Psalm XL

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

1 I WAITED patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard

my cry.

2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and feai”, and shall trust in the Lord.

4 Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust,

And respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

5 Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, And thy thoughts which are to us-M’ard:

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee!

If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required:

7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea thy law is within my heart.

9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: Lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.

10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation:

I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord:

Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

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 faileth me.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.

14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together, that seek after my soul

to destroy it; Let them be driven backward and put to shame, that wish me evil.

15 Let them be desolate, for a reward of their shame, that say unto me,

Aha! aha!

Let such as love thy salvation say contimxally. The Lord be magnified.

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

“/ waited, I waited for Jehovah,” I did nothing but wait, Christ in it. (Alexander). Here is one who cries,” Lo! I come to do thy

13-i PSALM XL. — MESSIAH OUR SACRIFICE AND SALVATION.

will, 0 God.” We cannot fail to recognise Messiah here, even if we had not had the aid of the writer of Hebrews x. 5-1 0. The iniquities he speaks of in verse 1 2 are all ours* imputed to him. He might say, “And I am a sinner in thy sight, although I never sinned.” Christ speaks throughout, so exclusively indeed, that the believer must here take up the words not as his own experience (except where he can follow Christ to gather the spoil), but as the experience of the Captain of Salvation, in fighting that battle which has ended in everlasting triumph. It is only by accommodation that even verses 1-3 can be used by the believer in describing his own case. Christ is the Joseph and Jeremiah of this pit.

Read verse 4, and meditate on what He who is the Word suggests — “God’s thoughts toward its!” The unnumbered multitude of his thoughts of love to us! The forests with their countless leaves, the grass on every plain and mountain of earth with its numberless blades, the sands on every shore of every river and ocean, the waves of every sea and the drops of every wave of every sea, the stars of heaven — none of these, nor all combined, could afford an adequate idea of ‘■’His thoughts toward us!” — “there is no cor)iparison to thee” — nothing wherewith to help out a statement. And the depth of love in every one of these thoughts! Who can sit down and meditate on Redemption’s wonders? Who would not be confounded?

Now the whole Psalm has this as its theme. From verses 1 to 3, a summary of God’s dealings toward the Saviour, ending in the gathering of multitudes to Him as the Shiloh. Verses 4 and 5, adoration of the purposes of God; and from verse 9 to the end, we are made to wdtness something of the style in which these glorious purposes were carried on to fulfilment, in the actual coming and suffering of the Saviour. See him obeying; see him proclaiming Jehovah’s name in its breadth and fulness, wherever he came, in the villages, towns, cities, the synagogues, the temple, the open air assemblies, “I have proclaimed righteousness, and I will not at any future time restrain my lips.” Hear in verse 12 his unutterable groanings, when “sorrotvful unto death.” Then hear him in * “Noluit cnim loqui sci)Hrata.<!, qui nohiit esse separatus.” — August.

verse 15 foretelling Israel’s desolation, and that of others like them, because of their rejection of Him; while verse 16 pictures to us present “joy and peace in believing,” with the ultimate result in the ages to come, in the joy of The Kingdom. It would be endless were we to dwell on the rich and copious suggestions afforded by almost every verse.* It is a manual of the History of Redemption. It is

Messiah exhibited as our once-for-all Sacrifice, and all our Salvation.