Power in the Pulpit | Psalm 40

Intro: Thank you Leighton and Ms. Sheila for leading us this morning. If you have your Bibles this morning, you can turn to Psalm 40. We are going to be looking at the entire chapter this morning. Before I get started, I just wanted to say a little bit about Mission Fuge, the camp we were at last week. We left last Sunday for Ridgecrest Conference Center where the camp was. And we did not stop going until we left on Thursday. Pretty much every second of the day, we were doing something. But it was worth it. We saw God work in mighty ways at camp. We had two students pray to receive Christ. And all of us were drawn closer to God. A big thank you to Julie Rogers who went as our female chaperone. She and I got to watch the students go from being a group, to friends, to a family all over the course of a few days. It was a great trip and one we are able to use our budget to supplement for students to make it more affordable, so thank you for your generosity in giving that makes it possible. I’m trying to get the date nailed down for next year, and I will send those out soon.

The theme for the week at camp was revival generation. The idea was that this could be the generation that God uses to spark revival in our country. But what does that even mean. We use words like revival a lot, but what is revival. The camp pastor this past week defined Revival as “spiritual awakening of God’s People to their nature and their purpose.” I thought that was really good. But how does that happen? How do we see revival amongst God’s people? I believe that when we look at today’s text, we will see that revival happens when we recognize God has rescued us and we bring him the glory for that. There are three things we see in today’s text. We see the rescue, we see the proper response, and we the ever-present help. If you are able, please join me in standing for the reading of God’s Word.

Verses 1-5: The Rescue

Exposition: The passage , which says at the beginning to have been written by David, starts by saying in verse 1 Psalm 40:1 “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” It becomes clear that David is reflecting back on a time when he was in a helpless situation. There was a time in which he was in need of God. And God responded. But there’s two things to note here. One, is that God did not act immediately, but he did respond. David had to wait patiently for The Lord. But waiting patiently did not mean just assuming God would take care of him without going to God himself. No, David tells us that God heard his cry. That in the midst of the situation, he cried out to God.

Application: How often are we the opposite of that. How often do we wallow in our sufferings, not understanding why we have had to wait, but yet we haven’t humbled ourselves and gone to God in prayer. Are you walking through hard times right now, go to God in prayer and wait patiently on Him to hear your cry.

Exposition: David then goes on to use a metaphor to explain his situation. He says in verse two Psalm 40:2 “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.” David’s language here describes not a pit as we probably think of it, but a cistern or a deep well. Wells in this time were dug very deep so they could collect not just the water that fell directly through the hole, but any water that collected in the ground in the area that drained into the bottom of the well. For this reason, to fetch water one had to tie their bucket to a rope and lower it deep down into the bottom. This made it not uncommon for people fall into the well. The sides were all mud so there was no way to climb out because the more one climbed or moved the more bogged down he or she became.

Application: One of my close friends when I was a student at Georgia Southern was a guy named Trevor. Trevor was that friend that if something was going to happen, Trevor was going to be the one I was with. Just outside Statesboro, there was a dirt road which use to be the old Brooklet Railroad. It was called ghost road because there was a rumour that when there was a new moon, you could see a conductor that had died there walking on the road. Trevor and I didn’t necessarily believe in ghost, but we felt it was worth checking out. Well the first night of the new moon, it poured down rain, so we knew it was probably not a good night to go. But for some reason, we thought just 24 hours would make it better. Well, the moment we turned onto the road, in a non-4X4 SUV of Trevor’s his car was slinging mud. Well, the whole time we were driving we could see this really bright light in front of us that we couldn’t realize what it was. We joked that maybe it was the train. Well, the further we went the more we could hear Trevor’s wheels beginning to spin a little bit. But at this point we wanted to see what the light was. Eventually we got to a point we knew we couldn’t go any further and stopped. It was at that point we realized that what was in front of us was two trucks that were covered in mud that had their brights on. Well, just shortly after we stopped we saw two guys walking towards us from the trucks, and they were absolutely covered in mud. As they are walking towards us, we had no clue what was about to happen. Trevor rolled down his window, and one of the guys asks, “Are you stuck.” We told him no and he explained to us that his friend had gotten his truck stuck and when he came to pull him out, his truck got stuck. So Trevor being a man full of compassion said, “Man, that stinks. I better get out of here before my car get gets stuck. Put his car in reverse and started backing up until he got somewhere that he felt comfortable turning around and getting out of there. I tell you that story, because that is what David is describing, the more these guys tried to get themselves out of the mud, the more stuck they got. They could not get out on their own. But I didn’t ever hear anything in the news about them being stranded out there. Somebody came and helped them get back on solid ground. This is what God does for us. In those impossible situations he comes and rescues us and places our feet on solid ground.

Exposition: The result of this is what we see in verse 3 Psalm 40:3 “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.” God doesn’t just fix individual situations, he changes how we view the world because we view it in light of him. These opening verses are a great metaphor for what centuries after this was written, Jesus would come to do. Sin separates us from a sinless Holy God. And there is nothing we can do about it. The more we try to did out of that pit, the more bogged down we get. But Jesus came and took our place on the cross. He died a death we deserved so that we could have our relationship restored with Him. The pit was often used to describe the place of Sheol, which was the OT equivalent to hell. Jesus saved us from Hell, and that is not just something for the day we die. No, our new life with Christ begins the moment we accept him, and it puts a new song in our mouths. We naturally sing praises to God. Many will then see and hear of his goodness.

Application: Maybe you are here today and you feel as if you are in the pit. Maybe you feel distant from God, but any effort to find him is just spinning your wheels. Call out to Him and allow Him to find you.

Exposition: David goes on in verse 4 to contrast this new found life with what it means to not have it. He writes in verse 4 Psalm 40:4 “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!” Blessed can also mean happy. David is saying that the life is better for the one that pursues God other than the world.

Application: We can see this in the world today. So much of our culture is dominated by people who say following one’s impulses and fleeting feelings is how one should live his or her life. That one is right to chose his or her own path, and whatever seems right and moral or fulfilling to that person. Let me ask you, does society seem happier. Does this seem to be bringing peace to society. Look at the amount of depression and anxiety that is higher than it has ever been. Look at the suicide rates amongst those who pursue something other than a biblical sexual and/or gender ethic. Does this seem to be a true way to fulfillment, or does it seem like a lie?

Exposition: Contrast this with what David says in verse 5. Psalm 40:5 “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.” David instead is seeing that God didn’t just rescue him from the pit. No God’s goodness is seen in good deed after good deed. He sees that there is nothing like the goodness of God. In fact he says that not out of compulsion or obligation, but out of just explaining what God has done in His life, he proclaims that God’s good deeds are more than can be told.

Illustration: One of the things I love about going to camp, is that students go carrying all this baggage, and as I had a seminary professor say one time, I’m not talking about suitcases. They come wit hall the struggles of life. And as they spend time in that environment where the focus is completely on Jesus, they see maybe for the first time, or are reminded, of how good God really is. Let me ask you this morning, is your life defined by the goodness of God, or is it defined by the lies of a secular society?

Transition: David gives us an explanation of all God has done for us. But when we look at God’s goodness, the response can’t just me an internal processing and moving on. No, David instead shows what that response should be.

Verses 6-10: The Response

Verses 6-8

Exposition: David says in verse 6 Psalm 40:6 “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.” The OT system of worship was based largely on making sacrifices either with animals or maybe even with grain. For sin, there had to be bloodshed. So an animal would be offered in the place of the person. But God was not pleased with what the heart of the person making the sacrifice so often was. The people did not go in thinking about how their guilt was being removed and placed on the animal. Instead they would kind of roll their eyes and do it because they knew they were suppose to. The center of their worship was not God, but themselves. The people were not happy to do the things God had them do, but instead acted like a child rolling his or her eyes while doing the chores their parents asked them to do and ignoring all that their parents have done for them. David is writing that it isn’t this that God wants. It’s not the sacrifice he is after, but the heart of the person. God wants the person to want to hear Him and follow Him. David reveals this even more in verses seven and eight when he writes Psalm 40:7–8 “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.”” Because David has acknowledged the goodness of God, he is able to delight in being obedient to God.

Application: It is easy to point out how the Israelites did this throughout the OT. But what do our hearts look like when it comes to the things of God. Do we show up on Sunday mornings ready to sing praises to God? Or do we come to church because we feel like we have to? Do we sing the songs to God, regardless of whether or not we like that particular song, because we know it’s not about us, but about praising an almighty God? Can it be written about us as David said it was written about him, that we delight in doing God’s will? Or do we kind of scoff at being obedient to God. Do we try and do mental gymnastics to figure out how we can doing something without it being sin? Do we think God’s ways are so good because we know of His goodness, that we hide HIs word in our heart by regular reading of His Word to help our lives to be rooted in Him. Or do we just open our Bible on Sunday mornings and maybe Wednesday nights and act like reading the very Word of God is too much of an inconvenience to our every day life to make time for it. If we don’t delight in God’s Word, we cannot claim to delight in His will. And my guess is that if we are not regularly in God’s Word, we aren’t very often acknowledging his goodness in the way David describes here. You can not be guilted into these things. They only come from allowing God’s goodness to impact every area of your life.

Exposition: David goes on in verse 9-10 to then to describe what the natural by product is of pursuing a relationship with God and by delighting in His will. He says in verses 9-10 Psalm 40:9–10 “I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.” David touched on this at the end of verse 5, but what is the natural by-product of acknowledging all that God is doing and by delighting in God’s Word, it’s communicating what God has done. David says he has told of God’s deliverance to the great congregation. He says that he has not kept the story of what God is doing to Himself. Instead, He has shared what God is doing in His life.

Application: So often we allow the enemy to talk us into not sharing Jesus with others because we think we have to be super knowledgeable about everything relating to scripture. But what if we instead just learned to share our testimony. What if we just told people what our lives were like before Christ and what they are like now. What if we just shared with those who need to hear all that God has done in our lives and how a saving relationship with Jesus doesn’t just secure our eternity, but makes a difference in our lives each day. My evangelism professor in seminary use to say, we communicate what we cherish. If God has made an eternal difference in our lives and his good deeds he’s multiplied, how can we keep that to ourselves? It’s not just about being excited about God, but seeing the need in the lives of others. If the people of God do not communicate the goodness of God to those who do not know Him, who is it going to be? If those who are walking each day in the multiplying goodness of God and His eternal grace do not speak to those in need of it about what we have experienced who will? If God’s goodness is that good, we need to tell others about it. Not just for our sake, but for theirs.

Transition: But when we communicate all the goodness of God. We don’t have to just communicate what he has done for us in the past. We can communicate the way he helps us presently or will help us in the future. This is exactly what David does in verses 11-17.

Exposition: We see right away in verse 11 that God continues to play a role in our lives. He says in verse 11 Psalm 40:11 “As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!” David shows that this isn’t a one time rescue, but God is constantly showing us his mercy. He is constantly showing his faithfulness to rescue us. David says in verse 12 Psalm 40:12 “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.” When David says iniquities he means his sins. How good is God’s goodness. He doesn’t just rescue us from the troubles that come from what somebody else has done. He also rescues us when we have allowed sin to wreak havoc in our lives. He says evils have encompassed him and that his sins have so overtaken him he cannot see. That those sins are more than the hairs on His heads and his heart fails him.

Application: We probably all know that feeling of when we have allowed sin to overtake us. When David says his heart fails him because of his sins, you probably know exactly what he means. So often we are so ashamed of our sin we allow it to be an elephant in the room. We have an almighty God that knows everything about us, but we try to ignore it when we go to Him in prayer. Or we stop praying and doing the things of God because the weight is too much. But this same God wants to walk with us through that. When the weight of it all is too much, He is there to carry that weight for us. On Tuesday night at Fuge, the camp pastor preached through Psalm 51, which is David’s psalm of confession after sinning with Bathsheba. The night ended with everyone kneeling before God in prayer confessing sin. IT was so powerful to see students calling out to God to confess their sin, but to also ask for His help addressing it. Do you have sin in your life that needs to go before God. Take it before Him, because God saves us from ourselves.

Exposition: God does not just save us from ourselves and show us mercy. He will vindicate us to a world that always had been and always will be hostile to the gospel. He says in verses 13-15 Psalm 40:13–15 “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt! Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”” David is acknowledging he has people that want him dead. When he speaks of people saying “Aha, Aha” he is referring to a phrase that was used to mock those whose foolishness had caught up with them. David is crying out to God that he be vindicated against those who mock Him. He says in verse 16 Psalm 40:16 “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”” David is asking that there one day be a known contrast between those who mock the people of God and those who find their salvation and their joy in God. This sounds rude right. Why should he pray this? David has said throughout the Psalm that he wants people to know the goodness of God. But he also acknowledges the reality that there will be those who remain hostile to the gospel. There will be those who do not acknowledge all that God has done. And David is praying that his choosing to be a part of the people of God is vindicated.

Application: A sad reality is that there will be those who never believe in the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ. The reality is that we will always be a people that are mocked for believing the truth and finding joy in who Christ is. But we know how this ends. We know that we will be vindicated when we are permitted to spend eternity with Christ. And those who mock us will wish they had trusted in the salvation of Christ. We do not have to vindicate ourselves, we do not have to fight to reassert influence. We have to just acknowledge Christ and believe He will vindicate our hope.

Exposition: David ends this Psalm with a statement of humility. He says in verse 17 Psalm 40:17 “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!” David, the king of Israel. The one who rose to prominence after killing a giant. The one who took Jerusalem and made it the capital of Israel. He is saying He is poor and needy and needs God to deliver Him.

Illustration: When I was in high school I lifeguarded during the summers for a pool in Macon. Do you know, who I never had to help, kids who knew they couldn’t swim. Because the kids who knew they couldn’t swim, never got to where they could not touch, and if they did they stayed with a parent. They understood their need for protection and help. But it was when kids got overconfident in their swimming abilities that I had to either throw the tube to them and pull them in or jump in them and pull them back to the side. You see David in this Psalm is acknowledging that He is in need of God. He is not attempting to live any day without the security of trusting in God. So often in life we get so comfortable with how things are going, that we stop depending on God. We stop going to Him in prayer. We stop considering whether something is within how he wants us to live or not. And when we do this, we slowly drift away from that security we have in Him. And then something happens that we need to be rescued. Don’t be like the child who thinks he is fine by himself. No instead, do everything in life acknowledging you dependence on Him. If revival is the spiritual awakening of God’s people to their nature and purpose, it will never happen if God’s people are trying to find this without Him. We must trust in Him and allow Him to be our everything. What big things could God do if we allow Him to be the one that does it?

Verses 11-17: The Ever-present help

Verses 11-12

God is good, even in our times of disobedience

He still rescues us from ourselves.

Verses 13-15

In a hostile world, God will reign supreme

Verses 16-17

Verse 16

There will be vindication on those who are mocked for their faithfulness to God.

Verse 17

We are in need of saving. God is our deliverer. The psalmist ends all of this with a prayer.

Conclusion: One of the great things about going to camp from the youth minister side of things, is that I can watch the student and tell when God is doing something special. I think in some ways adults can watch and see it happening before the students could. But one of the biggest changes that happens, is that when we talk to the students, they begin to realize just how big God is. They realize he can save them from their sins but they can’t save themselves. They realize he is better than the lies of the world. They realize how much he wants genuine relationship with them. They realize others need to hear. And they realize that He is not just there in that moment, but always. How they acknowledge God changes. How have you acknowledged God? Is God that big in your life? If not, what is holding you back. The altar will be open today, I will be at the front and we will have people in the back to pray with you. Have you allowed your love for God and His ways to be replaced by lifeless ritual, come pray. Is there sin in your life that is keeping you from God, come pray. Are there situations in your life that seem impossible? Come pray. Or maybe you have never made Jesus Lord of your life. If that’s the case, please come pray with somebody. Allow today to be the day that your eternity is secured in Christ. Let’s pray.