A Lamp To Our Feet" - A study of Psalm 40

David cries out of real trouble, not imagined trouble. David knows what it is to go from one hard thing to another, out of the frying pan into the fire, and Psalm 40 refuses the idea that God’s deliverance means life will now be easy. David remembers that he waited patiently for Yahweh, that he kept looking to the Lord when the Lord had not yet acted. Biblical waiting is faith stretched across time. God inclined, heard, drew David up from the pit, set his feet on a rock, made his steps secure, and put a new song in his mouth.

The pit and the miry bog picture helplessness. God does not make the pit more comfortable. God brings David out of it. God’s past grace gives rebar to present faith, because remembered mercy keeps trouble from becoming the only thing a person can see. Trouble makes people rehearse the conversation, the diagnosis, the numbers, the what-ifs, while God’s mercies become hard to name. David calls God’s people to rehearse God’s faithfulness instead, because yesterday’s grace is needed when today’s trouble comes.

David learns that blessed is the person who makes the Lord his trust. Trouble exposes what has been trusted all along: control, money, political power, another person, or personal ability. The question underneath anxiety is often, “What do I think I have to have to be okay?” God’s thoughts toward his people are more than can be told, and God has not forgotten the needy person in the middle of the mess.

David’s remembered deliverance produces more than relief. David delights to do God’s will, because grace leads to obedience rather than religious activity divorced from the heart. David also refuses to hide God’s deliverance within his heart. God’s mercy to one believer becomes a means by which another believer learns to trust him and say, “Great is the Lord.”

David then turns from recitation to request. David is rescued in verse two and needy again in verse seventeen. David admits that evils surround him, sin has overtaken him, enemies desire his harm, and his heart fails him. Faith is not pretending everything is fine. Faith is desperation directed toward God. David’s confidence rests not in his record, but in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness: “I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me.”

Christ fulfills what David could only partially express. Jesus comes to do God’s will perfectly, offers his body once for all, bears sin’s penalty, and rises from the dead. The cross and resurrection become the final ground of confidence when favorable circumstances are hard to find. Christ’s saving love has already been proven, so poor and needy sinners can cry, “You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, O my God.”

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Rehearse God’s faithfulness, not just trouble. Trouble naturally takes over the mind, replaying fears, conversations, diagnoses, and possible outcomes. David deliberately remembers the God who heard his cry and brought him up. Remembered grace does not deny present pain, but it keeps pain from becoming the only interpretive lens. [31:22]
• 2. Waiting is faith stretched across time. Biblical waiting is not passive resignation or doing nothing. David keeps looking to the Lord when the Lord has not yet acted, because God’s timing does not cancel God’s care. Waiting becomes perseverance when trust is fixed on the character of the God for whom a person waits. [28:04]
• 3. Trouble exposes what truly holds trust. Anxiety and anger often reveal the things a heart believes it must have to be okay. Control, money, political outcomes, and other people cannot bear the weight of ultimate trust. David calls the blessed person the one who makes the Lord his trust. [33:00]
• 4. Faith directs desperation toward God. David does not act cool, detached, or unaffected when his heart is failing. David cries, “Make haste,” because mature faith knows exactly where to go with fear. Desperation becomes faith when it is turned into an honest plea before the faithful God. [43:35]
• 5. The cross secures confidence in suffering. Favorable providences cannot finally carry the weight of Christian confidence, because some prayers remain unanswered in the way a person desires. Christ’s cross proves God’s saving love, and Christ’s resurrection proves his power to deliver. God’s faithfulness in Jesus gives needy sinners reason to pray even when circumstances remain dark.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [21:40] - Psalm 40: My Help and Deliverer
• [24:54] - David Knows Repeated Trouble
• [26:22] - Remember God’s Faithfulness
• [27:51] - Waiting Is Faith Stretched Across Time
• [28:53] - From the Pit to the Rock
• [31:22] - Rehearse Mercy, Not Fear
• [32:12] - Make the Lord Your Trust
• [35:34] - Grace That Delights in God’s Will
• [37:02] - Tell Others What God Has Done
• [40:48] - Yesterday’s Testimony, Today’s Prayer
• [42:41] - Faith Is Desperation Directed Toward God
• [45:20] - The Lord Takes Thought of the Needy
• [47:28] - Jesus Fulfills Psalm 40
• [49:08] - Look to the Cross and Resurrection

1. To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. [21:43]
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. [21:55]
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. [22:05]
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! [22:13]
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. [22:21]
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. [22:36]
7. Then I said, “Behold, I have 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.” [22:41]
9. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
10. 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. [23:02]
11. As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
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. [23:25]
13. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me! [23:37]
14. 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 desire my hurt!
15. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
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!” [23:59]
17. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! [24:09]

1. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; [47:33]
2. in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
3. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [47:46]
4. When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
5. then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
6. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. [48:02]

1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; [32:37]

1. What actions does Psalm 40:1–3 say the Lord takes for David, and how do those actions move David from helplessness to praise? [28:25]
2. What contrast does David make in Psalm 40:4 between making the Lord his trust and turning toward the proud or lies? What examples of misplaced trust are named? [32:51]
3. What does David refuse to hide in Psalm 40:9–10, and where does he choose to speak about God’s deliverance? [37:02]
4. What kinds of trouble are present in Psalm 40:12–17 besides enemies who want David harm? [41:32]

1. David has been brought up from the pit in the first part of Psalm 40, yet he is poor and needy again by verse 17. What does this show about the difference between God’s real deliverance and the expectation of an easy life? [26:49]
2. David’s waiting includes continuing to look to the Lord before the Lord acts. What would distinguish this kind of waiting from giving up, doing nothing, or trying to take control of everything? [27:51]
3. Psalm 40 says God does not merely want outward sacrifices but a heart that delights to do his will. How can a believer recognize the difference between religious activity and grateful obedience flowing from faith? [35:54]
4. Hebrews 10 applies Psalm 40 to Jesus, who came to do God’s will perfectly and offered his body once for all. Why does Christ’s finished work give hope to a believer whose own sin and weakness feel overwhelming? [47:46]

1. What trouble, fear, conversation, diagnosis, or “what-if” has been taking up the most space in your mind lately? What specific mercy of God could you deliberately remember alongside that trouble this week? [31:22]
2. Think of a time God sustained, rescued, corrected, or carried you through a difficult season. Who in this group or church family might be encouraged by hearing that story this week? [38:43]
3. When you ask, “What do I think I have to have to be okay?” what answer is most tempting for you right now—control, financial security, another person’s approval, health, a political outcome, or something else? How does that answer reveal where trust is being placed? [33:00]
4. Where are you currently waiting for the Lord to act? What would it look like to keep looking to him in that situation rather than assuming his delay means that he has forgotten you? [28:08]
5. Is there a place where outward Christian activity has become easier than heartfelt obedience? What small act of obedience would express, “I delight to do your will, O my God”? [36:14]
6. What fear or desperation do you need to turn into an honest prayer this week? How could you pray David’s words, “You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God,” in your own circumstances? [44:03]
7. When circumstances make God’s love hard to see, how can the cross and resurrection become a firmer source of confidence than whether a particular prayer has been answered in the way you hoped? [49:08]