START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 40:1-11
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OBSERVE:
This Psalm of Thanksgiving for Deliverance is attributed to David himself. Although we have no biographical context for the setting of this Psalm, a quick overview of David’s life from the moment Samuel anointed him with oil as the future king (1 Samuel 16:13) to the moment of his death (1 Kings 2:10) reveals a life of challenge, conflict and ultimate triumph.
David reveals the source of his triumph and deliverance:
I waited patiently for Yahweh.
He turned to me, and heard my cry.
David describes his plight in metaphorical terms — he was in a horrible pit that was filled with miry clay. In contrast, Yahweh lifted him up out of the pit and set his feet on a firm and solid rock. There are so many events of David’s life that could be described as a horrible pit:
- Goliath threatens to give his flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field; but David defiantly replies I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (cf. 1 Samuel 17).
- Not long after David found favor with King Saul and all Israel for his military victories, Saul grew violently jealous and began to seek David’s life (cf. 1 Samuel 18). David was forced to flee for his safety, until Saul was killed in battle against the Philistines (cf. 1 Samuel 19-30). Along the way, he desperately tried to maintain his loyalty to the mentally ill king Saul, while avoiding being allied to the arch enemies of Israel, the Philistines.
- Then, of course, there was the sad interlude of David’s adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband Uriah — which led to his heartfelt repentance (cf. 2 Samuel 11-12).
Needless to say, these and other events in David’s life reveal that he had experienced his share of pits but also that he knew what it was to experience the exhilarating grace of God:
He set my feet on a rock,
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.
Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.
David’s Psalm turns from his own personal experience, and declares that this same blessing is available to others as well:
Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust,
and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
He then reflects on the character and works of Yahweh himself. His works, he says are wonderful, as are even God’s thoughts toward us. David acknowledges that he can’t describe all that God has done:
They can’t be declared back to you.
If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
As the Psalms tell us elsewhere, Yahweh isn’t as impressed by the sacrifices that are offered in the temple as he is by a changed heart that truly seeks him:
Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire.
You have opened my ears.
You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
Then I said, “Behold, I have come.
It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
I delight to do your will, my God.
Yes, your law is within my heart.”
David declares that he has openly proclaimed God’s righteousness, faithfulness, salvation, loving kindness and truth in the great assembly of the temple, and has not concealed it from others. Again, there may be a nod to his own autobiography here. We are reminded that when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem, there was a great festal procession, and:
David danced before Yahweh with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up Yahweh’s ark with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet (2 Samuel 6:14-15).
And finally, David returns to an entreaty, a prayer of petition:
Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh.
Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
From his own experience in the past, David knows that God is loving and can deliver him in the future.
APPLY:
Not many of us have lives quite as “interesting” as the life of David. But all of us have experienced, or will experience, something akin to the horrible pit that he experienced. It may be a tragedy, an illness, a bankruptcy, a divorce.
What we can learn from David’s Psalm is that no matter how deeply we may sink into the pit, God can pull us out and set us on a firm place to stand. This is not because of our merit, but because of God’s gracious character.
The result of God’s favor and blessing is a changed life, and a desire to tell others what God has done and will do.
RESPOND:
I can remember my own response so many years ago to the experience of being pulled out of the horrible pit that I had dug for myself. First, there was the supreme gratitude, the exhilaration that God had mercy on me. And second, there was the irrepressible desire that was kindled in me to tell everyone I possibly could about God’s loving kindness and mercy.
That encounter with God’s grace has driven my ministry for the past 42 years.
Lord, no matter how deep the pit in which we find ourselves, you can find us there; and you are able to pull us out. Thank you for your deliverance, and for all the blessings that are to come. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Without God Life Is the Pits” uses this background photo:
“Processed with VSCOcam with hb2 preset” by Adi Carlo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
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