Summer in the Psalms | Part 3

Devotional

Day 1: God Inclines His Ear in the Pit’s Darkest Hour

When life feels like sinking in mud, God bends low to hear desperate cries. David’s psalm paints God not as a distant ruler but as a father kneeling to lift his child from collapse. The same God who pulled David from the bog still anchors weary souls on unshakable rock. His posture toward the broken remains unchanged: attentive, active, near. Trust grows when we remember He leans into our chaos to reset our footing. [51:00]

“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.”
(Psalm 40:1-3, ESV)

Reflection: Where does your life feel unstable, like shifting sand? What would it look like to wait patiently—not passively—for God to reset your footing today?

Day 2: Breath on Parchment: God’s Library of Living Words

Scripture isn’t a rulebook but a living library—40 authors across centuries, yet one Author breathing life into every page. Fishermen, kings, and doctors penned words that still cut through confusion. Like Adam animated by God’s breath, these texts pulse with divine life. They correct, train, and remake us because they carry the Creator’s exhale. To open the Bible is to inhale the breath that shaped galaxies. [40:45]

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV)

Reflection: Which “book” in God’s library have you neglected? How might His breath revive a dusty corner of your heart through those pages this week?

Day 3: From Shadow to Substance: The Once-for-All Song

Animal blood could never scrub sin’s stain—it only foreshadowed the Lamb. David sensed this, aching for more than rituals. Centuries later, Jesus stepped into the psalm’s prophecy: “A body you prepared for me.” The shadow met its Substance. One sacrifice silenced every altar. Now our song isn’t “Clean me again” but “You finished it all.” [01:12:22]

“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, ‘Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me… Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.’”
(Hebrews 10:5,7, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you still live like the shadow—striving to earn what Christ already secured? How would freedom sound if you sang His “It is finished” over that area?

Day 4: A New Song Rises from the Miry Bog

Rescue demands a response. Israel sang after the Red Sea; Mary sang after her womb stirred with Messiah. David’s pit became a platform for praise. Our hardest seasons birth the rawest lyrics. God doesn’t just pull us from the mud—He gives a melody that makes others lean in. Your story, sung honestly, becomes a megaphone for His faithfulness. [01:00:14]

“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.”
(Psalm 40:3, ESV)

Reflection: What “pit melody” has God given you? Who needs to hear your song to remember His grip on their own sinking feet?

Day 5: The Spirit’s Whisper When the Fuse Runs Short

Even Jesus’ disciples couldn’t stomach all His truth at once. So He sent the Spirit to keep teaching, not with thunderclaps but a steady whisper. When our patience frays—snapping at loved ones, drowning in daily grind—the Spirit speaks the Father’s heart: not condemnation, but “Let me reteach you how to love.” [44:03]

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”
(John 16:12-13, ESV)

Reflection: Where is your “fuse” shortest lately? How might the Spirit be whispering a kinder, truer script over those moments today?

Sermon Summary

Psalm 40 stands as a messianic psalm, written by King David around 1,000 BC, but pointing ahead to the Messiah, God’s anointed one, fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Messiah means the anointed one, and the Old Testament oil poured over prophets, priests, and kings was a picture of God’s Spirit coming upon someone for ministry. Jesus fulfills all of that. He is the prophet who speaks God’s word, the king who rules in righteousness, and the priest who offers the true sacrifice.

God’s word comes as more than a bound book. Scripture is God’s library, written across centuries, through fishermen, kings, prophets, scholars, and ordinary people from all kinds of backgrounds. Yet God is the one author over it all. God breathes out Scripture, and that breath teaches, corrects, trains, and gives life. The Holy Spirit carried along human authors, not by wiping out their personalities, but by speaking through them in real human language. Jesus himself says the Spirit of truth would keep guiding his people into truth, because the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry was not the end of Jesus speaking.

Psalm 40 begins with David waiting patiently for the Lord. The Lord inclines his ear like a father bending down to a hurting child, not standing far off, but getting low enough to hear the cry. The pit of destruction and the miry bog show an unstable life, a place where no good foundation exists. The rock shows what God gives instead: a firm, stable, trustworthy place to stand. Moses had already called the Lord “the Rock,” and Paul later says the rock in the wilderness was Christ. Jesus is the true rock, the one who gives living water and real life.

David says God put a new song in his mouth. The new song is the natural response to deliverance. Moses sang after the Red Sea. David sang when God rescued him from Saul. Mary sang when she heard that the Savior would come through her. Zechariah sang because God had raised up a horn of salvation in the house of David. God’s people sing because God saves.

Psalm 40 then presses beyond animal sacrifice. Sacrifice and offering were never God’s final delight. David knows God wants the open ear, the surrendered heart, the law written within. Hebrews takes David’s words and places them in Christ’s mouth: “Behold, I have come to do your will.” Jesus is the true sacrifice, the obedient Son whose body was offered once for all. The shadow has given way to the real thing, and forgiveness stands in Christ alone.

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Key Takeaways

1. God bends down to hear The Lord’s kindness is not distant or clinical. Psalm 40 pictures God inclining his ear, like a father getting down on a knee to hear the cry of a wounded child. The God who rules the universe is not too high to listen, and his listening leads to action, rescue, and a new place to stand. [51:00]
2. Christ is the true rock The rock is not just a helpful image for stability. Scripture keeps returning to that picture because God’s character does not shift with mood, time, or circumstance. Paul’s reading of the wilderness rock shows the deeper reality: Christ is the rock who gives living water, the solid place where life can finally be built. [58:52]
3. Deliverance creates a new song The new song is not entertainment dressed up in religious language. It is the sound of rescue remembered rightly. Moses, David, Mary, and Zechariah all sing because salvation has become personal, historical, and unmistakably the work of God. [61:21]
4. Sacrifice pointed beyond itself The blood of bulls and goats taught the seriousness of sin, but it could not finally take sin away. The repeated sacrifices were shadows, reminders that something greater was still needed. Hebrews shows that David’s words find their real home in Jesus, whose obedient body was offered once for all.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[35:44] - Psalm 40 and Twenty Five Years
[36:12] - What Messianic Means
[38:38] - Scripture as God’s Library
[40:45] - God Breathes Out His Word
[44:03] - The Spirit Keeps Speaking
[46:53] - God’s Master Foreshadowing
[49:20] - Waiting on the True Rock
[52:50] - God’s Rock Like Character
[55:08] - Exodus, Manna, and Water
[59:35] - The New Song of Salvation
[66:18] - Sacrifices and the Open Ear
[70:34] - Hebrews and the Once For All Offering
[73:57] - Why God’s People Sing

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Psalm 40
“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.'” [49:20]

Hebrews 10:5-10
“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, 'Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 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.'' 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), then he added, 'Behold, I have come to do your will.' He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” [01:12:22]

1 Corinthians 10:1-4
“For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” [58:52]

Deuteronomy 32:3-4
“For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.”

Observation questions

In Psalm 40, what does David say the Lord did after hearing his cry, and what changed for David as a result? [49:20]
What pictures or images stand out in Psalm 40—such as the pit, the miry bog, the rock, the open ear, and the new song—and what do they show about David’s situation?
In Deuteronomy 32:3-4 and 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, how is God described as a rock, and what added detail does Paul give about that rock? [58:52]
In Hebrews 10:5-10, what contrast is made between repeated sacrifices and the offering of Jesus Christ? [01:10:34]

Interpretation questions

Psalm 40 says the Lord “inclined” and heard David’s cry. What does that suggest about the Lord’s nearness and care, especially when someone feels stuck or unstable? [51:00]
If Scripture calls God “the Rock,” and Paul says “the Rock was Christ,” what does that help a believer understand about where true stability and life are found? [59:16]
Psalm 40 moves from sacrifice and offering to doing God’s will with an open ear and a heart shaped by God’s law. Why does that matter for understanding what God has always wanted from his people? [01:08:41]
Hebrews places Psalm 40 on the lips of Christ. How does that show that Jesus is not only the fulfillment of the psalm, but also the true and final sacrifice for sin? [01:12:40]

Application questions

Where does life presently feel more like a pit or a miry bog than a rock underfoot? What would it look like to wait patiently for the Lord there instead of getting too far ahead? [50:46]
The Lord bends down to hear his people. Is it easy or difficult right now to believe that God listens that personally? What may be making it hard to bring him an honest cry? [51:00]
God’s character is rock-like: steady, faithful, and unchanging. In this season, what other things are most tempting to trust instead of the Lord—ability, planning, money, reputation, or something else? [53:05]
Deliverance creates a new song. What is one specific rescue, provision, or answered prayer that deserves fresh praise instead of being quietly forgotten? [01:01:04]
God did not merely want outward sacrifice, but an open ear and a surrendered heart. Where might outward Christian habits be present while inward surrender is lagging behind? [01:09:24]
Jesus offered himself once for all. How does that speak into any guilt, striving, or feeling that more needs to be done to make things right with God? [01:13:05]
If forgiveness stands in Christ alone, how could that truth reshape the way this week is approached—especially in failure, temptation, or weariness? [01:14:15]

Sermon Clips

46s

#SetOnTheRock

“And not only does this God, the creator of the universe, not only is he willing to listen, but he's also willing to act. And King David says that that God heard his cry and he drew me up out of the pit of destruction, of this miry bog and he sets my feet on this rock. It's like, I I was I had this terrible foundation in life that I was going through. It's a miry bog, it's a pit of destruction, and God pulls me out of this and he gives me a new life that's set on a new foundation that is firm and strong and stable. If you're gonna build a building, you have to put down a good strong firm foundation, and this is what God does. When God speaks, his word and his wisdom gives us a good firm foundation to build our lives upon.”

46s

#MessiahFulfilled

“``The author is saying, listen, like King David spoke these words, but he was prophetically speaking about this future Messiah that was coming. And we see this now fulfilled in the life of Christ. He Jesus came to do God's perfect will, and and he laid down his life as a perfect sacrifice. And his life was written about in God's book, in the scroll of God's book, and it's all fulfilled in Jesus. And if we skip a little bit farther ahead, we read in Hebrews ten ten, and by that will, that obedient will of Jesus Christ who lived in perfect obedience to God, we've been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That whole sacrificial system is wrapped up in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.”

31s

#OnceForAll

“And all that stuff is just a shadow. God was foreshadowing. He's the best author. He's the best at foreshadowing ahead. And now we see the end of the story, and now we know, oh, it served its purpose then, but there was a more true complete purpose in Christ that's been fulfilled. And Jesus only had to lay down his life once. In fact, that's all he's going to do. And he's coming again, but he's coming back to rescue his church and to be with his church forever.”

38s

#BeyondAnimalSacrifice

“It's not the animal sacrifices. But in these sacrifices, there's a reminder of sins every year for it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Like, that's not what really made the relationship. It in their mindset, it decontaminated sacred space that they defiled, but the blood of the animals, that wasn't really what Rick was required. For human beings to renew, to be restored, to be in right relationship with God, there had to be a real sacrifice that was given, and only God could fulfill that. And so Hebrews 10 verse five, now we see a reference to Psalm 40.”

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Summer in the Psalms | Part 3 | Matt Johnson