Psalms 40:1-3 ESV
“I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.”
On a surface read, what was standing out to me about this passage of Scripture was how much it sounds like the gospel. For Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us out of the pit of hell, which is the pit of destruction. He died to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we might now be slaves of God and of his righteousness. And Jesus Christ is that solid rock on which we now stand. And the new song is the song of our salvation from sin and eternal life with God. And this is about people seeing this take place in other people’s lives and then putting their trust in the Lord.
But what stopped me from going that direction is the first sentence where the psalmist stated that he waited patiently for the Lord before the Lord inclined to him and heard his cry, well, in his words anyway. For we don’t wait patiently for the Lord to save us from our sins. He already provided the way for us to have salvation from sin. He waits for us to incline our ear to him and to say “Yes” to him and to die with him to sin and to live to him and to his righteousness, in his power and strength. And God the Father is the one who draws us to Christ, and he waits for us to receive Christ as Savior.
So, what else could this be? Well, David is the writer of this psalm. And if you are at all familiar with David’s psalms, he spoke much of his personal sufferings and persecutions and of enemies who were coming against him. And he prayed much for the Lord to deliver him from his enemies and from those times of great suffering and persecution. And if you have ever had to suffer in such ways for your walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and for standing on the truth of God’s word against the forces of evil, you know that such suffering can feel like “the pit of destruction,” because of our enemies.
And the apostle Paul often expressed such sentiments and prayers to be delivered out of his enormous and difficult times of suffering at the hands of his enemies and his persecutors. And such times as these can be very oppressive, and they can weigh heavy on our hearts. And we are not always immediately delivered from them, and so we do wait patiently on the Lord to act and to deliver us. And it isn’t always a physical deliverance, either. Sometimes it is the Lord teaching us what we need to learn through these times of difficulty to put our trust in him despite our circumstances.
Psalms 40:4-5 ESV
“Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.”
And this goes right along with what I shared above. For, when we go through such times of difficulty and suffering at the hands of our enemies, it may be tempting to try to find solutions to our situations through human means. We, as human beings, may get impatient with God and try to take matters into our own hands, and that is never a good idea. We must always go to the Lord in prayer and ask him what we should do. And sometimes his answer is “Wait!” And “Trust Me!” And in those times we should wait, and we should trust him, and we should never turn aside to human solutions, instead.
Psalms 40:6-8 ESV
“In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.’”
Now, many people attribute these words written by David to Jesus Christ, for sometimes in David’s writings he did write prophecies about Jesus Christ as though he was that person himself. And Jesus Christ did become the sacrificial offering on that cross for our sins whereby he did away with the Old Covenant animal sacrifices and liturgical, ceremonial, purification and dietary laws and restrictions. And in the Scriptures there are many prophetic writings about the coming of Jesus Christ to be our Savior, the Christ. And Jesus Christ did come to the earth to do the will of God the Father.
But can we apply any of these words here to our own lives? Yes, I believe we can. For the Lord is not interested in us going through the motions of religious practice or the things we are willing to do for him if our hearts are not surrendered to him to do his will. We must die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in the power of God, and no longer live in sin. The “good deeds” of our flesh are of no interest to him. He wants his people to be those who delight to do the will of God. And all the days ordained for us were written in his book before one of them came into being.
So, we need to be those who delight in obeying the Lord and not be those who are just looking for ways around from having to obey our Lord and his commandments (New Covenant). We should not be those who merely go through the motions of religious practice but while we still walk in deliberate and habitual sin against God and against other humans. And we should not be those who lose patience with God when he does not act on our behalf the way we think he should, and in the timing in which we think he should. But we must be those who wait on him patiently and who keep our trust in him.
Seek the Lord
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”
https://vimeo.com/379408296
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