The Lord is My Dependence

Psalm 40:4–10 NASB95

4 How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. 5 Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count. 6 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.” 9 I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, You know. 10 I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

If the Lord is truly our dependence, it will bring divine happiness. Also, if the Lord is our trust, there are some responses that should flow from our lives. Ultimately there’s a level of gratitude that is demonstrated through the Psalmists responses to God’s salvation from a deep and dirty circumstance.

Unidirectional Trust

The Psalmist pronounces that anyone who has made the Lord their trust is a happy person in this life. The action is not trusting, it is what object we establish our trust in our hearts. There are various objects we can set in our hearts, but if/when the Lord is our dependence, it must be unidirectional trust. What do I mean? The Psalmist says “made” “AND NOT”. So when we make a decision for the Lord to be the object my heart depends on, it must deny other objects. And in this case, not the proud or who wander into lies. Proud word is used as a nickname for Egypt (Is 30:7), because they were arrogant and would boast in power and many nations would lean on them.

Application: The type of dependence on the Lord that leads to a sincere gratitude and happiness, is one that is unidirectional. If we are struggling with this, it is evident in who we call on! The Psalmist has already witnessed God’s help. See, sometimes we are not as happy in life because GOD has to reveal to us that we’ve been trying to lean on him plus 1, 2, or 3 other objects.

Unmatched Praise

The Psalmist realizes this, and then begins to reflect on God’s activity. He gives praise to GOD for wonders he has done toward US!! Which is the first indicator that this praise isn’t in a silo, but intended to impact God’s people.

Application: When you recognize your dependence on GOD, it will make you reflect on his wonders. Stuff that can’t nobody do nor explain.

Not only what GOD has done, but then he says his thoughts toward US. Thoughts here meaning his plan and purpose. Which captures past, present, and future.

Example: In engineering, a fail-safe is a design or plan for if there’s a failure, the machinery responds in a way to limit or eliminate harm.

Application: I’m glad that our GOD is one whose thoughts and design for my life has been fail-safe. All the mishaps. For that, there should be an unmatched praise that generates from us. The psalmist says, nothing or no one exists that can compare with our GOD. And if we were to start trying to number all the supernatural activities and fail-safe designs he’s executed on our lives, we might as well not even start, because it’s too many to count!!!

Ready Obedience

See, because they understood worship through sacrifice, this level of dependence and praise makes one want to worship sacrificially. But the Spirit of Christ speaks through him to acknowledge that GOD really doesn’t desire the animal sacrifice, he really desires the worshipper!!! So he prophecies, Here I have come, which was written, and I delight to do your will. This was a desire of the Psalmist, but only accomplished through Jesus, quoted in Hebrews 10. Through Jesus sacrifice, it sanctifies us, and we should develop a desire of obedience and living sacrifice in response to God’s salvation!!

Unrestrained Testimony

But here’s the last and major point I want to drive home, and it’s in the spirit of Homecoming. The Psalmist recognizes GOD is his trust, praises him, expresses desire to obey his will, he then says nothing has stopped him from testifying about God’s righteousness, faithfulness, and salvation.

Application: If GOD is truly our dependence, we have tasted his goodness, we can’t help but help somebody else through our testimony. Somebody is struggling with sin, depending on other objects, not as sincere, thinking they have to earn salvation, and they need to hear about God’s righteousness and salvation.

Application: What you depend on affects how one sees blessings and happiness in life. Additionally, people talk a lot about what makes them happy!!!

Conclusion: If GOD is our trust, our dependence, it should be seen in a one-directional trust, unmatched praise, ready obedience, and unrestrained testimony!!