Commentary - Psalm 40:1-5

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 40 is a testimony set to music. It is the story of every believer, a condensed version of the gospel moving from desperation to deliverance, and from deliverance to declaration. David begins in the pit, crying out to God, and God, in His good pleasure, condescends to lift him out. This is not just a change of scenery; it is a change of standing. God takes him from the miry clay and sets his feet upon a rock, establishing his goings. This rescue is so profound that it necessitates a new song, a song of praise that is not kept private but is sung in the congregation. The effect is evangelistic: many will see, fear, and trust in Yahweh. David then draws the theological conclusion. The blessed man is the one who trusts in God, not in the arrogant philosophies of the world. The psalm concludes this section with an explosion of praise, acknowledging that God's wonderful works and His thoughts toward His people are literally innumerable. This is the gospel logic: God's gracious rescue leads to our grateful response, which in turn points the world back to the Rescuer.

Outline

Context In Psalms

This psalm of David is a personal testimony that becomes a public proclamation. It has clear connections to David's own life, filled with moments of deep distress and miraculous deliverance. But like all of David's psalms, it points beyond himself to his greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The second half of this psalm is quoted directly in Hebrews 10 as the very words of Christ upon His incarnation. Therefore, we must read this first section in light of the second. The deliverance David experienced is a type, a foreshadowing, of the ultimate deliverance from the ultimate pit that Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection. When David sings of being brought up out of the pit, we should hear the echoes of an empty tomb. His new song is the song of redemption that the church now sings, and the trust he commends is faith in the finished work of Jesus.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 1 I hoped earnestly for Yahweh; And He inclined to me and heard my cry for help.

The psalm begins with the central discipline of the Christian life: waiting on the Lord. But this is not a passive, listless waiting. The Hebrew conveys an intensity, a waiting that is itself a form of hoping and striving. David "waited, waited" for Yahweh. This is the posture of faith, looking to the only source of help. And the response of God is breathtaking in its intimacy. "He inclined to me." The sovereign Lord of heaven and earth bent down. He stooped to hear a cry from the mud. This is the doctrine of condescension. God is not remote or aloof; He is personal and attentive. He hears the specific cry for help. Before we see the deliverance, we must see the character of the God who delivers. He is a God who leans in to listen.

v. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a high rock, He established my steps.

Here is the great reversal. The condition is described as a "pit of destruction" and "miry clay." This is a picture of utter helplessness. In a slimy pit, every attempt to climb out only makes you sink further. There is no footing, no leverage. This is the human condition under sin, a state of death and despair from which we cannot extract ourselves. The action is entirely God's: "He brought me up." This is salvation, a divine rescue operation. But God does not simply pull us out and leave us on the side of the pit. He provides a new foundation: "He set my feet upon a high rock." That rock is Christ. To be saved is to be placed on the unshakable foundation of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. And it doesn't end there. "He established my steps." This is sanctification. God not only saves us from our helpless position, He secures our forward progress in the Christian life. He gives us a firm place to stand and a clear path to walk.

v. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in Yahweh.

Deliverance of this magnitude requires a new vocabulary, a new song. The old songs of lament and sorrow are replaced with a "new song" of praise. Notice that God Himself is the composer and giver of this song: "He put a new song in my mouth." Our praise is not something we drum up on our own; it is the fruit of His redemptive work in us. This song is specified as "a song of praise to our God." True worship is God-centered. And this worship is not a private affair. It has a public, evangelistic purpose. "Many will see and fear and will trust in Yahweh." The testimony of a rescued sinner is one of the primary means by which God draws others to Himself. They see the radical change, from the pit to the rock. This sight produces a right and holy fear, a reverential awe of the God who can do such things. And that fear is the entryway to faith. They see what God has done for one, and they come to trust Him for themselves.

v. 4 How blessed is the man who has made Yahweh his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who stray into falsehood.

David now moves from personal testimony to general principle. He distills the lesson of his experience into a beatitude. Where is true happiness and stability found? The blessed man is the one who makes Yahweh his trust. Trust is not a vague sentiment; it is a concrete reliance upon God as your rock, your deliverer, your everything. This positive declaration is immediately contrasted with the negative. The one who trusts God has actively "not turned" to the alternatives. The first alternative is the "proud." This refers to the arrogant, the self-reliant, those who trust in their own strength or wisdom. The second alternative is those who "stray into falsehood," which encompasses all the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil. This includes idolatry, worldly philosophies, and every system of thought that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. True blessedness is a matter of exclusive loyalty. You cannot trust in God and in the proud simultaneously. You cannot rely on Yahweh and dabble in falsehood.

v. 5 Many, O Yahweh my God, are the wondrous deeds You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. I would declare and speak of them, But they are too numerous to recount.

The psalm culminates in an overflow of worship that recognizes its own inadequacy. David looks at God's resume, His "wondrous deeds," and is overwhelmed. These are not just acts of power, but acts of covenant faithfulness. And even more intimately, David considers God's "thoughts toward us." God does not just act for us; He thinks of us. His plans for His people are good and gracious. The sheer volume of God's goodness is staggering. David says there is no one to compare to God, and that His deeds and thoughts are "too numerous to recount." This is not an excuse for silence, but rather the reason for unending praise. David says, "I would declare and speak of them," and the fact that they are innumerable means he will never run out of material. This is the glorious task of the redeemed: to spend eternity unpacking the infinite wonders of our rescuing God.

Application

This psalm provides the fundamental pattern for the Christian life. Every believer has a "pit to rock" story. We were all in the miry clay of sin and death, utterly unable to save ourselves. God, in His mercy, inclined His ear to us, lifted us out through the work of Christ, and set our feet on the solid rock of the gospel. Our lives are to be a testimony to this great rescue.

This means, first, that our praise must be central. God has given us a new song, and we are to sing it. We are to sing it personally in our devotions and corporately when we gather with the saints. This song is not about us; it is "praise to our God." Our worship should be robustly God-centered.

Second, our testimony has an audience. "Many will see and fear." We should not hide the work that God has done in us. Our transformed lives, our joy in the midst of trials, our stability on the rock, all of it is a sermon to a watching world. We must be ready to connect our new song to the God who gave it to us, so that others might come to fear and trust in Him.

Finally, we must consciously reject the world's counterfeit gospels. The path of blessedness is the path of exclusive trust in Yahweh. This requires us to turn away from the proud promises of self-help and the deceptive ideologies of our age. We must continually remind ourselves that our hope is not in our own abilities or in the systems of man, but in the God whose wondrous deeds and gracious thoughts toward us are more than we could ever count.