occasion to magnify God for his mercies vouchsafed to them.

Haydock: Psa 40:2-3

Understandeth. Believing with eagerness, (Haydock) or reflecting seriously on Jesus Christ, (Berthier) who was pleased to be poor for our sakes. (Haydock) ---

And the poor, is not in the ancient Septuagint, (Eusebius) nor Hebrew, &c. But it only expresses the same idea as the word needy, (Berthier) being added to show the extreme misery to which our Saviour was reduced. (Haydock) ---

The Fathers explain the passage in this sense, though some would suppose, that David speaks of his own conduct, (Calmet) or of those who adhered to him in his distress, while most followed Absalom. (Flaminius) ---

Day of death or judgment. Happy the man, who makes the life of Christ his constant meditation, (Berthier) and endeavours to imitate his example, and divine charity! (Haydock) ---

The Church recites this psalm for the sick. Those who assist them may hope for similar treatment. But such as are not scandalized at Christ, on account of his poverty and afflictions, may be pronounced blessed, (Luke vii.23.) as He will deliver them from distress, if they place their confidence in Him. (Worthington) ---

The sick are relieved, when they think on Christ's sufferings. (Menochius) ---

Preserve. Hebrew, "will preserve....and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies." (Protestants) ---

But St. Jerome has, "and he will not," &c. (Haydock) ---

Sixtus V reads, "into the hands of his enemy," after St. Augustine, &c. Others add, "he will purify his soul from, or on the earth." (Calmet) ---

Our Lord will give to such servants more grace in this life, and glory in the next, nor will he suffer them to yield to temptation. (Worthington) ---

He will defend them and heal them, when sick. (Calmet)

Haydock: Psa 40:4

His bed. Literally, "on the bed of his sorrow." His, seems to have been formerly in Hebrew, (Houbigant) though it be now omitted, (Berthier) as it was in the time of Symmachus, "the bed of misery," (St. Jerome) of infirmity. ---

Thou hast. Hebrew, "thou wilt make." Protestants, "turn," (marginal note; Haydock) "change, or take away." In the east, the bed was removed entirely, (John v. 8.) and this expression may denote, (Calmet) that the sick man should be cured, and no longer be confined to his bed, (St. Chrysostom) or that God would take him by the hand, to support him, and turn his bed, like a tender mother, to make it more comfortable. (Genebrard) (Calmet) ---

When the just are sick unto death, Christ will give them greater consolation. (Worthington) ---

He will withdraw their affections from all terrestrial things, and remove whatever has been dangerous to them. (St. Gregory, Mor. xxiii. 15.) The ineffable name has been thrice repeated in these verses, to insinuate, that all good is wrought by the blessed Trinity. (Berthier)

Haydock: Psa 40:5

Thee. Christ prays for his members, acknowledging their sins, (Worthington) which he had undertaken to expiate. The Fathers explain this of his prayer in the garden. (Calmet) ---

Have we ever reflected on sin, which reduced the Lord of all, to such poverty and distress? (Berthier)

Haydock: Psa 40:6

Perish? When shall we have a change, and see Absalom ont he throne? When shall we get rid of this man, who reproves our conduct? So were the Jews animated to destroy Christ. (Theodoret) ---

The rest of the psalm more visibly relates to him. (Calmet) ---

His enemies were greatly disappointed. (Haydock) ---

For after they had put him to death, he rose again, and his name and kingdom became more glorious. (Worthington)

Haydock: Psa 40:7

If he, any one among my enemies. (Haydock) ---

The Scriptures often pass from the plural to the singular, (Berthier) to comprise every one distinctly. (Haydock) ---

Yet St. Augustine, &c., read "they came," &c., omitting if, as some of the Septuagint editions do likewise: though inaccurately, according to St. Jerome and Sun. (Calmet) ---

It occurs in the Roman copy, and Grabe inserts it in a smaller type. The sense is not altered. (Haydock) ---

The conspirators affected to shew David some marks of civility, to obtain their ends. The Jews often strove to entangle Jesus, by their questions, (Matthew xix. 3., and xxii. 17, 24., and John viii. 3.) while Judas continued in his company, to gratify his own avarice, and to betray him. (Calmet) ---

Such were their vain projects. (Haydock) ---

Those who came maliciously to hear Christ, blamed him as an enemy to the law, or as one who cast out devils by Beelzebub. (Worthington)

Haydock: Psa 40:8

To me, seems useless, though it be added conformably to the Hebrew, (Berthier) or rather it intimates, that the enemies made no secret of thier plots. (Haydock)

Haydock: Psa 40:9

Word of affecting the regal power, &c. (St. Ambrose) ---

No more? Jesus Christ speaks. They have unjustly condemned me: But can I not rise again? or the words may be put in the mouth of his enemies. Shall we have any thing to fear from the dead? If we were to confine him only, he might perhaps escape. (Calmet) ---

Hebrew, "an evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more." (Protestants) ---

"The word of the devil they poured out against themselves; he who hath slept, shall rise no more." (St. Jerome) ---

Yet lo may be explained, an non, "shall not he," &c. Septuagint have seen this insulting interrogation of the Jews who ridiculed what Christ had said of his future resurrection. (Berthier) ---

They determined to put him to death; but they could not prevent his glorious (Worthington) appearance again on the third day. (Haydock) ---

Those who explain this of David, say, that the sleep denotes a mortal illness, or a geievous fault, for which it was expected, that the king would die. (Kimchi; Munster, &c.)

Haydock: Psa 40:10

Bread. This characterizes the traitor, who had recieved the holy Communion, and had been intrusted with the purse by our Saviour, yet betrayed him with the sign of peace. (Calmet) ---

To violate the laws of hospitality was greatly resented by the very pagans. (Plutarch, Symp. vii. 4.) ---

Supplanted me, or kicked like a wild colt, as Plato complained that Aristotle had done, when he set up another school. (Haydock) Greek: Emas apelaktise. (Laertius, Elian iv. 9.) ---

David might allude to Absalom, though the Holy Ghost speaks of Judas. (Calmet) ---

Our Saviour himself says, (Worthington) that the Scriptures may be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel against me: Qui manducat mecum panem levabit contra me calcaneum suum: Greek: eperen ep eme ten pternan autou, "has lifted up," &c., as the Hebrew expresses it here. Judas had attempted to betray Christ already, and would do it more effectually hereafter; so that both the present and future might agree with him. We also find the psalm translated qui edebat panes meos, &c. But the difference is very small. (Haydock) ---

To lift up the heel, is the posture of one who attempts to supplant his adversary. (Menochius)

Haydock: Psa 40:11

Them. No one is ignorant of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the miserable condition of the Jews (Menochius) throughout the world. (Calmet) ---

Christ will render every one according to his deserts. (Worthington)

Haydock: Psa 40:12

Over me. Thus the divinity of Christ was proved, since he rose victorious, in spite of his enemies. (Calmet)

Haydock: Psa 40:13

Innocence. Jesus was the spotless lamb incapable of sin. He effaced it by his blood, and is therefore crowned with glory, Hebrews ii. 9., and Philippians ii. 9. (Calmet) ---

This innocence made him a fit victim for sin. (Worthington)

Haydock: Psa 40:14

So be it. Chaldean, "Amen." This word, at the beginning of a discourse, implies an affirmative oath; (Matthew vi. 13.) and at the end, it is a mark of approbation, Numbers v. 22. ---

Here the Jews terminate the first book of the psalms, which they divide into five. (Calmet) ---

St. Jerome rejects this division, as our Saviour mentions only the psalms, and the last psalm has no such conclusion. (Worthington) ---

It has Alleluia. All the rest have Amen. See Psalms lxxii., lxxxix., and cvi. (Hebrew) (Berthier) ---

The observations which have been made in this first part, will serve to explain many other passages, on which we shall therefore be shorter, as well as in specifying the variations from the original, which are for the most part only apparent, as the intelligent reader may be convinced, by the preceding remarks. (Haydock)

Gill: Psa 40:2

He brought me up also out of an horrible pit,.... Which, with the following phrase,

out of the miry clay, expresses the state and condition Christ was in at the time of his bloody sweat, his crucifixion, and his lying in "sheol", the pit or grave, sometimes rendered hell, which these figurative phrases fitly signify; when it is observed, that he was made sin, and had the sins of all his people on him; and, as the type of Joshua, was clothed with their filthy garments; he might be truly said to be in the miry clay; and also that he was made a curse for them, and bore the wrath of God in their room and stead; and was forsaken by his God and Father, and so endured both the punishment of loss and sense, and what was tantamount to the sufferings of the damned in hell; see Psa 69:1; to which may be added the noisy insults of malignant men, and the infernal fiends, who surrounded him on the cross; when he was in an horrible, or "noisy pit", as the words may be rendered ^k, the allusion being to subterraneous caverns or pits, in which the falls of water make so horrible a noise as is intolerable; or to deep pits, into which anything cast makes a great sound: and the issue of all this was, that he was laid in the pit of the grave, and held under the power and with the cords of death; from all which he was delivered when he was raised from the dead, justified in the Spirit, and glorified in the human nature by his God and Father;

and set my feet upon a rock; on Mount Zion in heaven, whither he was carried up after his resurrection; where he will remain until his second coming, being set down at the right hand of God, in a most stable, firm, and unalterable state, as well as an honourable one; for he will die no more, and death shall no more have dominion over him;

and established my goings; in treading the path of life, which was shown him at his resurrection; in passing through the air, the territory of Satan, at his ascension; and in his entrance into his glory, and making his way to his Father's right hand and throne.

Gill: Psa 40:3

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God,.... Sung by him in the midst of the great congregation of angels and saints, upon his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God; see Psa 22:22; when he went to his God and ours, to his Father and ours; and in which song he is joined by all his people above and below, Rev 5:9;

many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord; even all the elect of God, as many as are ordained to eternal life; the many whose sins Christ bore, for whom he became a ransom, whom he justifies and brings to glory: these all "see" him in the horrible pit and miry clay, in his state of humiliation, as bearing their sins, and the punishment due unto them; as wounded, bruised, and crucified; as rising again for their justification; and as on Mount Zion crowned with glory and honour; and a multitude of harpers with him, singing the new song; these see the salvation he has wrought out, the glory, fulness, and suitableness of it, and their interest in it; and they "fear" not with a fear of hell and damnation, which is inconsistent with the trust after mentioned; but with a godly and filial fear, which arises from and is encouraged by the grace and goodness of God, their faith in the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, and which render him a proper object of trust and confidence; for he is so both as suffering, crucified, and slain, and as risen again, and exalted at the Father's right hand, Gal 2:20.

Gill: Psa 40:4

Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust,.... For such are safe and secure in him, are possessed of all blessings of grace through him, have peace in their own souls now, and shall enjoy eternal happiness with him hereafter;

and respecteth not the proud; such as the Pharisees, and all self-righteous persons, who trust in themselves and their own righteousness, submit not to the righteousness of Christ, and despise others; to these such who trust in Christ have no respect; they neither esteem them, nor imitate them;

nor such as turn aside to lies; to idols, the lying vanities of the Gentiles; or to any doctrines injurious to the person, office, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and grace of Christ; which are no other than lies, and which those who believe in Christ have no respect to, but abhor both them and the abettors of them.

Gill: Psa 40:5

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,.... This is the "new song", as Aben Ezra rightly observes, which is said in Psa 40:3, to be put in the mouth of the Messiah; who sometimes speaks in the plural number, being the representative of his people, and sometimes in the singular; for it is the same person that speaks here who is continued speaking in Psa 40:6, and following; and which are applied to Christ, Heb 10:5; the "works" here said to be done, and to be "many" and "wonderful", are not the creation of the world, the dividing of the sea, and feeding the people of Israel forty years in the wilderness, as Jarchi interprets them; but the incarnation of Christ, redemption by him, the resurrection of him from the dead; regeneration and conversion, and the preservation of the saints from the evil of the world, safe to the kingdom and glory of God; all which, as they are many and various, and display the manifold wisdom and grace of God, so they are marvellous, and will be the subject of the wonder of saints to all eternity;

and thy thoughts which are to us-ward; that is, the decrees of God, as Aben Ezra truly explains them; the purposes, counsels, and intentions of God; which, though mentioned last, are before his works, and are the spring of them: these were in the mind of God from everlasting, were unknown till revealed, were thoughts of peace, and not of evil, and are unfrustrable, and ever fulfilled, and are manifold, precious, and amazing, Psa 139:17; and these were concerning all the elect of God as considered in Christ, and members of his; and therefore he says to us-ward; and all the works before mentioned were done to them, or for them, and on their account; and so Jarchi and Aben Ezra interpret the phrase, "because of us", or "for our sakes"; even the incarnation, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ, and the thoughts of them, were for them;

they cannot be reckoned up in order to thee; or "there is none can order them unto thee" ^l; there is no power in man to do it, as Aben Ezra observes; or "there is none like unto thee", as Jarchi and the Oriental versions; see Exo 15:11; though this sense seems to break in upon the account of the wonderful works and thoughts of God, which are still designed in the following clause;

if I could declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered; that is, by men: from this general account of, the many and wonderful works and thoughts of God, the Messiah passes on to take notice of one particular design and work of the Lord, the redemption of his people by the sacrifice of himself.

Gill: Psa 40:6

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire,.... These were desired, willed, and appointed by God, and that very early, even from the times of our first parents; and, when performed aright, were acceptable to God, quite down to the times of the Messiah: indeed, when offered without faith in Christ, and with a wicked mind, to merit any thing at the hand of God, they were always abominable to him; and he likewise ever preferred love to himself, and of the neighbour, obedience to the commands of the moral law, and works of mercy to men, before all the sacrifices of the ceremonial law, 1Sa 15:22; nor were these ever in such esteem with him as the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart, or of praise and thanksgiving, Psa 51:16; nor were they ever regarded by him but as they respected Christ; nor were they ever designed to cleanse from sin, and take it away, but to lead to the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ: but none of these senses have place here: the meaning of the words is, that it was not the will of God, at the time this passage refers to, that legal sacrifices should continue any longer; and that they should not be offered up, even by good men, in the best manner, and to the best ends and purposes; the time being come that a better sacrifice should be offered, which was the sum and substance of them, and was prefigured by them;

mine ears hast thou opened; or "dug", or "bored" ^m; in allusion, as is thought by many, to Exo 21:6; though the phrase rather signifies the formation and excavation of the ear; or the preparing and fitting it for its use; that is, to hearken to the will of his heavenly Father, to become man, offer himself a sacrifice, and suffer and die in the room of his people; to which he became obedient, taking upon him the form of a servant, when found in fashion as a man; and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; see Isa 50:4; in Heb 10:5, the words are rendered as by the Septuagint, "but a body hast thou prepared me"; and with it the Arabic and Ethiopic versions agree; and so Apollinarius,

"flesh of mortal generation;''

a part of the body being put for the whole; and which, indeed, is supposed: for unless a body had been prepared for him, his ears could not have been opened; and it was in the body, in human nature, that he was the obedient servant; and this is to be understood, not only of a preparation of this body, in the purposes, counsel, and covenant of God; but chiefly of the formation of it in the womb of the virgin, where it was curiously wrought and prepared by the Holy, Ghost, that he might have something to offer, and in it become, as he did, an offering and a sacrifice to God, of a sweet smelling savour;

burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required; any longer; this body being prepared for the Messiah to be offered up in.

Gill: Psa 40:7

Then said I,.... As in the council and covenant of peace, when and where he declared his willingness to come into the world, and make satisfaction for the sins of his people; so when the fulness of time was come for his appearance in human nature he repeated the same; for of the time of his coming into the world are these words interpreted, Heb 10:5; when sacrifice and offering God would not have any longer continued, and when a body was prepared him, then he said,

Lo, I come; O Father; as Apollinarius, in his metaphrase, adds; that is, freely, and without compulsion; immediately, at once, without any delay; and he himself, and not another; and this not by change of place, but by assumption of nature; taking the body, or human nature, prepared for him, and uniting it to himself; to which the word "lo" is prefixed as a note of attention and admiration; the incarnation of Christ being a wonderful affair, and of the utmost moment and importance;

in the volume of the book it is written of me; either in the book of divine predestination, in the purposes and decrees of God, Psa 139:16; or in the book of the Scriptures; either in general, Joh 5:39, Luk 24:27; or particularly in the book of the Psalms, Psa 1:1; or rather in the book of the law, the five books of Moses, since these were the only books or volumes that were composed at the writing of this psalm; and it has respect not to Deu 18:15; nor Deu 17:18; nor Exo 21:6; but rather Gen 3:15; and seeing the coming of Christ into the world was not only appointed of God, agreed unto by Christ, but was prophesied of, and penned down in the sacred writings; therefore at the appointed time he came, freely and willingly. This book is called a volume, or roll, alluding to the manner of writing formerly; when what was written was finished, it was rolled about a stick in the manner of a cylinder; and in this form is the book of the law with the Jews to this day; See Gill on Luk 4:17.

Gill: Psa 40:8

I delight to do thy will, O my God,.... This he came down from heaven to do, and this he did do, by preaching the Gospel, and working miracles; and above all by obtaining eternal redemption for his people, which he effected by fulfilling the law, becoming a sacrifice, and suffering and dying in their room; all which were the will of God, and grateful to him, and in doing which Christ took the utmost delight and pleasure, Joh 4:34;

yea, thy law is within my heart; either the whole moral law, under which he was, as man, and the surety of his people; and which was written upon his heart, and which he perfectly obeyed; or that particular law, injunction, and command laid upon him by his Father, to offer himself a sacrifice, and lay down his life for men; which he agreed to, had it in his mind, his heart was set upon it, and he cheerfully complied with it, Joh 10:18.

Gill: Psa 40:9

I have preached righteousness in the great congregation,.... Not the righteousness which the law requires men to do; but the righteousness which Christ himself wrought out, for the justification of them that believe; this he was a preacher, as well as the author of, and is part of the glad tidings he was anointed to preach, Isa 61:1; and the word ⁿ here used signifies, for the most part, the publishing of good tidings; and this our Lord did publicly, before all the people, in the synagogues of the Jews, and in the temple, whither the people in great numbers resorted; especially at the three great festivals in the year; the feasts of passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, when all the males were obliged to appear, and made up a great congregation indeed; see Joh 2:23;

lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest; Christ appeals to his divine Father, the searcher of hearts, and trier of reins, for the truth of this; that he had not laid any restraint upon his lips, nor kept back anything in his ministry that was profitable; but had taught the way of God in great integrity and sincerity; had opened his mouth, and spoke freely and fully, and used great plainness of speech.

Gill: Psa 40:10

I have not not hid thy righteousness within my heart,.... Meaning not the essential righteousness of God, though that was abundantly declared in the wounds, sufferings, and death of Christ; and which was the end indeed of his being a propitiation for sin, Rom 3:25; but his own righteousness, as before, which he wrought out, and brought in; and which is called the righteousness of God his Father, because it is approved of by him, and accepted with him, and which he imputes to all his people;

I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: trial is, the "faithfulness" of God in executing all his purposes, counsels, and decrees, which are said to be faithfulness and truth; and in fulfilling his covenant and promises, relating to the redemption and salvation of men by Christ; and in the mission of Christ into this world on that account; and in the accomplishment of all the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning him; and in making good all the particular promises of support, help, and strength, made to the Messiah himself: and by his "salvation" is meant, that which is of God the Father's appointing, continuing, and settling, in the council and covenant of grace; which he sent his Son to be the author of, and which he has obtained; and is the great doctrine of the Gospel preached by himself, and his faithful ministers, Luk 19:9;

I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation; or "in the great congregation", as the Targum. By the "lovingkindness" of God is designed both his love to Christ, which was before the foundation of the world, and continued in his lowest state of humiliation, and which our Lord was far from concealing, but gave openly instances of it, Joh 17:24; and this love to his people; and which he declared to be the same with that which he is loved with, and instances in the gift of himself to them by his Father, as the great evidence of it, Joh 17:23; and by "truth" is intended the Gospel in general, which came by Christ, was preached by him, which he bore witness to, to do which was one end of his coming into the world; and this was not concealed by him, who is truth itself; but was fully and plainly declared by him, as it had not been before, Joh 1:17.

Gill: Psa 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. Some read these words as expressive of faith in these things, "thou wilt not withhold", &c. "thy lovingkindness and thy truth shall continually preserve me" ^o.

Gill: Psa 40:12

For innumerable evils have compassed me about,.... Like floods of water all around him; see Psa 18:4; these are the evils of punishment inflicted on him, as the surety and Saviour of his people; such as the sorrows and griefs he bore all his days; the cruel mockings and scourges he endured; his being buffeted and spit upon; his head crowned with thorns, and his hands and feet pierced with nails; insulted by men and devils; crucified between two thieves, and so died the shameful and painful death of the cross;

mine iniquities have taken hold upon me; not any committed by him; he was conceived, born, and lived without sin, knew none, nor did he any; but the sins of his people, which were imputed to him, laid upon him, and which he voluntarily took and bore; and which he reckoned as his own and was responsible for them; these, when he hung upon the cross, came upon him from all quarters, and he bore them in his own body upon the tree;

so that I am not able to look up; or "cannot see" ^p; either the end of these iniquities, they being so numerous, as is after related; or he could not bear to look upon them, they were so filthy and nauseous, and he so pure and holy; or he could not behold his Father's countenance, which these sins that were upon him separated him from, and caused to be hid from him; or, like one pressed down with the guilt of sin, as the poor publican was, could not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, Luk 18:13;

they are more than the hairs of mine head; as they must needs be, since they were the iniquities of all the elect of God, of the whole general assembly ad church of the firstborn, written in heaven, Isa 53:6;

therefore my heart faileth me; as man; see Psa 22:14; though being supported by his divine nature, and by his divine Father and eternal Spirit, he failed not, nor was he discouraged, Isa 42:4; this is said to show the truth of the human nature, the greatness of men's sins, the strictness of divine justice, and what strength was necessary to accomplish man's salvation.

Gill: Psa 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.

Gill: Psa 40:14

Let them be ashamed and confounded together,.... As they will be at the last day, when they shall see him whom they have pierced come in the clouds of heaven, in his own and his Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels;

that seek after my soul to destroy it; that is, his life, as did Herod in his infancy, and the Scribes and Pharisees, chief priests and elders of the people of the Jews, frequently, and at last accomplished what they sought after;

let them be driven backward; as those were who came with Judas into the garden to apprehend him, Joh 18:6;

and put to shame that wish me evil: as did the Jews, who sought all opportunities to ensnare him, and that they might have to accuse him to the Roman governor; and who earnestly desired his crucifixion, and vehemently wished his death; see Psa 41:5.

Gill: Psa 40:15

Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame,.... Of their shameful wishes, words, and actions, as they were: their habitations in Jerusalem were desolate, and so was their house or temple there, and their whole land, and they themselves were stripped of everything, when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed; see Mat 23:38, Act 1:20;

that say unto me, Aha, aha; words expressive of joy, Psa 35:21, exulting at his miseries and sufferings on the cross, Mat 27:39; so the Targum,

"we have rejoiced at his destruction, with joy at his affliction.''

Gill: Psa 40:16

Let all those that seek thee,.... In the first place, with their whole hearts, earnestly and diligently, in Christ, and under the influences of his Spirit, for pardon, righteousness, communion, larger measures of grace, and for honour, glory, immortality, and eternal life;

rejoice and be glad in thee: as their covenant God, the Father of their mercies, the God of all comfort and salvation, who pardons their sins, clothes them with the robes of righteousness and garments of salvation, and accepts their persons in Christ; all which is matter of joy and gladness: Christ is concerned for the joy of his people, Joh 15:11; the Targum is, "they shall", or "let them rejoice, and be glad in thy word": in himself, the essential Word, in whom there is always ground and reason of joy and gladness; because of his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice;

let such as love thy salvation; either Christ, who is God's salvation, Gen 49:18; and who is loved by his people, universally, superlatively, and sincerely; or the salvation of him, his deliverance from the grave, resurrection from the dead, and exaltation; the benefits of which believers share in, and so have reason to love it: or the salvation he is the author of, which is loved by those that know it; partly because agreeable to the divine perfections, the glory of God is great in it; and partly because it is so full and complete in itself, and so suitable to them;

say continually, the Lord be magnified; let this be their constant employment in this world, as it will be for ever in the next, to ascribe greatness to God; or greatly to praise him, because of the great salvation wrought out for them.

Gill: Psa 40:17

But I am poor and needy,.... As Christ was literally, 2Co 8:9; and in a spiritual sense, when deserted by his Father, forsaken by his disciples, and surrounded by his enemies; and had the sins of his people, the curse of the law, and the wrath of God upon him;

yet the Lord thinketh upon me; thinketh good for me, as the Targum; or thinks highly of me; has me in great esteem though despised of men, and in such a suffering state;

thou art my help and my deliverer; he believed he should have what he prayed for, Psa 40:13; see Isa 50:7;

make no tarrying, O my God; which is a repetition of the request in Psa 40:13.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 40:2

¹ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

² tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

³ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

NET Notes: Psa 40:3

¹ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

² tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

³ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

NET Notes: Psa 40:4

¹ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

² tn Heb “man.” See the note on the word “one” in Ps 1:1.

³ tn Heb “who has made the Lord his [object of] trust.”

⁴ tn Heb “and does not turn toward.”

⁵ tn Heb “those falling away toward a lie.”

NET Notes: Psa 40:5

¹ tn Heb “many things you have done, you, O Lord my God, your amazing deeds and your thoughts toward us.” The precise meaning of the text is not clear, but the psalmist seems to be recalling the Lord’s miraculous deeds on Israel’s behalf (see Pss 9:1; 26:7), as well as his covenantal decrees and promises (see Ps 33:11).

² tn Heb “there is none arrayed against you.” The precise meaning of the text is unclear, but the collocation עָרַךְ אֶל (’arakh ’el, “array against”) is used elsewhere of military (Judg 20:30; 1 Chr 19:17) or verbal opposition (Job 32:14).

³ tn Heb “I will declare and I will speak, they are too numerous to recount.” The present translation assumes that the cohortatives are used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “Should I try to declare [them] and speak [of them]…” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortatives are part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.) Another option is to take the cohortatives as a declaration of the psalmist’s resolve to announce the truth expressed in the next line. In this case one might translate: “I will declare and speak [the truth]: They are too numerous to recount.”

NET Notes: Psa 40:6

¹ tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).

² tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.

NET Notes: Psa 40:7

¹ tn Heb “in the roll of the scroll it is written concerning me.” Apparently the psalmist refers to the law of God (see v. 8), which contains the commandments God desires him to obey. If this is a distinctly royal psalm, then the psalmist/king may be referring specifically to the regulations of kingship prescribed in Deut 17:14-20. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 315.

NET Notes: Psa 40:8

¹ tn Or “your will.”

² tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.

NET Notes: Psa 40:9

¹ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Pss 22:25 and 35:18.

² tn Heb “I proclaim justice in the great assembly.” Though “justice” appears without a pronoun here, the Lord’s just acts are in view (see v. 10). His “justice” (צֶדֶק, tsedeq) is here the deliverance that originates in his justice; he protects and vindicates the one whose cause is just.

³ tn Heb “Look! My lips I do not restrain.”

NET Notes: Psa 40:10

¹ tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”

² tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”

NET Notes: Psa 40:11

¹ tn Some (cf. NIV, NRSV) translate the verb as a request (“do not withhold”), but elsewhere in the psalms the second masculine singular prefixed form, when addressed to God and preceded by לֹא (lo’), is always indicative in mood and never has the force of a prayer (see Pss 16:10; 22:2; 44:9 51:16-17; 60:10; 108:11; cf. NEB, NASB).

² tn In this line the psalmist makes the transition from confidence to petition (see v. 13). Since the prefixed verbal form in the preceding line is imperfect/indicative, one could take the verb in this line as imperfect as well and translate, “your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me” (cf. NEB). However, the כִּי (ki) at the beginning of the next verse, if causal (“because”), is best understood as introducing a motivating argument in support of a petition. For this reason v. 11b is best taken as a prayer with the prefixed form being understood as jussive (cf. NIV, NRSV). For parallels to the proposed construction (jussive followed by כִּי + perfect introducing motivating argument), see Ps 25:21, as well as Pss 10:2-3; 22:8.

NET Notes: Psa 40:12

¹ tn Or “sinful deeds.” The Hebrew term used here can have a nonmoral nuance (“dangers”) or a moral one (“sinful deeds”) depending on the context. The next line (see “my sins”) seems to favor the moral sense, but the psalmist also speaks of enemies shortly after this (v. 14).

² tn Heb “and my heart abandons me.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of emotional strength and courage. For a similar idea see Ps 38:10.

NET Notes: Psa 40:13

¹ tn Heb “hurry to my help.” See Pss 22:19; 38:22.

NET Notes: Psa 40:14

¹ tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed together, the ones seeking my life to snatch it away.”

² tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse (“may those…be…embarrassed and ashamed…may those…be turned back and ashamed”) are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies.

sn See Ps 35:4 for a similar prayer.

NET Notes: Psa 40:15

¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive in this imprecation.

² tn Heb “May they be humiliated according to their shame, those who say to me, ‘Aha! Aha!’”

NET Notes: Psa 40:16

¹ tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by the Lord.

² tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing upon the godly.

³ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the Lord be magnified [in praise].” Another option is to take the verb as an imperfect, “the Lord is great” (cf. NRSV). See Ps 35:27.

NET Notes: Psa 40:17

¹ sn See Pss 35:10; 37:14.

² tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a jussive of prayer (as in the present translation; cf. NIV) or as an imperfect, “The Lord will pay attention to me” (cf. NRSV). The parallel in Ps 70:5 has, “O God, hurry to me!” For this reason some prefer to emend יַחֲשָׁב (yakhashav, “may he pay attention”) to חוּשָׁה (khushah, “hurry!”). The syntax of the Hebrew text is awkward; elsewhere when the Qal of חָשַׁב (khashav, “reckon; consider”) is collocated with the preposition -ל (lamed) and a pronominal suffix there is an accompanying direct object or additional prepositional phrase/adverbial accusative (see Gen 15:6; 2 Sam 19:19; Job 13:24; 19:11; 33:10; Pss 32:2; 41:7; Amos 6:5).

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:2

He brought me up also out of an ^{( b )} horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings.

^{( b )} He has delivered me from great dangers.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:3

And he hath put ^{( c )} a new song in my mouth, [even] praise unto our God: many shall see [it], and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

^{( c )} That is, a special opportunity to praise him, for God's benefits are so many opportunities for us to praise his Name.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:4

Blessed [is] that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth ^{( d )} not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

^{( d )} To follow their example, which he must do who trusts not only in the Lord.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:5

Many, ^{( e )} O LORD my God, [are] thy wonderful works [which] thou hast done, and thy thoughts [which are] to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: [if] I would declare and speak [of them], they are more than can be numbered.

^{( e )} David goes from one king of God's favour to the contemplation of his providence over all, and confesses that his counsels toward us are far above our capacities, we cannot so much as tell them in order.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:6

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; ^{( f )} mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

^{( f )} You have opened my ears to understand the spiritual meaning of the sacrifices: and here David esteems the ceremonies of the law as nothing in respect to the spiritual service.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:7

^{( g )} Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me,

^{( g )} When you had opened my ears and heart, I was ready to obey you, being assured that I was written in the book of your elect for this end.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:9

I have preached righteousness in the ^{( h )} great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

^{( h )} In the Church assembled in the sanctuary.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:10

I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy ^{( i )} faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

^{( i )} David here numbers three degrees of our salvation: God's mercy, by which he pities us, his righteousness which signifies his continual protection and his truth, by which appears his constant favour, so that from this our salvation proceeds.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:12

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 ^{( k )} faileth me.

^{( k )} Concerning the judgment of the flesh, I was utterly destitute of all counsel, yet faith inwardly moved my heart to pray.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:14

Let them be ^{( l )} 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.

^{( l )} He desires that God's mercy may contend for him against the rage of his enemies.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:15

Let them be ^{( m )} desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

^{( m )} Let the same shame and confusion come on them, which they intended to have brought on me.

Geneva Bible: Psa 40:16

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, ^{( n )} The LORD be magnified.

^{( n )} As the faithful always praise God for his benefits, so the wicked mocked God's children in their afflictions.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Psa 40:1-17

1 The benefit of confidence in God.

6 Obedience is the best sacrifice.

11 The sense of David's evils inflames his prayer.

Maclaren: Psa 40:4-11

Two Innumerable Series

Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 12. 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.'--Psalms 40:5-12.

So then, there are two series of things which cannot be numbered, God's mercies, man's sins. This psalm has for its burden a cry for deliverance; but the Psalmist begins where it is very hard for a struggling man to begin, but where we always should begin, with grateful remembrance of God's mercy. His wondrous dealings seem to the Psalmist's thankful heart as numberless as the blades of grass which carpet the fields, or as the wavelets which glance in the moonlight and break in silver upon the sand. They come pouring out continuously, like the innumerable undulations of the ether which make upon the eyeballs the single sensation of light. He thinks not only of God's wonderful works, His realised purposes of mercy, but of His thoughts which are to us-ward,' the purposes, still more wonderful, of a yet greater mercy which wait to be realised. He thinks not only of God's lovingkindness to Him, but his contemplations embrace God's goodness to his brethren--Thy thoughts which are to us-ward.' And as he thinks of all this multitude of His tender mercies,' his lips break into this rapturous exclamation of my text.

But there is a wonderful change in tone, in the two halves of the psalm. The deliverance that seems so complete in the earlier part is but partial. The triumph and the trust seem both to be clouded over. A frowning mass lifts itself up against the immense mass of God's mercies. The Psalmist sees himself ringed about by numberless evils, as a man tied to a stake might be by a circle of fire. Innumerable evils have compassed me about.' His conscience tells him that the evils are deserved; they are his iniquities transformed which have come back to him in another shape, and have laid their hands upon him as a constable does upon a thief. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon toe'--they hem him in so that his vision is interrupted, the smoke from the circle of flame blinds his eyes--I cannot see.' His roused conscience and his quivering heart conceive of them as more than the hairs of his head,' and so courage and confidence have ebbed away from him. My heart faileth me ,' and there is nothing left for him but to fling himself in his misery out of himself and on to God.

Now what I wish to do in this sermon is not so much to deal with these two verses separately as to draw some of the lessons from the very remarkable juxtaposition of these two innumerable things--God's tender mercies, and man's iniquity and evil.

I. To Begin With, Let Me Remind You How, If We Keep These Two Things Both Together In Our Contemplations, They Suggest For Us Very Forcibly The Greatest Mystery In The Universe, And Throw A Little Light Upon It.

The difficulty of difficulties, the one insoluble problem is, given a good and perfect God, where does sorrow come from, and why is there any pain? Men have fumbled at that knot for all the years that there have been men in the world, and they have not untied it yet. They have tried to cut it and it has resisted all their knives and all their ingenuity. And there the question stands before us, grim, insoluble, the despair of all thinkers and often the torture of our own hearts, in the hours of our personal experience. Is it true that God's mercies are innumerable'? If it be, what is the meaning of all this that makes me writhe and weep? Nobody has answered that question, and nobody ever will.

Only let us beware of the temptation of blinking half of the facts by reason of the clearness of our confidence or the depth of our feeling of the other half. That is always our temptation. You must have had a singularly unruffled life if there has never come to you some moment when, in the depth of your agony, you have ground your teeth together, as you said to yourself, Is there a God then at all? And does He care for me at all? And can He help me at all? And if there is, why in the name of pity does He not?'

Well, my brother! when such moments come to us, and they come to us all sooner or later--and I was going to add a parenthesis, which you will think strange, and say that they come to us all sooner or later, blessed be God!--when such moments come to us, do not let the black mass hide the light one from you, but copy this Psalmist, and in the energy of your faith, even though it be the extremity of your pain, grasp and grip them both; and though you have to say and to wail: Innumerable evils have compassed me about,' be sure that you do not let that prevent you from saying, Many, O Lord my God! are Thy wonderful works which are to us-ward. They are more than can be numbered.'

I do not enter upon this as a mere matter of philosophical speculation. It is far too serious and important a matter to be so dealt with, in a pulpit at any rate, but I would also add in one sentence that the mere thinker, who looks at the question solely from an intellectual point of view, has need to take the lesson of my two texts, and to be sure that he keeps clear before him both halves of the facts--though they seem to be as unlike each other as the eclipsed and the uneclipsed silver half of the moon--with which he has to deal.

Remember, the one does not contradict the other; but let us ask ourselves if the one does not explain the other. If it be that these mercies are so innumerable as my first text says, may it not be that they go deep down beneath, and include in their number, the experience that seems most opposite to them, even the sorrow that afflicts our lives? Must it not be, that the innumerable sum of God's mercies has not to have subtracted from it, but has to have added to it, the sum which also at intervals appears to us innumerable, of our sorrows and our burdens? Perhaps the explanation does not go to the bottom of the bottomless, but it goes a long way down towards it. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth' makes a bridge across the gulf which seems to part the opposing cliffs, these two sets effect, and turn the darker into a form in which the brighter reveals itself. All things work together for good.' And God's innumerable mercies include the whole sum total of my sorrows.

II. So, Again, Notice How The Blending Of These Two Thoughts Together Heightens The Impression Of Each.

All artists, and all other people know the power of contrast. White never looks so white as when it is relieved against black; black never so intense as when it is relieved against white. A white flower in the twilight gleams out in spectral distinctness, paler and fairer than it looked in the blazing sunshine. So, if we take and put these two things together--the dark mass of man's miseries and the radiant brightness of God's mercies, each heightens the colour of the other.

Only, let me observe, as I have already suggested that, in the second of my two texts, whilst the Psalmist starts from the innumerable evils' that have compassed him about, he passes from these to the earlier evils which he had done. It is pain that says, Innumerable evils have compassed me about.' It is conscience that says, Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.' His wrong-doing has come back to him like the boomerang that the Australian savage throws, which may strike its aim but returns to the hand that flung it. It has come back in the shape of a sorrow. And so Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me' is the deepening of the earliest word of my text. Therefore, I am not reading a double meaning into it, but the double meaning is in it when I see here a reference both to a man's manifold sorrows and to a man's multiplied transgressions. Taking the latter into consideration, the contrast between these two heightens both of them.

God's mercies never seem so fair, so wonderful, as when they are looked at in conjunction with man's sin. Man's sin never seems so foul and hideous as when it is looked at close against God's mercies. You cannot estimate the conduct of one of two parties to a transaction unless you have the conduct of the other before you. You cannot understand a father's love unless you take into account the prodigal son's sullen unthankfulness, or his unthankfulness without remembering his father's love. You cannot estimate the clemency of a patient monarch unless you know the blackness and persistency of the treason of his rebellious subjects, nor their treason, except when seen in connection with his clemency. You cannot estimate the long-suffering of a friend unless you know the crimes against friendship of which his friend has been guilty, nor the blackness of his treachery without the knowledge of the other's loyalty to him. So we do not see the radiant brightness of God's loving-kindness to us until we look at it from the depth of the darkness of our own sin. The stars are seen from the bottom of the well. The loving-kindness of God becomes wonderful when we think of the sort of people on whom it has been lavished. And my evil is never apprehended in its true hideousness until I have set it black and ugly, but searched through and through, and revealed in every deformed outline, and in every hideous lineament, by the light against which I see it. You must take both in order to understand either.

And not only so, but actually these two opposites, which are ever warring with one another in a duel, most merciful, patient, and long-suffering on His part--these two elements do intensify one another, not only in our estimation but in reality. For it is man's sin that has drawn out the deepest and most wonderful tenderness of the divine heart; and it is God's love partly recognised and rejected, which leads men to the darkest evil. Man's sin has heightened God's love to this climax and consummation of all tenderness, that He has sent us His Son. And God's love thus heightened has darkened and deepened man's sin. God's chiefest gift is His Son Man's darkest sin is the rejection of Christ. The clearest light makes the blackest shadow, the tenderer the love, the more criminal the apathy and selfishness which oppose it.

My brother! let us put these two great things together, and learn how the sin heightens the love, and how the love aggravates the sin.

III. That Leads Me To Another Point, That The Keeping Of These Two Thoughts Together Should Lead Us All To Conscious Penitence.

The Psalmist's words are not the mere complaint of a soul in affliction, but they are also the acknowledgment of a conscience repenting. The contemplation of these two numberless series should affect us all in like manner.

Now there is a superficial kind of popular religion which has a great deal to say about the first of these texts; and very little or next to nothing about the second. It is a very defective kind of religion that says:--Many, O Lord my God! are Thy thoughts which are to us-ward,' but has never been down on its knees with the confession Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me.' But defective as it is, it is all the religion which many people have, and I doubt not, some of my hearers have no more. I would press on you all this truth, that there is no deep personal religion without a deep consciousness of personal transgression. Have you got that, my brother? Have you ever had it? Have you ever known what it is so to look at God's love that it smites you into tears of repentance when you think of the way you have requited Him? If you have not, I do not think the sense of God's love has gone very deep into you, notwithstanding all that you say; and sure I am that you have never got to the point where you can understand it most clearly and most deeply. The sense of sin, the consciousness of personal demerit, the feeling that I have gone against Him and His loving law,--that is as important and as essential an element in all deep personal religion as the clear and thankful apprehension of the love of God. Nay, more; there never has been and there never will be in a man's heart, a worthy adequate apprehension of, and response to, the wonderful love of God, except it be accompanied with a sense of sin. I, therefore, urge this upon you that, for the vigour of your own personal religion, you must keep these two things well together. Beware of such a shallow, easy-going, matter-of-course, taking for granted God's infinite love, that it makes you think very little of your own sins against that love.

And remember, on the other hand, that the only way, or at least by far the surest way, to learn the depth and the darkness of my own transgression is by bringing my heart under the influence of that great love of God in Jesus Christ. It is not preaching hell that will break a man's heart down into true repentance. It is not thundering over him with the terrors of law and trying to prick his conscience that will bring him to a deep real knowledge of his sin. These may be subordinate and auxiliary, but the real power that convinces of sin is the love of God. The one light which illuminates the dark recesses of one's own heart, and makes us feel how dark they are, and how full of creeping unclean things, is the light of the love of God that shines in Jesus Christ, the light that shines from the Cross of Calvary. Oh, dear friends! if we are ever to know the greatness of God's love we must feel our personal sin which that great love has forgiven and purged away, and if we are ever to know the depth of our own evil, we must measure it by His wonderful tenderness. We must set our sins in the light of His countenance,' and contrast that supreme sacrifice with our own selfish loveless lives, that the contrast may subdue us to penitence and melt us to tears.

IV. Lastly, Looking At These Two Numberless Series Together Will Bring Into The Deepest Penitence A Joyful Confidence.

There are regions of experience the very opposite of that error of which I have just been speaking. There are some of us, perhaps, who have so profound a sense of their own shortcomings and sins that the mists rising from these have blurred the sky to us and shut out the sun. Some of you, perhaps, may be saying to yourselves that you cannot get hold of God's love because your sin seems to you to be so great, or may be saying to yourselves that it is impossible that you should ever get the victory over this evil of yours, because it has laid hold upon you with so tight a grasp. If there be in any heart listening to me now any inclination to doubt the infinite love of God, or the infinite possibility of cleansing from all sin, let me come with the simple word, Bind these two texts together, and never so look at your own evil as to lose sight of the infinite mercy of God. It is safe to say--ay! it is blessed to say--Mine iniquities are more than the hairs of mine head,' when we can also say, Thy thoughts to me are more than can be numbered.'

There are not two innumerable series, there is only one. There is a limit and a number to my sins and to yours, but God's mercies are properly numberless. They overlap all our sins, they stretch beyond our sins in all dimensions. They go beneath them, they encompass them, and they will thin them away and cause them to disappear. My sins may be many, God's mercies are more. My sins may be inveterate, God's mercy is from everlasting. My sins may be strong, God's mercy is omnipotent. My sins may seem to have laid upon me,' God can rescue me from their grip. They are a film on the surface of the deep ocean of His love. My sins may be as the sand which is by the seashore, innumerable, the love of God in Jesus Christ is like the great sea which rolls over the sands and buries them. My sins may rise mountains high, but His mercies are a great deep which will cover the mountains to their very summit. Ah! my sin is enormous, God's mercy is inexhaustible. With Thee is plenteous redemption, and He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.'

MHCC: Psa 40:1-5

Doubts and fears about the eternal state, are a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God. There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough to help the unworthiest of all that trust in him. The psalmist waited patiently; he continued believing, hoping, and praying. This is applicable to Christ. His agony, in the garden and on the cross, was a horrible pit and miry clay. But those that wait patiently for God do not wait in vain. Those that have been under religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply Psa 40:2 very feelingly to themselves; they are brought up out of a horrible pit. Christ is the Rock on which a poor soul can alone stand fast. Where God has given stedfast hope, he expects there should be a steady, regular walk and conduct. God filled the psalmist with joy, as well as peace in believing. Multitudes, by faith beholding the sufferings and glory of Christ, have learned to fear the justice and trust in the mercy of God through Him. Many are the benefits with which we are daily loaded, both by the providence and by the grace of God.

MHCC: Psa 40:6-10

The psalmist foretells that work of wonder, redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God, and that grace to man, which it was impossible the sacrifices should ever do. Observe the setting apart of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator. In the volume, or roll, of the book it was written of him. In the close rolls of the Divine decrees and counsel, the covenant of redemption was recorded. Also, in all the volumes of the Old Testament something was written of him, Joh 19:28. Now the purchase of our salvation is made, the proclamation is sent forth, calling us to come and accept it. It was preached freely and openly. Whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ, would be under great temptation to conceal it; but Christ, and those he calls to that work, are carried on in it. May we believe his testimony, trust his promise, and submit to his authority.

MHCC: Psa 40:11-17

The best saints see themselves undone, unless continually preserved by the grace of God. But see the frightful view the psalmist had of sin. This made the discovery of a Redeemer so welcome. In all his reflections upon each step of his life, he discovered something amiss. The sight and sense of our sins in their own colours, must distract us, if we have not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. If Christ has triumphed over our spiritual enemies, then we, through him, shall be more than conquerors. This may encourage all that seek God and love his salvation, to rejoice in him, and to praise him. No griefs nor poverty can render those miserable who fear the Lord. Their God, and all that he has or does, is the ground of their joy. The prayer of faith can unlock his fulness, which is adapted to all their wants. The promises are sure, the moment of fulfilment hastens forward. He who once came in great humility, shall come again in glorious majesty.

Matthew Henry: Psa 40:1-5

In these verses we have,

I. The great distress and trouble that the psalmist had been in. He had been plunged into a horrible pit and into miry clay (Psa 40:2), out of which he could not work himself, and in which he found himself sinking yet further. He says nothing here either of the sickness of his body or the insults of his enemies, and therefore we have reason to think it was some inward disquiet and perplexity of spirit that was now his greatest grievance. Despondency of spirit under the sense of Gods withdrawings, and prevailing doubts and fears about the eternal state, are indeed a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God.

II. His humble attendance upon God and his believing expectations from him in those depths: I waited patiently for the Lord, Psa 40:1 . Waiting, I waited. He expected relief from no other than from God; the same hand that tears must heal, that smites must bind up (Hos 6:1), or it will never be done. From God he expected relief, and he was big with expectation, not doubting but it would come in due time. There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough in God to help the unworthiest, of all his people that trust in him. But he waited patiently, which intimates that the relief did not come quickly; yet he doubted not but it would come, and resolved to continue believing, and hoping, and praying, till it did come. Those whose expectation is from God may wait with assurance, but must wait with patience. Now this is very applicable to Christ. His agony, both in the garden and on the cross, was the same continued, and it was a horrible pit and miry clay. Then was his soul troubled and exceedingly sorrowful; but then he prayed, Father, glorify thy name; Father, save me; then he kept hold of his relation to his Father, "My God, my God,"and thus waited patiently for him.

III. His comfortable experience of God's goodness to him in his distress, which he records for the honour of God and his own and others' encouragement.

1. God answered his prayers: He inclined unto me and heard my cry. Those that wait patiently for God, though they may wait long, do not wait in vain. Our Lord Jesus was heard in that he feared, Heb 5:7. Nay, he was sure that the Father heard him always.

2. He silenced his fears, and stilled the tumult of his spirits, and gave him a settled peace of conscience (Psa 40:2): "He brought me up out of that horrible pit of despondency and despair, scattered the clouds, and shone brightly upon my soul, with the assurances of his favour; and not only so, but set my feet upon a rock and established my goings. "Those that have been under the prevalency of a religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply this very feelingly to themselves; they are brought up out of a horrible pit. (1.) The mercy is completed by the setting of their feet upon a rock, where they find firm footing, are as much elevated with the hopes of heaven as they were before cast down with the fears of hell. Christ is the rock on which a poor soul may stand fast, and on whose meditation alone between us and God we can build any solid hopes or satisfaction. (2.) It is continued in the establishment of their goings. Where God has given a stedfast hope he expects there should be a steady regular conversation; and, if that be the blessed fruit of it, we have reason to acknowledge, with abundance of thankfulness, the riches and power of his grace.

3. He filled him with joy, as well as peace, in believing: " He has put a new song in my mouth; he has given me cause to rejoice and a heart to rejoice."He was brought, as it were, into a new world, and that filled his mouth with a new song, even praise to our God; for to his praise and glory must all our songs be sung. Fresh mercies, especially such as we never before received, call for new songs. This is applicable to our Lord Jesus in his reception to paradise, his resurrection from the grave, and his exaltation to the joy and glory set before him; he was brought out of the horrible pit, set upon a rock, and had a new song put into his mouth.

IV. The good improvement that should be made of this instance of God's goodness to David.

1. David's experience would be an encouragement to many to hope in God, and, for that end, he leaves it here upon record: Many shall see, and fear, and trust in the Lord. They shall fear the Lord and his justice, which brought David, and the Son of David, into that horrible pit, and shall say, If this be done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry? They shall fear the Lord and his goodness, in filling the mouth of David, and the Son of David, with new songs of joy and praise. There is a holy reverent fear of God, which is not only consistent with, but the foundation of, our hope in him. They shall not fear him and shun him, but fear him and trust in him in their greatest straits, not doubting but to find him as able and ready to help as David did in his distress. God's dealings with our Lord Jesus are our great encouragement to trust in God; when it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief for our sins, he demanded our debt from him; and when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand, he made it to appear that he had accepted the payment he made and was satisfied with it; and what greater encouragement can we have to fear and worship God and to trust in him?. See Rom 4:25; Rom 5:1, Rom 5:2. The psalmist invites others to make God their hope, as he did, by pronouncing those happy that do so (Psa 40:4): " Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust, and him only (that has great and good thoughts of him, and is entirely devoted to him), and respects not the proud, does not do as those do that trust in themselves, nor depends upon those who proudly encourage others to trust in them; for both the one and the other turn aside to lies, as indeed all those do that turn aside from God."This is applicable, particularly, to our faith in Christ. Blessed are those that trust in him, and in his righteousness alone, and respect not the proud Pharisees, that set up their own righteousness in competition with that, that will not be governed by their dictates, nor turn aside to lies, with the unbelieving Jews, who submit not to the righteousness of God, Rom 10:3. Blessed are those that escape this temptation.

2. The joyful sense he had of this mercy led him to observe, with thankfulness, the many other favours he had received from God, Psa 40:5. When God puts new songs into our mouth we must not forget our former songs, but repeat them: " Many, O Lord my God! are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, both for me and others; this is but one of many."Many are the benefits with which we are daily loaded both by the providence and by the grace of God. (1.) They are his works, not only the gifts of his bounty, but the operations of his power. He works for us, he works in us, and thus he favours us with matter, not only for thanks, but for praise. (2.) They are his wonderful works, the contrivance of them admirable, his condescension to us in bestowing them upon us admirable; eternity itself will be short enough to be spent in the admiration of them. (3.) All his wonderful works are the product of his thoughts to us-ward. He does all according to the counsel of his own will (Eph 1:11), the purposes of his grace which he purposed in himself, Eph 3:11. They are the projects of infinite wisdom, the designs of everlasting love (1Co 2:7, Jer 31:3), thoughts of good and not of evil, Jer 29:11. His gifts and callings will therefore be without repentance, because they are not sudden resolves, but the result of his thoughts, his many thoughts, to us-ward. (4.) They are innumerable; they cannot be methodized or reckoned up in order. There is an order in all God's works, but there are so many that present themselves to our view at once that we know not where to begin nor which to name next; the order of them, and their natural references and dependencies, and how the links of the golden chain are joined, are a mystery to us, and what we shall not be able to account for till the veil be rent and the mystery of God finished. Nor can they be counted, not the very heads of them. When we have said the most we can of the wonders of divine love to us we must conclude with an et caetera - and such like, and adore the depth, despairing to find the bottom.

Matthew Henry: Psa 40:6-10

The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretel that work of wonder which excels all the rest and is the foundation and fountain of all, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which were to us-ward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, the most gracious, and therefore to be most admired. This paragraph is quoted by the apostle (Heb 10:5, etc.) and applied to Christ and his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions, of the Old Testament saints were aware of; and, when the apostle would show us the Redeemer's voluntary undertaking of his work, he does not fetch his account out of the book of God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. Observe,

I. The utter insufficiency of the legal sacrifices to atone for sin in order to our peace with God and our happiness in him: Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; thou wouldst not have the Redeemer to offer them. Something he must have to offer, but not these (Heb 8:3); therefore he must not be of the house of Aaron, Heb 7:14. Or, In the days of the Messiah burnt-offering and sin-offering will be no longer required, but all those ceremonial institutions will be abolished. But that is not all: even while the law concerning them was in full force it might be said, God did not desire them, nor accept them, for their own sake. They could not take away the guilt of sin by satisfying God's justice. The life of a sheep, which is so much inferior in value to that of a man (Mat 12:12), could not pretend to be an equivalent, much less an expedient to preserve the honour of God's government and laws and repair the injury done to that honour by the sin of man. They could not take away the terror of sin by pacifying the conscience, nor the power of sin by sanctifying the nature; it was impossible, Heb 9:9; Heb 10:1-4. What there was in them that was valuable resulted from their reference to Jesus Christ, of whom they were types - shadows indeed, but shadows of good things to come, and trials of the faith and obedience of God's people, of their obedience of God's people, of their obedience to the law and their faith in the gospel. But the substance must come, which is Christ, who must bring that glory to God and that grace to man which it was impossible those sacrifices should ever do.

II. The designation of our Lord Jesus to the work and office of Mediator: My ears hast thou opened. God the Father disposed him to the undertaking (Isa 50:5, Isa 50:6) and then obliged him to go through with it. My ear hast thou digged. It is supposed to allude to the law and custom of binding servants to serve for ever by boring their ear to the doorpost; see Exo 21:6. Our Lord Jesus was so in love with his undertaking that he would not go out free from it, and therefore engaged to persevere for ever in it; and for this reason he is able to save us to the uttermost, because he has engaged to serve his Father to the uttermost, who upholds him in it, Isa 42:1.

III. His own voluntary consent to this undertaking: " Then said I, Lo, I come; then, when sacrifice and offering would not do, rather than the work should be undone; I said, Lo, I come, to enter the lists with the powers of darkness, and to advance the interests of God's glory and kingdom."This intimates three things: - 1. That he freely offered himself to this service, to which he was under no obligation at all prior to his own voluntary engagement. It was no sooner proposed to him than, with the greatest cheerfulness, he consented to it, and was wonderfully well pleased with the undertaking. Had he not been perfectly voluntary in it, he could not have been a surety, he could not have been a sacrifice; for it is by this will (this animus offerentis - mind of the offerer ) that we are sanctified, Heb 10:10. 2. That he firmly obliged himself to it: "I come; I promise to come in the fulness of time."And therefore the apostle says, "It was when he came into the world that he had an actual regard to this promise, by which he had engaged his heart to approach unto God. "He thus entered into bonds, not only to show the greatness of his love, but because he was to have the honour of his undertaking before he had fully performed it. Though the price was not paid, it was secured to be paid, so that he was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 3. That he frankly owned himself engaged: He said, Lo, I come, said it all along to the Old Testament saints, who therefore knew him by the title of ho erchomenos - He that should come. This word was the foundation on which they built their faith and hope, and which they looked and longed for the accomplishment of.

IV. The reason why he came, in pursuance of his undertaking - because in the volume of the book it was written of him, 1. In the close rolls of the divine decree and counsel; there it was written that his ear was opened, and he said, Lo, I come; there the covenant of redemption was recorded, the counsel of redemption was recorded, the counsel of peace between the Father and the Son; and to that he had an eye in all he did, the commandment he received of his Father. 2. In the letters patent of the Old Testament. Moses and all the prophets testified of him; in all the volumes of that book something or other was written of him, which he had an eye to, that all might be accomplished, Joh 19:28.

V. The pleasure he took in his undertaking. Having freely offered himself to it, he did not fail, nor was discouraged, but proceeded with all possible satisfaction to himself (Psa 40:8. 9): I delight to do thy will, O my God! It was to Christ his meat and drink to go on with the work appointed to him (Joh 4:34); and the reason here given is, Thy law is within my heart; it is written there, it rules there. It is meant of the law concerning the work and office of the Mediator, what he was to do and suffer; this law was dear to him and had an influence upon him in his whole undertaking. Note, When the law of God is written in our hearts our duty will be our delight.

VI. The publication of the gospel to the children of men, even in the great congregation, Psa 40:9, Psa 40:10. The same that as a priest wrought out redemption for us, as a prophet, by his own preaching first, then by his apostles, and still by his word and Spirit, makes it know to us. The great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, Heb 2:3. It is the gospel of Christ that is preached to all nations. Observe, 1. What it is that is preached: It is righteousness (Psa 40:9), God's righteousness (Psa 40:10), the everlasting righteousness which Christ has brought in (Dan 9:24); compare Rom 1:16, Rom 1:17. It is God's faithfulness to his promise, and the salvation which had long been looked for. It is God's lovingkindness and his truth, his mercy according to his word. Note, In the work of our redemption we ought to take notice how brightly all the divine attributions shine, and give to God the praise of each of them. 2. To whom it is preached - to the great congregation, Psa 40:9 and again Psa 40:10. When Christ was here on earth he preached to multitudes, thousands at a time. The gospel was preached both to Jews and Gentiles, to great congregations of both. Solemn religious assemblies are a divine institution, and in them the glory of God, in the face of Christ, ought to be both praised to the glory of God and preached for the edification of men. 3. How it is preached - freely and openly: I have not refrained my lips; I have not hid it; I have not concealed it. This intimates that whoever undertook to preach the gospel of Christ would be in great temptation to hide it and conceal it, because it must be preached with great contention and in the face of great opposition; but Christ himself, and those whom he called to that work, set their faces as a flint (Isa 50:7) and were wonderfully carried on in it. It is well for us that they were so, for by this means our eyes come to see this joyful light and our ears to hear this joyful sound, which otherwise we might for ever have perished in ignorance of.

Matthew Henry: Psa 40:11-17

The psalmist, having meditated upon the work of redemption, and spoken of it in the person of the Messiah, now comes to make improvement of the doctrine of his mediation between us and God, and therefore speaks in his own person. Christ having done his Father's will, and finished his work, and given orders for the preaching of the gospel to every creature, we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace.

I. This may encourage us to pray for the mercy of God, and to put ourselves under the protection of that mercy, Psa 40:11. "Lord, thou hast not spared thy Son, nor withheld him; withhold not thou thy tender mercies then, which thou hast laid up for us in him; for wilt thou not with him also freely give us all things? Rom 8:32. Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. "The best saints are in continual danger, and see themselves undone if they be not continually preserved by the grace of God; and the everlasting lovingkindness and truth of God are what we have to depend upon for our preservation to the heavenly kingdom, Psa 61:7.

II. This may encourage us in reference to the guilt of sin, that Jesus Christ has done that towards our discharge from it which sacrifice and offering could not do. See here, 1. The frightful sight he had of sin, Psa 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. Look which way he would, he saw some mischief or other waiting for him, which he was conscious to himself his sins had deserved. He saw them taking hold of him, arresting him, as the bailiff does the poor debtor; he saw them to be innumerable and more than the hairs of his head. Convinced awakened consciences are apprehensive of danger from the numberless number of the sins of infirmity which seem small as hairs, but, being numerous, are very dangerous. Who can understand his errors? God numbers our hairs (Mat 10:30), which yet we cannot number; so he keeps an account of our sins, which we keep no account of. The sight of sin so oppressed him that he could not hold up his head - I am not able to look up; much less could he keep up his heart - therefore my heart fails me. Note, The sight of our sins in their own colours would drive us to distraction, if we had not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. 2. The careful recourse he had to God under the sense of sin (Psa 40:13); seeing himself brought by his sins to the very brink of ruin, eternal ruin, with what a holy passion does he cry out, " Be pleased, O Lord! to deliver me (Psa 40:13); O save me from the wrath to come, and the present terrors I am in through the apprehensions of that wrath! I am undone, I die, I perish, without speedy relief. In a case of this nature, where the bliss of an immortal soul is concerned, delays are dangerous; therefore, O Lord! make haste to help me. "

III. This may encourage us to hope for victory over our spiritual enemies that seek after our souls to destroy them (Psa 40:14), the roaring lion that goes about continually seeking to devour. If Christ has triumphed over them, we through him, shall be more than conquerors. In the belief of this we may pray, with humble boldness, Let them be ashamed and confounded together, and driven backward, Psa 40:14. Let them be desolate, Psa 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. When a child of God is brought into that horrible pit, and the miry clay, Satan cries Aha! aha! thinking he has gained his point; but he shall rage when he sees the brand plucked out of the fire, and shall be desolate, for a reward of his shame. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan! The accuser of the brethren is cast out.

IV. This may encourage all that seek God, and love his salvation, to rejoice in him and to praise him, Psa 40:16. See here, 1. The character of good people. Conformably to the laws of natural religion, they seek God, desire his favour, and in all their exigencies apply to him, as a people should seek unto their God; and conformably to the laws of revealed religion they love his salvation, that great salvation of which the prophets enquired and searched diligently, which the Redeemer undertook to work out when he said, Lo, I come. All that shall be saved love the salvation not only as a salvation from hell, but a salvation from sin. 2. The happiness secured to good people by this prophetic prayer. Those that seek God shall rejoice and be glad in him, and with good reason, for he will not only be found of them but will be their bountiful rewarder. Those that love his salvation shall be filled with the joy of his salvation, and shall say continually, The Lord be magnified; and thus they shall have a heaven upon earth. Blessed are those that are thus still praising God.

V. This may encourage the saints, in distress and affliction, to trust in God and comfort themselves in him, Psa 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. Men forget the poor and needy, and seldom think of them; but God's thoughts, towards them (which he had spoken of Psa 40:5) are their support and comfort. They may assure themselves that God is their help under their troubles, and will be, in due time, their deliverer out of their troubles, and will make no long tarrying; for the vision is for an appointed time, and therefore, though it tarry, we may wait for it, for it shall come; it will come, it will not tarry.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:1-4

David, who, though not without some hesitation, we regard as the author, now finds himself in a situation in which, on the one hand, he has just been rescued from danger, and, on the other, is still exposed to peril. Under such circumstances praise rightly occupies the first place, as in general, according to Psa 50:23, gratitude is the way to salvation. His hope, although תּוחלת ממשּׁכה (Pro 13:12), has not deceived him; he is rescued, and can now again sing a new song of thanksgiving, an example for others, strengthening their trust. קוּה קוּיתי , I waited with constancy and perseverance. יהוה is the accusative as in Psa 25:5; Psa 130:5, and not the vocative as in Psa 39:8. אזנו is to be supplied in thought to ויּט , although after the analogy of Psa 17:6; Psa 31:3, one might have looked for the Hiph . wayaT instead of the Kal . בור שׁאון does not mean a pit of roaring (of water), since שׁאון standing alone (see, on the other hand, Psa 65:8, Isa 17:12.) has not this meaning; and, moreover, "rushing, roaring"(Hengstenberg), tumultuous waters of a pit or a cistern does not furnish any idea that is true to nature; neither does it mean a pit of falling in, since שׁאה does not exhibit the signification deorsum labi ; but the meaning is: a pit of devastation, of destruction, of ruin (Jer 25:31; Jer 46:17), vid., supra on Psa 35:8. Another figure is "mire of the marsh"( יון found only here and in Psa 69:3), i.e., water, in the miry bottom of which one can find no firm footing - a combination like מטר־גּשׁם , Zec 10:1, אדמת־עפר , Dan 12:2, explained in the Mishna, Mikvaoth ix. 2, by טיט הבורות (mire of the cisterns). Taking them out of this, Jahve placed his feet upon a rock, established his footsteps, i.e., removed him from the danger which surrounded him, and gave him firm ground under his feet. The high rock and the firm footsteps are the opposites of the deep pit and the yielding miry bottom. This deliverance afforded him new matter for thanksgiving (cf. Psa 33:3), and became in his mouth "praise to our God;"for the deliverance of the chosen king is an act of the God of Israel on behalf of His chosen people. The futures in Psa 40:4 (with an alliteration similar to Psa 52:8) indicate, by their being thus cumulative, that they are intended of the present and of that which still continues in the future.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:5-6

He esteems him happy who puts his trust ( מבטחו , with a latent Dagesh , as, according to Kimchi, also in Psa 71:5; Job 31:24; Jer 17:7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer 17:7 is an echo of this אשׁרי . Psa 52:9 (cf. Psa 91:9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not הՀישׁ , but הגּבר , which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself. רהבים from רהב (not from רהב ) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything. שׂטי כזב , "turners aside of falsehood"( שׁוּט = שׂטה , cf. Psa 101:3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instead of to the truth: to take כּזב as accusative of the aim is forbidden by the status construct .; to take it as the genitive in the sense of the accusative of the object (like תם הלכי , Pro 2:7) is impracticable, because שׂוט ( שׂטה ) does not admit of a transitive sense; כזב is, therefore, genit. qualit. like און in Psa 59:6. This second strophe contains two practical applications of that which the writer himself has experienced. From this point of view, he who trusts in God appears to the poet to be supremely happy, and a distant view of God's gracious rule over His own people opens up before him. נפלאות are the thoughts of God realized, and מחשׁבות those that are being realized, as in Jer 51:29; Isa 55:8. רבּות is an accusative of the predicate: in great number, in rich abundance; אלינוּ , "for us,"as e.g., in Jer 15:1 (Ew. §217, c). His doings towards Israel were from of old a fulness of wondrous deeds and plans of deliverance, which was ever realizing and revealing itself. There is not ערך אליך , a possibility of comparison with Thee, οὐκ ἔστι (Ew. §§321, c ) ἰσουν τί σοι - ערך as in Psa 89:7; Isa 40:18 - they are too powerful ( עצם of a powerful sum, as in Psa 69:5; Psa 139:17, cf. Jer 5:6) for one to enumerate. According to Rosenmüller, Stier, and Hupfeld, אין ערך אליך even affirms the same thing in other words: it is not possible to lay them forth to Thee (before Thee); but that man should "lay forth"(Symmachus ἐκθέστηαι ) before God His marvellous works and His thoughts of salvation, is an unbecoming conception. The cohortative forms, which follow, אגּידה ואדבּרה ,wollof h , admit of being taken as a protasis to what follows, after the analogy of Job 19:18; Job 16:6; Job 30:26; Psa 139:8 : if I wish to declare them and speak them forth, they are too powerful (numerous) to be enumerated (Ges. §128, 1, d ). The accentuation, however, renders it as a parenthetical clause: I would (as in Psa 51:18; Psa 55:13; Psa 6:10) declare them and speak them forth. He would do this, but because God, in the fulness of His wondrous works and thoughts of salvation, is absolutely without an equal, he is obliged to leave it undone - they are so powerful (numerous) that the enumeration of them falls far short of their powerful fulness. The words alioqui pronunciarem et eloquerer have the character of a parenthesis, and, as Psa 40:7 shows, this accords with the style of this Psalm.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:7-9

The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them? To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: ( a ) according to the material of which they consist, viz., זבח , the animal sacrifice, and מנחה , the meal or meat offering (including the נסך , the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha ); ( b ) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the עולה , or, as more especially in the case of the הטּאת (in this passage חטאה ), the turning away of the divine displeasure. The fact of the זבח and עולה standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that זבח specially designates the shelamı̂m offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs the thank-offering proper, viz., the tôda -shelamı̂m offering; and that עולה as the sacrifice of adoration ( προσευχή ), which is also always a general thanksgiving ( εὐχαριστία ), is most natural, side by side with the shalemim, to him who gives thanks. When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer 7:22 (cf. Amo 5:21.) of saying that the sacrificial Tôra is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices.

Between these synonymous utterances in Psa 40:7 and Psa 40:7 stands the clause אזנים כּרית לּי . In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmüller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it "ears hast Thou pierced for me"= this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although כּרה , to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (vid., on Psa 22:17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.: (1) that then one would rather look for אזן instead of אזנים after the analogy of the phrases גּלה אזן , חעיר אזן , and פּתח אזן , since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, חפצתּ , כּרית , and שׁאלתּ are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very אזנים כרית לי that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1Sa 15:22, favours this view: "Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one's obeying the voice of Jahve? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams!" The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God - says David - desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.e., formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey.

(Note: There is a similar expression in the Tamul Kural, Graul's translation, S. 63, No. 418: "An ear, that was not hollowed out by hearing, has, even if hearing, the manner of not hearing."The "hollowing out"meaning in this passage an opening of the inward sense of hearing by instruction.)

The idea is not that God has given him ears in order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrifices but hearing ears, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience. To interpret it "Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself לעבד עולם ,"after Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not אזן , but אזנים . Concerning the generalizing rendering of the lxx, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μου , following which Apollinaris renders it αὐτὰρ ἐμοί Βροτέης τεκτήναο σάρκα γενέθλης , and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Romanum ), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb 10:5, Commentary , S. 460f. transl. vol. ii. p. 153.

The אז אמרתּי , which follows, now introduces the expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God's special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: "Lo, I come,"etc. By the words "Lo, I come,"the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num 22:38; 2Sa 19:21. It is not likely that the words בּמגלּת ספר כּתוּב עלי then form a parenthesis, since Psa 40:9 is not a continuation of that "Lo, I come,"but a new sentence. We take the Beth , as in Psa 66:13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tôra, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deu 17:14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel. And עלי cannot, as synonymous with the following בּמעי , signify as much as "written upon my heart,"as De Wette and Thenius render it-a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, עלי obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2Ki 22:13, denotes the object of the contents; for כּתב על signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.g., of the judicial decision recorded in writing, Job 13:26). Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tôra, which prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in Psa 40:9, that willing obedience to God's Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels. The principal form of מעי , does not occur in the Old Testament; it was מעים (from מע , מעה , or even מעי ), according to current Jewish pronunciation מעים (which Kimchi explains dual); and the word properly means (vid., on Isa 48:19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like רחמים , which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain. This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase סם בגו מעיא , som begau meajo , to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tôra is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deu 6:6, cf. Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3. This reception of the Tôra into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer 31:33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel "a people with My law in their heart"(Isa 51:7), and even in the Old Testament, "he who hath the law of his God in his heart"is called righteous (Psa 37:31). As such an one who has the Tôra within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:10-11

The self-presentation before Jahve, introduced by אז אמרתּי , extends from הנה to מעי ; consequently בּשּׂרתּי yltn joins on to אמרתי , and the אכלא which stands in the midst of perfects describes the synchronous past. The whole is a retrospect. בּשּׂר , Arab. bššr (root בש ), starting from its sensible primary signification to scrape off, scratch off, rub smooth, means: to smooth any one ( glätten ), Engl. to gladden one, i.e., vultum ejus diducere , to make him joyful and glad, more especially to cheer one by good news (e.g., basharahu or bashsharuhu bi̇maulûdin , bashsharuhu bi -maulûdin , he has cheered him by the intelligence of the birth of a son), in Hebrew directly equivalent to εὐαγγελίζειν ( εὐαγγελίζεσθαι ). He has proclaimed to all Israel the evangel of Jahve's justifying and gracious rule, which only changes into retribution towards those who despise His love; and he can appeal to the Omniscient One (Jer 15:15), that neither through fear of men, nor through shame and indolence, has he restrained his lips from confessing Him. God's conduct, in accordance with the prescribed order of redemption, is as a matter of fact called צדק , and as an attribute of His holy love, צדקה ; just as אמוּנה is His faithfulness which fulfils the promises made and which does not suffer hope to be put to shame, and תּשׁוּעה is His salvation as it is manifested in facts. This rich matter for the preaching of the evangel, which may be comprehended in the two words חסד ועמת , the Alpha and Omega of God's self-attestation in the course of the redemptive history, he has not allowed to slumber as a dead, unfruitful knowledge hidden deep down in his heart. The new song which Jahve put into his mouth, he has also really sung. Thus far we have the first part of the song, which renders thanks for past mercies.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:12-13

Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two כּלא , Psa 40:10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him ( ממּנּי ). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in Psa 40:11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel. With כּי , Psa 40:13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need. רעות are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (Psa 34:20) as trials or as chastenings. אפפוּ עלי is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of אפפוּני , Psa 18:5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i.e., overtaken him in their consequences ( השּׂיג , as in Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; cf. לכד , Pro 5:22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz., their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language. His heart, i.e., the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid., on Psa 31:11.

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:14-16

In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ , ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a , and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus , p. 1235, states, aspirated),

(Note: After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psa 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ , Jer 1:10, and frequently, לשׁדוד , ib . Psa 57:4. After ב and כ it usually remains, as in Psa 87:6, Job 4:13; Job 33:15; 2Sa 3:34; 1Ki 1:21; Ecc 5:10; but again there are exceptions, as בּשׁכּן , Gen 35:22, בּזכּר , Jer 17:2. In Gen 23:2 it is pointed לבכּתהּ according to the rule, and in my Comment . S. 423 it is to be read "with a Dagesh.")

is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ , from שׁמם , to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf. Job , note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב , but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba ), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf. as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i.e., of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος , as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another's misfortune (Psa 35:25).

Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 40:17

On Psa 40:17 compare Psa 35:27. David wishes, as he does in that passage, that the pious may most heartily rejoice in God, the goal of their longing; and that on account of the salvation that has become manifest, which they love (2Ti 4:8), they may continually say: Let Jahve become great, i.e., be magnified or celebrated with praises! In Psa 40:17 with ואני he comes back to his own present helpless state, but only in order to contrast with it the confession of confident hope. True he is עני ואביון (as in Psa 109:22; Psa 136:1, cf. Psa 25:16), but He who ruleth over all will care for him: Dominus solicitus erit pro me (Jerome). חשׁב in the same sense in which in Psa 40:6 the מחשׁבות , i.e., God's thoughts of salvation, is conceived of (cf. the corresponding North-Palestinian expression in Jon 1:6). A sigh for speedy help ( אל־תּאחר , as in Dan 9:19 with a transition of the merely tone-long Tsere into a pausal Pathach , and here in connection with a preceding closed syllable, Olshausen, §91, d , under the accompanying influence of two final letters which incline towards the a sound) closes this second part of the Psalm. The first part is nothing but thanksgiving, the second is exclusively prayer.

Constable: Psa 40:1-17

Psalm 40

In this psalm David offered himself as a sacrifice to God because the Lord had delivered him. He also lamented his distress and prayed for salvation.

Constable: Psa 40:1-9

1. Thanksgiving for salvation 40:1-10

40:1-3 The psalmist testified to his people that the Lord had answered his prayer for deliverance after a long wait. God had reestablished His servant. Consequently David had a new song of praise for the Lord. His praise would encourage others to renew their confidence in Yahweh.

40:4 The person who does not rely on the self-sufficient or liars but puts his complete trust in the Lord experiences great blessing.

40:5 The Lord's wonderful acts for the righteous are too numerous to recount fully much less His beneficent thoughts. No one can compare with Yahweh regarding His gracious plans to bless.

40:6 Animal and meal offerings were not of primary importance to God under the Mosaic Law. More important than sacrifices for either worship or expiation was the believer's true commitment of himself or herself to the Lord.

The phrase, "my ears Thou hast opened," or "pierced" may mean David viewed God as having made him His willing slave by being so gracious to him (cf. Exod. 21:6). However it seems more probable that David meant God had given him the ability to comprehend and obey His Word (cf. v. 8).

40:7-8 Because God had been so good to David, the psalmist yielded his life as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1-2). As the Lord's anointed king, David was responsible to follow the directions handed on to him in the scroll of the Mosaic Law. Because God had captured his affections, David could say the Law was in his heart, not just in his hands. He delighted to do God's will rather than just doing it out of obligation.

In Hebrews 10:5-7 the writer of that epistle quoted verses 6-8 concerning Jesus Christ's attitude at His incarnation. The sacrifices of the Mosaic system could never satisfy God's high demands. They only covered sin temporarily and expressed worship superficially. The offering that satisfied God was the willing self-sacrifice of the sinless Son of Man. Jesus Christ offered Himself to God as David did, as he expressed in this psalm.

40:9-10 Part of God's will for David, as a person and as Israel's king, was praise to the Lord. The psalmist said he carried out this duty joyfully. He spoke publicly of God's righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, loyal love, and truth.

Constable: Psa 40:10-16

2. Petition for salvation 40:11-17

40:11-12 The upbeat spirit of this psalm changes dramatically at verse 11. David appealed to the Lord for continuing deliverance on the basis of God's past salvation and the psalmist's personal dedication to God. He referred to his troubles as rising out of his many sins (v. 12). He had praised God for His loyal love and truth in the past (v. 10). Now he counted on those qualities to sustain him in the future (v. 11).

40:13-15 David cried out for quick deliverance. As the Lord's anointed who was serving Him sacrificially with a pure heart, the psalmist could make such a request boldly.

40:16 A speedy deliverance from his enemies would move the people of Israel to rejoice, feel encouraged, and praise the Lord.

40:17 The Lord's living sacrifice cried out again in conclusion that the One to whom he looked for help would save him soon.

Believers should present themselves as living sacrifices to the Lord with a willing heart because of His grace to them. Having done so we can appeal to Him for help against our spiritual enemies and expect His aid. Nevertheless we should base our appeal on what will glorify God.⁹³

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Psa 40:7-9

This is a direct reference to the Messiah (see Heb 10:7 ). Jesus preached righteousness because God’s Law was within His heart. When God’s Law is written in our hearts, we will delight to do His will and will proclaim the good news of righteousness. We do this by preaching " the righteousness which is of the Law" ( Rom 10:5 ). This will show men that they have sinned, and therefore need a Savior. See Rom 3:19-20 .

Evidence: Psa 40:17

King David had great wealth and had his every need met, so he is speaking here in a spiritual sense. Describing himself as " poor and needy" shows he recognized his moral poverty and desperate need for God. See Luk 4:18 footnote.

Introduction / Outline

JFB: Psalms (Book Introduction)

The Hebrew title of this book is Tehilim ("praises" or "hymns"), for a leading feature in its contents is praise, though the word occurs in the title of only one Psalm (the hundred forty-fifth). The Greek title (in the Septuagint, a translation made two hundred years before Christ) is psalmoi, whence our word "Psalms." This corresponds to the Hebrew word mizmoi by which sixty-five Psalms are designated in their inscriptions, and which the Syriac, a language like the Hebrew, uses for the whole book. It means, as does also the Greek name, an ode, or song, whose singing is accompanied by an instrument, particularly the harp (compare 1Ch 16:4-8; 2Ch 5:12-13). To some Psalms, the Hebrew word (shir) "a song," is prefixed. Paul seems to allude to all these terms in Eph 5:19, "singing . . . in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs."

TITLES.--To more than a hundred Psalms are prefixed inscriptions, which give one or more (and in one case, [Psalm 60], all) of these particulars: the direction to the musician, the name of the author or the instrument, the style of the music or of the poetry, the subject or occasion. The authority of these inscriptions has been disputed by some writers. They say that the earliest translators, as the Greek and Syriac, evince a disregard for their authority, by variations from a proper translation of some, altering others, and, in several instances, supplying titles to Psalms which, in Hebrew, had none. It is also alleged that the subject of a Psalm, as given in the title, is often inconsistent with its contents. But those translators have also varied from a right translation of many passages in the Bible, which all agree to be of good authority; and the alleged inconsistency may be shown, on more accurate investigation, not to exist. The admitted antiquity of these inscriptions, on the other hand, and even their obscurity, raise a presumption in their favor, while such prefaces to a composition accord with the usages of that age and part of the world (compare Isa 38:9).

"The Chief Musician" was the superintendent of the music (compare "to oversee," 1Ch 15:21, Margin). "To" prefixed to this, means, "pertaining to" in his official character. This inscription is found in fifty-three Psalms and is attached to Habakkuk's prayer (Hab. 3:1-19). The same Hebrew preposition is prefixed to the name of the author and translated "of," as "a Psalm of David," "of Asaph," except that to "the sons of Korah," it is translated "for," which is evidently wrong, as the usual direction, "to the chief musician," is given, and no other authorship intimated. On the apparent exception to this last remark, see below, and see on Psa 88:1, title. The explanations of other particulars in the titles will be given as they occur.

AUTHORS.--This book is often called "The Psalms of David," he being the only author mentioned in the New Testament (Luk 20:42) and his name appearing in more titles than that of any other writer. Besides about one-half of the Psalms in which it thus appears, Psalms 2 and 95 are ascribed to him (Act 4:25 and Heb 4:7). He was probably the author of many others which appear without a name. He used great efforts to beautify the worship of the sanctuary. Among the two hundred eighty-eight Levites he appointed for singing and performing instrumental music, we find mentioned the "sons of Korah" (1Ch 9:19); including Heman (1Ch 6:33-38); and also Asaph (1Ch 6:39-44); and Ethan (1Ch 15:17-19). God was doubtless pleased to endow these men with the inspiration of His Spirit, so that they used those poetic talents which their connection with the kindred art of music had led them to cultivate, in the production of compositions like those of their king and patron. To Asaph are ascribed twelve Psalms; to the sons of Korah, eleven, including the eighty-eighth, which is also ascribed to Heman, that being the only instance in which the name of the "son" (or descendant) is mentioned; and to Ethan, one. Solomon's name appears before the seventy-second and hundred twenty-seventh; and that of Moses before the ninetieth. Special questions respecting authorship will be explained as they arise.

CONTENTS.--As the book contains one hundred fifty independent compositions, it is not susceptible of any logical analysis. The Jews having divided it into five books, corresponding to the Five Books of Moses (First, Psalms 1-42; Second, Psalms 43-72; Third, Psalms 73-89; Fourth, Psalms 90-106; Fifth, Psalms 107-150), many attempts have been made to discover, in this division, some critical or practical value, but in vain. Sundry efforts have been made to classify the Psalms by subject. Angus' Bible Hand Book is perhaps the most useful, and is appended.

Still the Psalms have a form and character peculiar to themselves; and with individual diversities of style and subject, they all assimilate to that form, and together constitute a consistent system of moral truth. They are all poetical, and of that peculiar parallelism (see Introduction to the Poetical Books,) which distinguished Hebrew poetry. They are all lyrical, or songs adapted to musical instruments, and all religious lyrics, or such as were designed to be used in the sanctuary worship.

The distinguishing feature of the Psalms is their devotional character. Whether their matter be didactic, historical, prophetical, or practical, it is made the ground or subject of prayer, or praise, or both. The doctrines of theology and precepts of pure morality are here inculcated. God's nature, attributes, perfections, and works of creation, providence, and grace, are unfolded. In the sublimest conceptions of the most exalted verse, His glorious supremacy over the principalities of heaven, earth, and hell, and His holy, wise, and powerful control of all material and immaterial agencies, are celebrated. The great covenant of grace resting on the fundamental promise of a Redeemer, both alike the provisions of God's exhaustless mercy, is set forth in respect of the doctrines of regeneration by the Spirit, forgiveness of sins, repentance toward God, and faith toward Jesus Christ, while its glorious results, involving the salvation of men "from the ends of the earth" [Act 13:47], are proclaimed in believing, prophetic prayer and thankful praise. The personal history of the authors, and especially David's in its spiritual aspects, is that of God's people generally. Christian biography is edifying only as it is truth illustrated in experience, such as God's Word and Spirit produce. It may be factitious in origin and of doubtful authenticity. But here the experience of the truly pious is detailed, under divine influence, and "in words which the Holy Ghost" taught [1Co 2:13]. The whole inner life of the pious man is laid open, and Christians of all ages have here the temptations, conflicts, perplexities, doubts, fears, penitent moanings, and overwhelming griefs on the one hand, and the joy and hope of pardoning mercy, the victory over the seductions of false-hearted flatterers, and deliverance from the power of Satan on the other, with which to compare their own spiritual exercises. Here, too, are the fruits of that sovereign mercy, so often sought in earnest prayer, and when found, so often sung in rapturous joy, exhibited by patience in adversity, moderation in prosperity, zeal for God's glory, love for man, justice to the oppressed, holy contempt for the proud, magnanimity towards enemies, faithfulness towards friends, delight in the prosperity of Zion, and believing prayer for her enlargement and perpetuity.

The historical summaries of the Psalms are richly instructive. God's choice of the patriarchs, the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt, their exodus, temptations of God, rebellions and calamities in the wilderness, settlement in Canaan, backslidings and reformations, furnish illustrations of God's providential government of His people, individually and collectively, tending to exalt His adorable grace and abase human pride. But the promises and prophecies connected with these summaries, and elsewhere presented in the Psalms, have a far wider reach, exhibiting the relations of the book to the great theme of promise and prophecy:

THE MESSIAH AND HIS KINGDOM.--David was God's chosen servant to rule His people, as the head at once of the State and the Church, the lineal ancestor, "according to the flesh" [Act 2:30; Rom 1:3], of His adorable Son, and His type, in His official relations, both in suffering and in triumph. Generally, David's trials by the ungodly depicted the trials of Christ, and his final success the success of Christ's kingdom. Typically, he uses language describing his feelings, which only finds its full meaning in the feelings of Christ. As such it is quoted and applied in the New Testament. And further, in view of the great promise (2Sa 7:12-16) to him and his seed, to which such frequent reference is made in the Psalms, David was inspired to know, that though his earthly kingdom should perish, his spiritual would ever endure, in the power, beneficence, and glory of Christ's. In repeating and amplifying that promise, he speaks not only as a type, but "being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne," he "foretold the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. His incarnation, humiliating sorrows, persecution, and cruel death are disclosed in the plaintive cries of a despairing sufferer; and His resurrection and ascension, His eternal priesthood, His royal dignity, His prophetical office, the purchase and bestowal of the gifts of the Spirit, the conversion of the nations, the establishment, increase, and perpetuity of the Church, the end of time, and the blessedness of the righteous who acknowledge, and the ruin of the wicked who reject this King in Zion, are predicted in the language of assured confidence and joy." While these great themes have supplied the people of God with a popular theology and a guide in religious experience and Christian morality, clothed in the language of devotion, they have provided an inspired liturgy in which the pious, of all creeds and sects, have, for nearly three thousand years, poured out their prayers and praises. The pious Jew, before the coming of Christ, mourned over the adversity, or celebrated the future glories, of Zion, in the words of her ancient king. Our Saviour, with His disciples, sang one of these hymns on the night on which He was betrayed [Mat 26:30]; He took from one the words in which He uttered the dreadful sorrows of His soul [Mat 27:46], and died with those of another on His lips [Luk 23:46]. Paul and Silas in the dungeon [Act 16:25], primitive Christians in their covert places of worship, or the costly churches of a later day, and the scattered and feeble Christian flocks in the prevalence of darkness and error through the Middle Ages, fed their faith and warmed their love with these consoling songs. Now, throughout the Christian world, in untold forms of version, paraphrase, and imitation, by Papists and Protestants, Prelatists and Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Methodists--men of all lands and all creeds, in public and private worship, God is still adored in the sentiments expressed in these venerable Psalms. From the tone of sorrow and suffering which pervade their earlier portions we are gradually borne on amid alternate conflicts and triumphs, mournful complaints and awakening confidence; as we approach the close the tones of sorrow grow feebler, and those of praise wax louder and stronger--till, in the exulting strains of the last Psalm, the chorus of earth mingles with the hallelujahs of the multitude, which no man can number, in the sanctuary above.

JFB: Psalms (Outline)

• ALEPH. (Psa 119:1-8). This celebrated Psalm has several peculiarities. It is divided into twenty-two parts or stanzas, denoted by the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each stanza contains eight verses, and the first letter of each verse is that which gives name to the stanza. Its contents are mainly praises of God's Word, exhortations to its perusal, and reverence for it, prayers for its proper influence, and complaints of the wicked for despising it. There are but two verses (Psa 119:122, Psa 119:132) which do not contain some term or description of God's Word. These terms are of various derivations, but here used, for the most part, synonymously, though the use of a variety of terms seems designed, in order to express better the several aspects in which our relations to the revealed word of God are presented. The Psalm does not appear to have any relation to any special occasion or interest of the Jewish Church or nation, but was evidently "intended as a manual of pious thoughts, especially for instructing the young, and its peculiar artificial structure was probably adopted to aid the memory in retaining the language." (Psa. 119:1-176)
• BETH. (Psa 119:9-16). The whole verse may be read as a question; for,
• GIMEL. (Psa 119:17-24). Life is desirable in order to serve God; that we may do so aright, we should seek to have our eyes opened to behold His truth, and earnestly desire fully to understand it.
• DALETH. (Psa 119:25-32). Submitting ourselves in depression to God, He will revive us by His promises, and lead us to declare His mercy to others.
• HE. (Psa 119:33-40). To encourage us in prayer for divine aid in adhering to His truth, we are permitted to believe that by His help we shall succeed.
• VAU. (Psa 119:41-48). The sentiment more fully carried out. God's mercies and salvation, as revealed in His Word, provide hope of forgiveness for the past and security in a righteous course for the future.
• ZAIN. (Psa 119:49-56). Resting on the promises consoles under affliction and the tauntings of the insolent.
• CHETH. (Psa 119:57-64). Sincere desires for God's favor, penitence, and activity in a new obedience, truly evince the sincerity of those who profess to find God a portion (Num 18:20; Psa 16:5; Lam 3:24).
• TETH. (Psa 119:65-72). The reliance on promises (Psa 119:49) is strengthened by experience of past dealings according with promises, and a prayer for guidance, encouraged by sanctified affliction.
• JOD. (Psa 119:73-80). As God made, so He can best control, us. So as to Israel, he owed to God his whole internal and external existence (Deu 32:6).
• CAPH. (Psa 119:81-88). In sorrow the pious heart yearns for the comforts of God's promises (Psa 73:26; Psa 84:2).
• LAMED. (Psa 119:89-96). In all changes God's Word remains firm (1Pe 1:25). Like the heavens, it continually attests God's unfailing power and unchanging care (Psa 89:2).
• MEM. (Psa 119:97-104). This characteristic love for God's law (compare Psa 1:2) ensures increase.
• NUN. (Psa 119:105-112). Not only does the Word of God inform us of His will, but, as a light on a path in darkness, it shows us how to follow the right and avoid the wrong way. The lamp of the Word is not the sun. He would blind our eyes in our present fallen state; but we may bless God for the light shining as in a dark place, to guide us until the Sun of Righteousness shall come, and we shall be made capable of seeing Him (2Pe 1:19; Rev 22:4). The lamp is fed with the oil of the Spirit. The allusion is to the lamps and torches carried at night before an Eastern caravan.
• SAMECH. (Psa 119:113-120).
• AIN. (Psa 119:121-128). On the grounds of his integrity, desire for God's word, and covenant relation to Him, the servant of God may plead for His protecting care against the wicked, gracious guidance to the knowledge of truth, and His effective vindication of the righteous and their cause, which is also His own.
• PE. (Psa 119:129-136).
• TZADDI. (Psa 119:137-144). God's justice and faithfulness in His government aggravate the neglect of the wicked, and more excite the lively zeal of His people.
• KOPH. (Psa 119:145-152). An intelligent devotion is led by divine promises and is directed to an increase of gracious affections, arising from a contemplation of revealed truth.
• RESH. (Psa 119:153-160). Though the remembering of God's law is not meritorious, yet it evinces a filial temper and provides the pious with promises to plead, while the wicked in neglecting His law, reject God and despise His promises (compare Psa 9:13; Psa 43:1; Psa 69:18).
• SCHIN. (Psa 119:161-168). (Compare Psa 119:46, Psa 119:86).
• TAU. (Psa 119:169-176). The prayer for understanding of the truth precedes that for deliverance. The fulfilment of the first is the basis of the fulfilment of the second (Psa 90:11-17). On the terms "cry" and "supplication" (compare Psa 6:9; Psa 17:1).
• LIVING VOICES SHALL TAKE UP THE FAILING SOUNDS OF DEAD INSTRUMENTS, AND AS THEY CEASE ON EARTH, THOSE OF INTELLIGENT RANSOMED SPIRITS AND HOLY ANGELS, AS WITH THE SOUND OF MIGHTY THUNDERS, WILL PROLONG ETERNALLY THE PRAISE, SAYING: "ALLELUIA! SALVATION, AND GLORY, AND HONOR, AND POWER, UNTO THE LORD OUR GOD;" "ALLELUIA! FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH." AMEN!.

TSK: Psalms (Book Introduction)

The Psalms have been the general song of the universal Church; and in their praise, all the Fathers have been unanimously eloquent. Men of all nations find in these compositions a language at once suitable to their feelings, and expressive of their highest joys and deepest sorrows, as well as of all the endlessly varied wishes and desires of their hearts. Whether the pious believer is disposed to indulge the exalted sentiments of praise and thanksgiving towards the ALMIGHTY FATHER of his being; to pour out his soul in penitence or prayer; to bewail, with tears of contrition, past offences; to magnify the goodness and mercy of GOD; to dwell with ecstacy on the divine attributes of wisdom and omnipotence; or to rejoice in the coming of the MESSIAH, the Psalms afford him the most perfect models for expressing all his feelings.

TSK: Psalms 40 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Psa 40:1, The benefit of confidence in God; Psa 40:6, Obedience is the best sacrifice; Psa 40:11, The sense of David’s evils inflames his prayer.

Poole: Psalms (Book Introduction)

OF PSALMS

THE ARGUMENT

The divine authority of this Book of PSALMS is so certain and evident, that it was never questioned in the church; which being fixed, it is of small moment that the penman of some of them is not now known; nor doth this any more lessen its authority, than it invalidates the decree of a prince, or an act of parliament, that it is not certain by whose pen it was drawn up. Most of them were composed by David, as is evident, both from the title of them, and from the express testimony of the New Testament concerning some of them; and that by the inspiration of God’ s Spirit, as appears both from the Divine matter and frame of them, and from 2Sa 23:1 Mat 22:43 Act 1:16 2:25 . But some of them were composed by other persons; by Moses, as Ps 90 , by Heman, and Ethan, and Asaph, as the title of the Psalms show; and by others after their times, whose names are not mentioned, as is manifest from Ps 126 Ps 127 . It is apparent that the Psalms were not written in the order in which they now lie; and they were put into this order either by Ezra, as the Hebrew doctors affirm, or by some other holy prophet or prophets. It is sufficient for us that the whole book is owned as canonical by our blessed Saviour, Luk 24:44 .

PSALM 1

Poole: Psalms 40 (Chapter Introduction)

THE ARGUMENT

This Psalm is a celebration of God’ s great goodness and mercy vouchsafed unto him and all his people. It is certain and evident that David speaks some things in this Book of Psalms in his own name and person, and some things ill the name and person of Christ, or whom he was an eminent type; and that sometimes he speaks in both these capacities in the same Psalm, as hath been noted before. And this seems to be the condition of this Psalm; wherein there are some passages which cannot belong to Christ, as Psa 40:13 , and some which do not properly belong to David, or to that time and state of the church, but only to Christ, and to the times of the New Testament, as Psa 40:6,7 .

David by his own experience showeth the benefit of trusting in God, Psa 40:1-5 . Christ’ s obedience and sacrifice, Psa 40:6-10 . His sufferings for sin; his fervent prayer, Psa 40:11-17 .

MHCC: Psalms (Book Introduction)

David was the penman of most of the psalms, but some evidently were composed by other writers, and the writers of some are doubtful. But all were written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and no part of the Old Testament is more frequently quoted or referred to in the New. Every psalm either points directly to Christ, in his person, his character, and offices; or may lead the believer's thoughts to Him. And the psalms are the language of the believer's heart, whether mourning for sin, thirsting after God, or rejoicing in Him. Whether burdened with affliction, struggling with temptation, or triumphing in the hope or enjoyment of deliverance; whether admiring the Divine perfections, thanking God for his mercies, mediating on his truths, or delighting in his service; they form a Divinely appointed standard of experience, by which we may judge ourselves. Their value, in this view, is very great, and the use of them will increase with the growth of the power of true religion in the heart. By the psalmist's expressions, the Spirit helps us to pray. If we make the psalms familiar to us, whatever we have to ask at the throne of grace, by way of confession, petition, or thanksgiving, we may be assisted from thence. Whatever devout affection is working in us, holy desire or hope, sorrow or joy, we may here find words to clothe it; sound speech which cannot be condemned. In the language of this Divine book, the prayers and praises of the church have been offered up to the throne of grace from age to age.

MHCC: Psalms 40 (Chapter Introduction)

(Psa 40:1-5) Confidence for deliverance.

(Psa 40:6-10) Christ's work of redemption.

(Psa 40:11-17) Prayer for mercy and grace.

Matthew Henry: Psalms (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Book of Psalms

We have now before us one of the choicest and most excellent parts of all the Old Testament; nay, so much is there in it of Christ and his gospel, as well as of God and his law, that it had been called the abstract, or summary, of both Testaments. The History of Israel, which we were long upon, let us to camps and council-boards, and there entertained and instructed us in the knowledge of God. The book of Job brought us into the schools, and treated us with profitable disputations concerning God and his providence. But this book brings us into the sanctuary, draws us off from converse with men, with the politicians, philosophers, or disputers of this world, and directs us into communion with God, by solacing and reposing our souls in him, lifting up and letting out our hearts towards him. Thus may we be in the mount with God; and we understand not our interests if we say not, It is good to be here. Let us consider,

I. The title of this book. It is called, 1. The Psalms; under that title it is referred to, Luk 24:44. The Hebrew calls it Tehillim , which properly signifies Psalms of praise, because many of them are such; but Psalms is a more general word, meaning all metrical compositions fitted to be sung, which may as well be historical, doctrinal, or supplicatory, as laudatory. Though singing be properly the voice of joy, yet the intention of songs is of a much greater latitude, to assist the memory, and both to express and to excite all the other affections as well as this of joy. The priests had a mournful muse as well as joyful ones; and the divine institution of singing psalms is thus largely intended; for we are directed not only to praise God, but to teach and admonish ourselves and one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, Col 3:16. 2. It is called the Book of Psalms; so it is quoted by St. Peter, Act 1:20. It is a collection of psalms, of all the psalms that were divinely inspired, which, though composed at several times and upon several occasions, are here put together without any reference to or dependence upon one another; thus they were preserved from being scattered and lost, and were in so much greater readiness for the service of the church. See what a good master we serve, and what pleasantness there is in wisdom's ways, when we are not only commanded to sing at our work, and have cause enough given us to do so, but have words also put in our mouths and songs prepared to our hands.

II. The author of this book. It is, no doubt, derived originally from the blessed Spirit. They are spiritual songs, words which the Holy Ghost taught. The penman of most of them was David the son of Jesse, who is therefore called the sweet psalmist of Israel, 2Sa 23:1. Some that have not his name in their titles yet are expressly ascribed to him elsewhere, as Psa 2:1-12 (Act 4:25) and Psa 96:1-13 and 105 (1 Chr. 16). One psalm is expressly said to be the prayer of Moses (Ps. 90); and that some of the psalms were penned by Asaph is intimated, 2Ch 29:30, where they are said to praise the Lord in the words of David and Asaph , who is there called a seer or prophet. Some of the psalms seem to have been penned long after, as Psa 137:1-9, at the time of the captivity in Babylon; but the far greater part of them were certainly penned by David himself, whose genius lay towards poetry and music, and who was raised up, qualified, and animated, for the establishing of the ordinance of singing psalms in the church of God, as Moses and Aaron were, in their day, for the settling of the ordinances of sacrifice; theirs is superseded, but his remains, and will to the end of time, when it shall be swallowed up in the songs of eternity. Herein David was a type of Christ, who descended from him, not from Moses, because he came to take away sacrifice (the family of Moses was soon lost and extinct), but to establish and perpetuate joy and praise; for of the family of David in Christ there shall be no end.

III. The scope of it. It is manifestly intended, 1. To assist the exercises of natural religion, and to kindle in the souls of men those devout affections which we owe to God as our Creator, owner, ruler, and benefactor. The book of Job helps to prove our first principles of the divine perfections and providence; but this helps to improve them in prayers and praises, and professions of desire towards him, dependence on him, and an entire devotedness and resignation to him. Other parts of scripture show that God is infinitely above man, and his sovereign Lord; but this shows us that he may, notwithstanding, be conversed with by us sinful worms of the earth; and there are ways in which, if it be not our own fault, we may keep up communion with him in all the various conditions of human life. 2. To advance the excellencies of revealed religion, and in the most pleasing powerful manner to recommend it to the world. There is indeed little or nothing of the ceremonial law in all the book of Psalms. Though sacrifice and offering were yet to continue many ages, yet they are here represented as things which God did not desire (Psa 40:6, Psa 51:16), as things comparatively little, and which in time were to vanish away. But the word and law of God, those parts of it which are moral and of perpetual obligation are here all along magnified and made honourable, nowhere more. And Christ, the crown and centre of revealed religion, the foundation, corner, and top-stone, of that blessed building, is here clearly spoken of in type and prophecy, his sufferings and the glory that should follow, and the kingdom that he should set up in the world, in which God's covenant with David, concerning his kingdom, was to have its accomplishment. What a high value does this book put upon the word of God, his statutes and judgments, his covenant and the great and precious promises of it; and how does it recommend them to us as our guide and stay, and our heritage for ever!

IV. The use of it. All scripture, being given by inspiration of God, is profitable to convey divine light into our understandings; but this book is of singular use with that to convey divine life and power, and a holy warmth, into our affections. There is no one book of scripture that is more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it has been so in all ages of the church, ever since it was written and the several parts of it were delivered to the chief musician for the service of the church. 1. It is of use to be sung. Further than David's psalms we may go, but we need not, for hymns and spiritual songs. What the rules of the Hebrew metre were even the learned are not certain. But these psalms ought to be rendered according to the metre of every language, at least so as that they may be sung for the edification of the church. And methinks it is a great comfort to us, when we are singing David's psalms, that we are offering the very same praises to God that were offered to him in the days of David and the other godly kings of Judah. So rich, so well made, are these divine poems, that they can never be exhausted, can never be worn thread-bare. 2. It is of use to be read and opened by the ministers of Christ, as containing great and excellent truths, and rules concerning good and evil. Our Lord Jesus expounded the psalms to his disciples, the gospel psalms, and opened their understandings (for he had the key of David) to understand them, Luk 24:44. 3. It is of use to be read and meditated upon by all good people. It is a full fountain, out of which we may all be drawing water with joy. (1.) The Psalmist's experiences are of great use for our direction, caution, and encouragement. In telling us, as he often does, what passed between God and his soul, he lets us know what we may expect from God, and what he will expect, and require, and graciously accept, from us. David was a man after God's own heart, and therefore those who find themselves in some measure according to his heart have reason to hope that they are renewed by the grace of God, after the image of God, and many have much comfort in the testimony of their consciences for them that they can heartily say Amen to David's prayers and praises. (2.) Even the Psalmist's expressions too are of great use; and by them the Spirit helps our praying infirmities, because we know not what to pray for as we ought. In all our approaches to God, as well as in our first returns to God, we are directed to take with us words (Hos 14:2), these word, words which the Holy Ghost teaches. If we make David's psalms familiar to us, as we ought to do, whatever errand we have at the throne of grace, by way of confession, petition, or thanksgiving, we may thence be assisted in the delivery of it; whatever devout affection is working in us, holy desire or hope, sorrow or joy, we may there find apt words wherewith to clothe it, sound speech which cannot be condemned. It will be good to collect the most proper and lively expressions of devotion which we find here, and to methodize them, and reduce them to the several heads of prayer, that they may be the more ready to us. Or we may take sometimes one choice psalm and sometimes another, and pray it over, that is, enlarge upon each verse in our own thoughts, and offer up our meditations to God as they arise from the expressions we find there. The learned Dr. Hammond, in his preface to his paraphrase on the Psalms (sect. 29), says, " That going over a few psalms with these interpunctions of mental devotion, suggested, animated, and maintained, by the native life and vigour which is in the psalms, is much to be preferred before the saying over the whole Psalter, since nothing is more fit to be averted in religious offices than their degenerating into heartless dispirited recitations." If, as St. Austin advises, we form our spirit by the affection of the psalm, we may then be sure of acceptance with God in using the language of it. Nor is it only our devotion, and the affections of our mind, that the book of Psalms assists, teaching us how to offer praise so as to glorify God, but, it is also a directory to the actions of our lives, and teaches us how to order our conversation aright, so as that, in the end, we may see the salvation of God, Psa 50:23. The Psalms were thus serviceable to the Old Testament church, but to us Christians they may be of more use than they could be to those who lived before the coming of Christ; for, as Moses's sacrifices, so David's songs, are expounded and made more intelligible by the gospel of Christ, which lets us within the veil; so that if to David's prayers and praises we all St. Paul's prayers in his epistles, and the new songs in the Revelation, we shall be thoroughly furnished for this good work; for the scripture, perfected, makes the man of God perfect.

As to the division of this book, we need not be solicitous; there is no connexion (or very seldom) between one psalm and another, nor any reason discernable for the placing of them in the order wherein we here find them; but it seems to be ancient, for that which is now the second psalm was so in the apostles' time, Act 13:33. The vulgar Latin joins the 9th and 10th together; all popish authors quote by that, so that, thenceforward, throughout the book, their number is one short of ours; our 11 is their 10, our 119 is their 118. But they divide the 147th into two, and so make up the number of 150. Some have endeavoured to reduce the psalms to proper heads, according to the matter of them, but there is often such a variety of matter in one and the same psalm that this cannot be done with any certainty. But the seven penitential Psalms have been in a particular manner singled out by the devotions of many. They are reckoned to be Psa 6:1-10, Psa 32:1-11, 38, 51,102, Psa 130:1-8, and Psa 143:1-12. The Psalms were divided into five books, each concluding with Amen, Amen, or Hallelujah; the first ending with Psa 41:1-13, the second with Ps. 72, the third with Ps. 89, the fourth with Ps. 106, the fifth with Psa 150:1-6. Others divide them into three fifties; others into sixty parts, two for every day of the month, one for the morning, the other for the evening. Let good Christians divide them for themselves, so as may best increase their acquaintance with them, that they may have them at hand upon all occasions and may sing them in the spirit and with the understanding.

Matthew Henry: Psalms 40 (Chapter Introduction)

It should seem David penned this psalm upon occasion of his deliverance, by the power and goodness of God, from some great and pressing trouble, by which he was in danger of being overwhelmed; probably it was some trouble of mind arising from a sense of sin and of God's displeasure against him for it; whatever it was, the same Spirit that indited his praises for that deliverance was in him, at the same time, a Spirit of prophecy, testifying of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow; or, ere he was aware, he was led to speak of his undertaking, and the discharge of his undertaking, in words that must be applied to Christ only; and therefore how far the praises that here go before that illustrious prophecy, and the prayers that follow, may safely and profitably be applied to him it will be worth while to consider. In this psalm, I. David records God's favour to him in delivering him out of his deep distress, with thankfulness to his praise (Psa 40:1-5). II. Thence he takes occasion to speak of the work of our redemption by Christ (Psa 40:6-10). III. That gives him encouragement to pray to God for mercy and grace both for himself and for his friends (Psa 40:11-17). If, in singing this psalm, we mix faith with the prophecy of Christ, and join in sincerity with the praises and prayers here offered up, we make melody wit our hearts to the Lord.

To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

Constable: Psalms (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Title

The title of this book in the Hebrew Bible is Tehillim, which means "praise songs." The title adopted by the Septuagint translators for their Greek version was Psalmoi meaning "songs to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument." This Greek word comes from the Hebrew word mizmor that occurs in the titles of 57 of the psalms. In time the Greek word psalmoi came to mean "songs of praise" without reference to stringed accompaniment. The English translators transliterated the Greek title resulting in the title "Psalms" in English Bibles.

Date and Writers

The texts of the individual psalms do not usually indicate who wrote them.¹ However some of the titles of the individual psalms do contain information about the writers.² This is the only really reliable information we have as to who composed these psalms, though the commentators have their theories.

Not all the titles contain information about authorship.³ The ones that do refer to the following writers. Moses wrote Psalm 90.⁴ David composed 73 psalms, mostly in the first two books of the Psalter (i.e., Pss. 1-72). Asaph wrote 12 (Pss. 50, 73-83). Korah's descendents were responsible for 10 (Pss. 42, 44-49, 84, 87-88). Solomon wrote one or two (127 and perhaps 72). Heman the Ezrahite wrote one (Ps. 88). Ethan the Ezrahite composed one (Ps. 89).

Of these the earliest would have been the one Moses wrote (Ps. 90) and it probably dates from about 1405 B.C. Those David composed would have originated between about 1020 and 975 B.C. Asaph was a contemporary of David so we can date his in approximately the same period. Solomon's psalm(s) seem to have been produced about 950 B.C. Korah's descendents as well as Heman and Ethan probably lived after Solomon, but exactly when we cannot identify. Since Heman and Ethan are connected with Ezra as Ezrahites it is probable that they lived and wrote after the Babylonian exile as he did.

We can date some of the psalms that do not contain information about their writers in the title, if they have a title, by their subject matter. For example, David seems to have written Psalms 2 and 33 even though his name does not occur in the superscriptions (cf. Acts 4:25). Likewise Psalms 126 and 137 must have been late compositions dating from the time the Jews returned from Babylonian exile or shortly after that.

Most of the Psalms, then, were written between 1000 and 450 B.C. The one by Moses was composed considerably earlier and a few may have been written later, but probably not much later, than 450 B.C.

There is some internal evidence in the Book of Psalms that the Jews collected the individual psalms and compiled them into groups in various stages and that this process took some time.⁵ We would expect this because some psalms date hundreds of years after others. Psalm 72:20, for example, seems to mark the end of a collection of David's psalms that antedated the Psalter we now have, but which editors incorporated into the larger work. Psalm 1 appears intended to introduce this collection and, probably later, the entire Psalter. The writer of most of the first 72 psalms (Books 1 and 2 of our modern editions) was David.⁶ Solomon (2 Chron. 5:11-14; 7:6; 9:11; Eccles. 2:8), Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:21-22), and Jehoiada (2 Chron. 23:18) all organized temple singing and may have had a hand in compiling some of the psalms. Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.; 2 Kings 18-20; 2 Chron. 29-32), one of Judah's best kings and one who led his people in returning to Scripture, may have added to and organized part of the Psalter (cf. 2 Chron. 29:25-28, 30; 30:21; 31:2; Prov. 25:1). So may Josiah, another reforming king of Judah (640-609 B.C.; 2 Kings 22:1-23:30; 2 Chron. 34-35; cf. 2 Chron. 35:15, 25). The last two books (sections) of Psalms (chs. 90-106 and 107-150) contain more miscellaneous psalms dating from Moses to the return from exile. It seems likely that Ezra, the great renovator of postexilic Judaism, may have been responsible for adding these and perhaps putting the whole collection in its final form.

"The picture that emerges is a mixture of order and informality of arrangement, which invites but also defeats the attempt to account for every detail of its final form. There is some chronological progression, with David most in evidence in the first half, and a clear allusion to the captivity towards the close of Book V (Ps. 137). But David reappears in the next psalm (138), and by contrast, the fall of Jerusalem had been lamented as far back as Psalm 74."⁷

Each of the five books or major sections of the Psalter ends with a doxology, and Psalm 150 is a grand doxology for the whole collection. The earliest evidence of the five-fold division of the Book of Psalms comes from the Qumran scrolls, which scribes copied early in the first century A.D. Undoubtedly the Psalter was in its final form by the close of the Old Testament canon, namely by 400 B.C.

Scope

Historically the psalms cover a period of about 1000 years, from the time of Moses (c. 1400 B.C.) to the Isrealites' return from exile (c. 450 B.C.).

In terms of subject matter they deal with selected events of that millennium. They provide us with the thoughts and feelings of those who went through the experiences recorded, especially their God-directed thoughts and feelings.

"Of all the books in the Old Testament the Book of Psalms most vividly represents the faith of individuals in the Lord. The Psalms are the inspired responses of human hearts to God's revelation of Himself in law, history, and prophecy. Saints of all ages have appropriated this collection of prayers and praises in their public worship and private meditations."⁸

Genre

"One should think of this aspect of interpretation as being like the Olympics, a grand occasion made up of a variety of sports. Though it is all sport, each game is played by its own rules and has its own expectations about how to play the game. The variety of literature is the same way. It all has a message, but it conveys that message in a variety of ways and with a variety of expectations. To try to play basketball with soccer's rules will never work, though both use a ball and require foot speed. Or think of musical instruments, they all make music, but in different ways with different sounds. One cannot play the violin like a piano or drums; nor should one expect a violin to sound like either a piano or the kettledrum! In the same way, to read the poetry of the Psalms like a historical book is to miss the emotional and pictorial impact of the message, though both genres convey reality about people's experience with God. To transform the imagery and setting of the Psalter into mere theological proposition is also to take the passion and lifeblood out of its veins."⁹

Types

The messianic psalms are perhaps the most commonly known type. They predict the coming of a messiah. Franz Delitzsch broke these psalms down into five kinds. The first is the purely prophetic, which predicts that a future Davidic king would be the Lord (Ps. 110). Second, the eschatological psalms predict the coming of Messiah and the consummation of His kingdom (Pss. 96-99, et al.). Third, we have the typological-prophetic in which the writer describes his own experience but goes beyond that to describe what became true of the Messiah (e.g., Ps. 22). Fourth, there are the indirectly messianic psalms composed for a contemporary king but having ultimate fulfillment in Messiah (Pss. 2: 45; 72). Fifth, we have the typically messianic in which the writer was in some way typical of Messiah, but all he wrote in the psalm did not describe Him (e.g., Ps. 34:20; 109:8 as used in Acts 1:20).¹⁰ The following seem to be messianic psalms in whole or in part: 2 (cf. Matt. 3:17; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5; 7:28; 2 Pet. 1:17); 8 (Matt. 21:15-16; Heb. 2:6-9); 16 (Acts 2:25-28; 13:55); 22 (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34); 34; 40; 41; 45 (Heb. 1:8-9); 68; 69 (John 2:17; 15:25); 72; 96-99; 102; 109; 110; and 118 (Matt. 21:42).¹¹

The imprecatory psalms are thought of as a distinct type by some interpreters on the basis of their subject matter.¹² These psalms contain imprecations, or curses, on God's enemies. They have created a problem for some Christians since Jesus Christ taught His disciples to bless their enemies and not to curse them (Matt. 5:43-44; Luke 6:27-28; cf. Rom. 12:14). In the progress of revelation it was not easy for the writers of the psalms to see the details of the future distinctly. They could not feel the peace about God's ultimate establishment of justice that modern believers who know their Bibles do. Consequently when they witnessed injustice and oppression they did not usually know how God would deal with it so they called on Him to vindicate Himself immediately. With the coming of Jesus Christ and the added revelation He provided believers now have a fuller picture of how God will balance the scales of justice. It is therefore inappropriate for us to pray imprecations of the sort we find in the Old Testament. God has recorded them for our benefit, not as examples to follow in their wording but in their spirit of zeal for God's glory.¹³

What is now the most common way of classifying the psalms originated with the German scholar Hermann Gunkel at the beginning of the twentieth century.¹⁴ He was one of the founders of the form critical school of scholarship that sought to understand a given portion of Scripture by analyzing the form in which the writer composed it. Scholars then compared that form with other biblical and contemporary literature from the ancient Near Eastern countries that were Israel's neighbors, particularly Egypt and Mesopotamia. Gunkel classified the psalms into various categories or types (Germ. gattungen) by trying to identify the general situation in life (Germ. sitz im leben) that brought them into existence rather than by their content. He concluded that most of the psalms were postexilic. Many scholars have followed this form critical approach in their study of the Psalms as well as in other portions of the Old Testament.¹⁵

Most form critical scholars speculated about the origins of the various psalms and concluded that priests wrote most of them late in Israel's history. This has led many conservatives to reject form criticism completely. Nonetheless this school of interpreters has given us some helpful information, namely the various literary types of psalms that appear in the book.

Some of the more important types of psalms by literary form are the following. Individual laments are psalms by individuals calling on God for help from distress. National laments are similar but voice a corporate cry for help in view of some national situation.

"Laments outnumber every other kind of psalm in the Psalter; almost a third of the psalms belong to this category."¹⁶

Thanksgiving psalms--also called psalms of declarative praise--center on some act of deliverance God granted His people. Descriptive praise psalms offer praise to God for Himself or for His general working rather than for a specific instance of His working. The poets wrote the pilgrim psalms, also called songs of ascent, for singing by the Israelites as they made their thrice-yearly pilgrimages up to Jerusalem for the required festival observances there. Royal psalms are those in which the king of Israel is the chief character. Some event in his reign is being described such as his coronation, wedding, or going out to battle. The enthronement psalms speak of the Lord as the great king fulfilling His role in some way such as reigning or coming to judge.

Another type of psalm, based on the form in which the writer set it rather than on the subject matter, is the acrostic. In these each verse, or group of verses in the case of Psalm 119, begins with the succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The psalmists adopted this style so the Israelites could memorize and remember the psalm easily. The acrostic psalms are these: 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, and 145.¹⁷

Message¹⁸

The Book of Psalms is an inspired collection of Hebrew poems intended for use in worship. Spirit directed compilers put them in their present order for several reasons including authorship and affinity of ideas. The compilers did not organize them in the order in which the psalmist wrote them. Each psalm is the expression of one writer who responded to God in the light of his particular circumstances when he wrote. Consequently there is no argument or progression of thought as the reader makes his or her way through the book.

The subject of the Book of Psalms is worship. Worship is the act of offering to God what is due Him because of who He is. The Hebrew word translated "worship" (shachah) means to bow oneself down or to do obeisance. The psalmists used it to describe prostration before God or some angel or another human being. It pictures an attitude of submission to a superior person. This word occurs only 15 times in Psalms with God as the object, but the idea of worshipping God is present in every psalm.

In these 15 passages the psalmists referred to God as Yahweh, Elohim, or Adonai. Those worshipping Him are individuals, kings, nations, and all the earth. His temple (Israel's central sanctuary) and His holy hill (Mt. Zion) were the central places of worship. Fear, holiness, and joy are the primary attitudes prominent in this worship.

God's people throughout history have loved the Psalter. There are a number of reasons for its popularity. First, it is a collection of songs that arise out of experiences with which we can all identify. It is very difficult to find any circumstance in life that does not find expression in some psalm or another. Some arose out of prosperity, others out of adversity. Some psalms deal with holiness, and others with sinfulness. Some are laments that bewail the worst of situations whereas others are triumphant hymns of joy and thanksgiving. Some look back to the past while others look forward to the future.

The psalms are great because their writers composed them out of their most profound experiences. Great poetry arises out of great living. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt. 12:34). They are also great because the writers brought these profound experiences into God's presence. They show how people behave when they are conscious of God, the only truly realistic way to live. Therefore the permanent value of the psalms lies in their revelation of worship.

First, the Psalter reveals the person of God who is the object of worship. The primary revelation of God's character in the psalms is His names. The writers employed dozens of titles and figures of speech to describe God, but the three names of God that they used most are Yahweh, Elohim, and Adonai. When we understand these names alone we will want to worship God.

The name Yahweh captures the essential being of God. He is who He is (Exod. 3:14). This name occurs more often than any other in the psalms. Essentially it means that God is the eternally self-existent Person who becomes all that His people need. God's being is never the subject of debate in the psalms. The writers assumed His existence. As Yahweh God is always an adequate resource for whatever His people need whenever they have needs. That is because the Name Yahweh describes God in covenant relationship with His people. Translators normally render it LORD in English translations. Psalm 139 is perhaps the greatest exposition of the essential being of God, and Psalm 23 the chief revelation of His becoming all His people need.

The second great name of God in the Psalter is Elohim. Normally this Hebrew word translates as "God" in our English Bibles. It is a plural word in the Hebrew, which does not necessarily signify number but immensity. God as He reveals Himself is so infinite that no singular word can express Him adequately. "Elohim" suggests God's essential might and the fact that He is extremely powerful. God's strength is not just potential, but kinetic (i.e., in motion). It is latent, but also active. Such power elicited the awe of the psalmists. Psalm 68 is perhaps the greatest revelation of God's essential might in the Psalter, and Psalm 46 sets forth His great power at work most impressively.

The title "Adonai" (Lord in the sense of Master) does not occur frequently in the psalms, but the idea it expresses is present constantly. This title expresses the sovereignty of God, the fact that there is no one higher in authority than He. He is the King over the whole universe and the ultimate ruler over Israel. Perhaps Psalm 86 sets forth the sovereignty of God more magnificently than any other psalm.

Whenever a person, king, nation, or race conceives of God as Yahweh, Elohim, or Adonai the result is worship. We can do nothing else but prostrate ourselves before such an One. That is what the writers of these psalms did as they reflected on their experiences in the light of who God is.

The second great revelation of the Psalter is man's attitude in worship. Briefly we see man responding to the revelation of God joyfully, trustfully, and submissively. When we understand that God Himself is an adequate resource for us regardless of our needs, we worship by rejoicing. When we appreciate God's mighty power we worship Him by trusting Him. When we learn that God is sovereign we respond in worship by submitting to Him.

When we appreciate God's grace in providing all we need we rejoice. In the psalms we see joy manifesting itself in penitence and adoration. Penitence manifests joy in the following way. We have God's promises of forgiveness if we confess when we sin. Forgiveness for sin is one of God's greatest gifts to humankind. It is not something we can earn or deserve. It is a gift of God based ultimately on a work God has done for us through His Son. The penitential root attitude blossoms into adoration for God's grace. The sweetest music comes out of hearts broken by sin, hearts aware of their total bankruptcy before God. The most glorious praises spring from the lips of those who most sense the great gifts God has given them.

Trust in God's almighty power expresses itself in honesty and courage. Honesty is the internal fruit of trust and courage its external manifestation. The person who really trusts God's power will be open and honest because he believes God will exercise His power to defend him. He will be willing to take risks because he is relying on God's supernatural power to sustain and uphold him. The psalmists expressed themselves and behaved honestly before God and people because they believed in His sovereignty. They also faced danger courageously because they believed God could and would provide adequate help for His own.

Submission to the sovereignty of God expresses itself in reverence and obedience in the psalms. Reverence is the external evidence of submission to God, and obedience the core proof of it. The person who really believes God is the ultimate authority will respect Him. He will also yield to God's superior authority submissively. We see the psalmists expressing their reverence for God and bowing humbly to His will throughout the Psalter.

The third major revelation concerning worship in the psalms is the activities of worship. As we have seen, one's conception of God leads to worship, and one's attitudes shape worship. One's activities also demonstrate worship.

The psalms reveal that worship grows out of something God has done for man. Man does not worship because there is something intrinsic within him that must come out. Worship is always a response to something God has done. God elicits worship. Man does not initiate it on his own. Throughout the psalms the psalmists responded to God's dealings with them. God is always the initiator and man the responder. This fact helps us see that God is worthy of worship.

Human response in worship involves opening the soul to God. David's confession in Psalm 32 is a good example of this. He rejoiced in his open relationship with God when he acknowledged his sin. He also received God's gift of pardon. Then he offered praise to God. These are the essential human activities of worship: confession, reception, and praise.

After God initiates worship and man responds by worshipping, God becomes to the worshipper all he or she needs. God is true and faithful in His dealings with worshippers. He becomes for us all we need when we worship Him. Thus the activities of worship begin and end with God. They begin with His initiating situations in life. They end with His drawing us to Himself. In between we bare our souls, receive His gifts, and offer our praise.

The message of the Psalter then is, "Worship God!" Turn every situation into an occasion for worship. If we are sad we should worship. If we are glad we should worship. If we are in the dark we should worship. If we are in the light we should worship. The Apostle Paul expressed it this way in Philippians 4:4 and 7: "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice. . . . And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. You praise the Lord" (Ps. 150:6).

Constable: Psalms (Outline)

Outline

I. Book 1: chs. 1-41

II. Book 2: chs. 42-72

III. Book 3: chs. 73-89

IV. Book 4: chs. 90-106

V. Book 5: chs. 107-150

Constable: Psalms

Psalms

Bibliography

Allen, Ronald B. "Evidence from Psalm 89." In A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus, pp. 55-77. Edited by Donald K. Campbell and Jeffrey L. Townsend. Chicago: Moody Press, 1992.

_____. Lord of Song. Portland: Multnomah Press, 1985.

_____. The Majesty of Man: The Dignity of Being Human. Portland: Multnomah Press, 1984.

_____. "Psalm 87, A Song Rarely Sung." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:610 (April-June 1996):131-40.

_____. Rediscovering Prophecy: A New Song for a New Kingdom. Portland: Multnomah Press, 1983.

Archer, Gleason, L., Jr. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Revised ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1974.

Barker, David G. "The Lord Watches over You': A Pilgrimage Reading of Psalm 121." Bibliotheca Sacra 152:606 (April-June 1995):163-81.

Bateman, Herbert W., IV. "Psalm 110:1 and the New Testament." Bibliotheca Sacra 149:596 (October-December 1992):438-53.

Beisner, E. Calvin. Psalms of Promise. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1988.

Bentzen, Aage. "The Cultic Use of the Story of the Ark in Samuel." Journal of Biblical Literature 67 (1948):37-53.

_____. Fortolkning til de Gemmeltestamentlige Salmer. Kobenhavn: G. E. C. Gad, 1939.

Bock, Darrell L. "Interpreting the Bible--How Texts Speak to Us." In Progressive Dispensationalism, pp. 76-105. By Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1993.

Bratcher, Robert G., ed. Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament. 3rd rev. ed. London: United Bible Societies, 1987.

Cansdale, G. S. Animals of Bible Lands. London: Paternoster Press, 1970.

Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Systematic Theology. 8 vols. Dallas: Dallas Seminary Press, 1948.

Childs, Brevard S. Memory and Tradition in Israel. Studies in Biblical Theology series, no. 37. London: SCM, 1962.

Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. "Does God Change His Mind'?" Bibliotheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):387-99.

_____. "Does God Deceive?" Bibliotheca Sacra 155:617 (January-March 1998):11-28.

_____. "A Theology of the Psalms." In A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, pp. 257-304. Edited by Roy B. Zuck. Chicago: Moody Press, 1991.

Christensen, Duane L. "The Book of Psalms within the Canonical Process in Ancient Israel." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 39:3 (September 1996):421-32.

Cohen, A. The Psalms. London: Soncino Press, 1945.

Constable, Thomas L. "The Doctrine of Prayer." Th.D. dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1969.

_____. "What Prayer Will and Will Not Change." In Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 99-113. Edited by Stanley D. Toussaint and Charles H. Dyer. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986.

Cooke, Gerald. "The Israelite King as Son of God." Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 73:2 (June 1961):202-25.

Curtis, Edward M. "Ancient Psalms and Modern Worship." Bibliotheca Sacra 153:615 (July-September 1997):285-96.

Delitzsch, Franz. Biblical Commentary on the Psalms. 3 vols. Translated by Francis Bolton. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament. N.p.; reprint ed., Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., n.d.

Eissfeldt, Otto. Einleitung in das Alte Testament unter Einschluss der Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen. Tubingen: Mohr, 1934.

Engnell, Ivan. Gamla Testamentet. Stockholm: Svenska Kyrkans Diakonistyrelses Bokforlag, 1945.

Glenn, Donald R. "Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2: A Case Study in Biblical Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology." In Walvoord: A Tribute, pp. 39-51. Edited by Donald K. Campbell. Chicago: Moody Press, 1982.

Gunkel, Hermann. Ausgewahlte Psalmen. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1904.

Heinemann, Mark H. "An Exposition of Psalm 22." Bibliotheca Sacra 147:587 (July-September 1990):286-308.

Ho, Chun Leung. "God Will Repay: An Exegetical Exposition of Psalm Sixty-four." Exegesis and Exposition 3:1 (Fall 1988):34-44.

Hoehner, Harold W. "Ephesians." In Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, pp. 613-45. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1983.

Johnson, Elliott E. "Hermeneutical Principles and the Interpretation of Psalm 110." Bibliotheca Sacra 149:596 (October-December 1992):428-37.

Kidner, Derek. Psalms 1-72. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Leicester and Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973.

_____. Psalms 73-150. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Leicester and Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1975.

Kirkpatrick, A. F. Psalms. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891-1901.

Laney, J. Carl "A Fresh Look at the Imprecatory Psalms." Bibliotheca Sacra 138:549 (January-March 1981):35-45.

Leslie, Elmer A. The Psalms. New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1949.

Leupold, H. C. Exposition of the Psalms. 1959. Reprint ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1969.

Lewis, Clive Staples. The Screwtape Letters. Reprint ed. New York: Macmillan, 1959.

Luc, Alex. "Interpreting the Curses in the Psalms." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 42:3 (September 1999):395-410.

Martin, Chalmers. "Imprecations in the Psalms." In Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, pp. 113-32. Edited by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1972.

Merrill, Eugene H. "The Book of Ruth: Narration and Shared Themes." Bibliotheca Sacra 142:566 (April-June 1985):130-41.

Mowinckel, Signund O. P. Psalmen Studien. Kristiania (Oslo): J. Dybwad, 1921-24.

Oesterley, William O. E. The Psalms. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1939.

Parsons, Greg W. "Guidelines for Understanding and Proclaiming the Psalms." Bibliotheca Sacra 147:586 (April-June 1990):169-87.

Perowne, J. J. Stewart. The Book of Psalms. 2 vols. 4th ed. London: George Bell and Sons, 1878. Reprint ed. 2 vols. in 1. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.

Pope, Marvin H. Job. Anchor Bible series. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1973.

Robinson, Haddon W. Psalm Twenty-Three. Chicago: Moody Press, 1968.

Robinson, Theodore H. An Introduction to the Old Testament. London: E. Arnold, 1948.

Ross, Allen P. "Psalms." In Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament, pp. 779-899. Edited by John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck. Wheaton: Scripture Press Publications, Victor Books, 1985.

Smith, Charles R. "The Book of Life." Grace Theological Journal 6:2 (Fall 1985):219-30.

Soden, John Mark. "Whom Shall I Fear? Psalm 27." Exegesis and Exposition 3:1 (Fall 1988):1-24.

Swindoll, Charles R. Living Beyond the Daily Grind, Book I. Dallas: Word Publishing, 1988.

Thirtle, James W. The Titles of the Psalms. 2nd ed. London: H. Frowde, 1905.

Torcszyner, Harry. "The Riddle in the Bible." Hebrew Union College Annual 1 (1924):125-49.

van Rensburg, J. F. J. "History as Poetry: A Study of Psalm 136." OTWSA 29 (1986):80-89.

Walvoord, John F. The Holy Spirit. Findlay, Oh.: Dunham Publishing Co., 1958.

_____. Israel in Prophecy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962.

Weinfeld, Moshe. "The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East," Journal of the American Oriental Society 90 (1970):184-203.

White, John. Daring To Draw Near. Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978.

Wood, Leon. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1976.

Yee, Russell. "The Divine Imperative to Sing." Exegesis and Exposition 2:1 (Summer 1987):28-44.

Zemek, George J., Jr. "The Word of God in the Child of God: Psalm 119." Spire 10:2 (1982):8-9.

Zuck, Roy B. Job. Everyman's Bible Commentary series. Chicago: Moody Press, 1978.

_____. "The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms." ThM thesis. Dallas Theological Seminary, 1957.

Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Psalms (Book Introduction)

THE BOOK OF PSALMS.

INTRODUCTION.

The Psalms are called by the Hebrew, Tehillim; that is, hymns of praise. The author, of a great part of them at least, was king David; but many are of opinion, that some of them were made by Asaph and others, whose names are prefixed in the titles. (Challoner) --- These, however, are not unquestionably of divine authority, though they deserve to be respected. (Calmet) --- St. Jerome (ad Cyprian) says: "Let us be convinced that those labour under a mistake, who suppose that David was the author of all the Psalms, and not those whose names appear in the titles." Paine is not, therefore, the first who has made this discovery. (Watson) (2 Paralipomenon xxix. 30.) --- Psalm lxxvi., compared with Psalms xxxviii., lxiv., lxx., cxi., cxxv., cxxxvi., and cxlv., seems favourable of this opinion, (Calmet; Tirinus; &c.) which is contrary to St. Ambrose, &c. The matter is not of great moment, as all confess that the 150 Psalms were dedicated by the Holy Ghost. (Du Hamel) --- St. Augustine (City of God xvii. 14.) attributes all the Psalms to David; and it seems best to adhere to this opinion, as it is most generally received. (Menochius) --- Our Saviour cites the cix. Psalm as belonging to David, (Matthew xxii. 44.) agreeably to the title; and the 2d Psalm is also attributed to him, by the apostles, (Acts iv. 25.) though it have no title at all, no more than the first. (Haydock) --- It has generally been asserted, that when a Psalm is in this position, it must be referred to the author who was mentioned last. But Bellarmine calls this in question: and the titles of themselves afford but a precarious argument, either to know the author or the real import of the Psalm. (Calmet) --- St. Jerome himself (ad Paulin.) seems to suppose that David was the writer of all the Psalms, (Worthington) and that he has left us compositions which may vie with those of the most celebrated pagan bards. In effect, nothing could excel the harmony of these divine hymns, to judge even from a translation. (Fleury.) --- What then would they be in the original? The difficulty of coming to a perfect knowledge of the author's meaning, arises chiefly from the variety of translations and commentaries, which have been more numerous on this work than any other. To examine all minutely, would require more volumes than our present limits will allow. The version which we have to explain, is not that which St. Jerome made from the Hebrew and which possesses the same intrinsic merit as the rest of his works: but the Church has declared authentic the holy doctor's corrected (Haydock) version from St. Lucian, (Bellarmine; Tirinus) or from the Septuagint as the people had been accustomed to sing the psalter in that manner; and it would have been difficult for them to learn another. (Calmet) --- A critical examination would show, that the Septuagint have not so often deviated from the original [Hebrew] as some would pretend. See Berthier, &c. Pellican extols the fidelity of our version on the Psalms, though he was a Protestant. (Ward. Err. p. 6.) --- When therefore we offer a different version, we would not insinuate that the Vulgate is therefore to be rejected. The copiousness of the Hebrew language, (Haydock) and on some occasions the uncertainty of its roots, or precise import, (Somon. Crit.) ought to make every one diffident in pronouncing peremptorily on such subjects. Let us rather adhere to the decision of the Church, when it is given on any particular text; and when she is silent, let us endeavour to draw the streams of life from our Saviour's fountains, and read for our improvement in virtue. (Haydock) --- No exhortations could be more cogent, than those which we may find in the Psalms. They contain the sum of all the other sacred books, as the Fathers agree. (St. Augustine; St. Basil; &c.) To understand them better, we must reflect upon what key or string they each play. Expositors discover ten such stings on this mysterious harp: 1. God; 2. his works; 3. Providence; 4. the peculiar people of the Jews; 5. Christ; 6. his Church; 7. true worship; 8. David; 9. the end of the world; 10. a future life. On some of these subjects the Psalm principally turns. The titles, composed by Esdras, or the Septuagint, (Worthington) or by some other, (Calmet) will often point out the subject; and if that be not the case, the context and other parts of Scripture will (Worthington) commonly (Haydock) do it. (Worthington) --- The greatest stress must be laid on these. (Calmet) --- An intimate acquaintance with the history of David, and with the Jewish and Christian religion, will also be of essential service to enable us to penetrate the hidden treasures contained in these most heavenly canticles. (Haydock) --- David excels all the pagans in point of antiquity, as he lived 100 years before Homer. His natural genius led him to follow the pursuits of poetry and music; (1 Kings xvi. 23.) and God inspired him to compose these poems, as works in metre are more easily remembered, and make a more pleasing impression upon the heart. Hence Moses and other prophets adopted the same plan, both in the Old and the New Testament. The pious king [David] not being permitted to build the temple, made nevertheless all necessary preparations for it; and among the rest, procured 288 masters of music to train up 4000 singers, 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 25. He foresaw that these Psalms would be of service, not only on the Jewish festivals, but also in the Christian Church, (Psalm lvi., 10., &c.) gathered from all nations, (Worthington) among whom he sings by the mouths (Haydock) of the clergy, who are commanded daily to sing or recite some of these Psalms. (Worthington) --- The psalter takes its name from an instrument of ten strings, resembling the Greek [letter] Lamda, (Ven. Bede) and sounding from above, to insinuate that we may (Worthington) here learn to observe (Haydock) all the decalogue, and to aim at heaven. If difficulties present themselves in the perusal of these sacred writings, we must remember not to trust private interpretation, (2 Peter i.) but to the doctrine of the Church, (John xiv. 16., and 1 Corinthians xii.) which we may find in the works of the holy Fathers, (St. Augustine, Doct.[On Christian Doctrine?]) and exercise ourselves in humility, when any thing occurs above our comprehension. (St. Gregory xvii. in Ezechiel) (Worthington) --- We must pray with all earnestness to the Father of Lights, and surely no prayers can be more efficacious to obtain what we want, than those which he has here delivered. Whether just or sinners, whether in joy or sorrow, we may here find what may be suitable for us. (Haydock) --- In hoc libro spiritualis Bibliotheca instructa est. (Cassiodorus)

Gill: Psalms (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO PSALMS

The title of this book may be rendered "the Book of Praises", or "Hymns"; the psalm which our Lord sung at the passover is called an "hymn", Mat 26:30; and the one hundred forty fifth Psalm is entitled תהלה, "an Hymn of David"; and the psalms in general are called "hymns" by Philo the Jew ^a, and songs and hymns by Josephus ^b; and to these several names of this book the apostle manifestly refers in Eph 5:19, Col 3:16. The Jews divided the writings of the Old Testament into three parts: the first division is the Law, or five books of Moses; the second is the Prophets, former and latter; and the third, the "Hagiographa", or holy writings; to which division Christ has a regard in Luk 24:44; and because the book of Psalms stand first in the last division, the whole goes by its name. This book by the Apostle Peter is entitled as here, Act 1:20; the title in the Syriac version is,

"the Book of the Psalms of David, King and Prophet,''

with which agrees the Arabic version. As to the divine authority of it, that it was written by inspiration of God, we have not only the testimony of David, who says, "the Spirit of God spake by me", 2Sa 23:2; but the testimonies of Christ and his apostles, Mat 22:43; and, as Aben Ezra ^c observes the whole of it was spoken ברוח הקודש, "by the Holy Ghost". Concerning the penman or amanuensis, employed by the Spirit of God in writing it, there are different opinions. The Jews make mention of ten, which are differently reckoned by them. According to Jarchi ^d, they were Adam, Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Asaph, and the three sons of Korah. According to Kimchi ^e, they were Adam, the first, Melchizedek, Abraham, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, Moses, and the three sons of Korah; Asir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. Some ascribe all the Psalms to David ^f, and think that those which are said to be a psalm of Asaph, or of Heman, &c. should be rendered "a psalm to Asaph", &c. and only signify that they were psalms delivered to them, to be sung in a public manner. But the truest opinion seems to be, that the greater part of them were written by David, and for the most part those that have no title; and the rest by those whose names they bear. Some were written at and after the Babylonish captivity, as Psa 126:1 and Psa 137:1. The manner or form in which they were written was metre ^g, though some deny it that the Jews had metre: as appears by the different accentuation of them from other writings, and from their being sung vocally and on musical instruments. Josephus ^h, the Jewish historian, says, that

"David being free from war, and enjoying a profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God, of various metre; some trimeter, and some pentameter;''

that is, some of three feet, and others of five feet: for the Psalms of David are thought to be of the "lyric" kind; and Gomarus, in his Lyra, has given many instances out of them, which are of the "iambic", "trochaic" kind, &c. though the Jews for many years have lost the knowledge of the sacred poetry. R. Benjamin ⁱ indeed says, that in his time there were at Bagdad R. Eleazar and his brethren, who knew how to sing the songs, as the singers did when the temple was standing. The subject matter of this book is exceeding great and excellent; many of the psalms respect the person, offices, and grace of Christ; his sufferings and death, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God; and so are exceeding suitable to the Gospel dispensation. The whole book is a rich mine of grace and evangelical truths, and a large fund of spiritual experience; and is abundantly suited to every case, state, and condition, that the church of Christ, or particular believers, are in at any time.

Gill: Psalms 40 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 40

To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. Jarchi interprets this psalm of the Israelites, and of their deliverance and song at the Red sea. The title of it, in the Syriac version, is,

"A psalm of David according to the letter, when Shemaiah brought the names of those who minister in the house of the Lord;''

see 1Ch 24:6; according to Kimchi, the subject of this psalm is the same with that of the two preceding; and R. Obadiah thinks it was composed by David, when he was recovered of a leprosy; but though it might be written by David, it was not written concerning himself, or on his own account, but of another. The title of this psalm is somewhat different from others in the order of the words; whereas it is usually put "a psalm of", or "for David"; here it is, "for David, a psalm"; and may be rendered, as Ainsworth observes, "a psalm concerning David"; not literally, but typically understood; not concerning David himself, but concerning his antitype and son, who is called by his name, Eze 37:24; and that it is to be interpreted of him is evident from the application of Psa 39:6, unto him by the apostle in Heb 10:5; and the whole of it is applicable to him; some apply it to Jeremiah in the dungeon, and others to Daniel in the den, as Theodoret observes.