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© Family Times | About Us | Donate | Contact Us
Search for sermons by: Commentaries | Scripture search | Topics
Psalms 40:1–8
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
How long a fall has anyone survived without a parachute? Believe it or not, 6,705 meters (22,000 feet)! The survivor was a Russian, Lieutenant Chisov, and he fell from his badly damaged plane in January 1942. He had the luck to fall on the edge of a ravine blanketed with snow and … More
Psalm 40 can be divided into two parts. The first part constitutes a report of deliverance (vv. 1-10, while the second part is a prayer of praise and thanksgiving (vv.11-17). We find the Psalm beginning with David’s joyful report to the congregation about his deliverance and an encouragement to them to trust the Lord.
If this song was written soon after the illness alluded to in the previous Psalms, then it can provide an interesting illustration of the benefits of sickness. Sometimes God may force us to look up by putting us flat on our back. I know personally that when things are going well it is easy to forget God. Only after God forced him to take time, did David realize how many wonderful things God had provided and done for him (v.5).
David makes it clear that God is more interested in obedience than He is in sacrifices (v. 6) (I Samuel 15:22). Sacrifice without sincerity and ritual without reality is worthless. David saw that even though the sacrifices themselves spoke of Christ they were inefficient and inadequate in themselves. It is dangerous for a person to come to the point where he actually believes that because he has performed some prescribed ritual that he has fully discharged all moral and spiritual obligations in the sight of God. An example of this today would be someone who thinks he is ok because he has been baptized but he has never actually accepted Christ.
Application
It is so easy for me to participate in a ritual that is meaningless? It could even be praying before meals, if it is just a ritual. Lord, deliver me from a ritualistic religion.
Psalms 40:1-8 (English Standard Version)
I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 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. 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. 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! 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. 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. 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."
View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »
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