God’s Redemption, Our Response
Today we are going to continue our walk through the book of Psalms for the summer as we learn about these melodies of encouragement.
We’ll be looking at Psalm 40 today. You may know it if you’re a big U2 fan. It opens with the image of being stuck in a pit with thick, sucking mud and the joyful response that King David feels after being saved from that proverbial pit. We have all experienced the relief of getting out of a difficult time whether it is from major life issues or from normal everyday annoyances. When we get this relief or rescue we generally respond with great joy and by telling others about how we made it through. Psalm 40 applies this to the greatest rescue that anyone could ever experience. Salvation from our sin and being made right with God.
Big Idea: God’s redemption requires a joyful response.
Psalm 38 and 39 talked about waiting on the Lord in a painful way. They dealt with being disciplined by God and the pains of our relatively short lives. Psalm 40 opens with a celebration of God’s saving response after this time of waiting on him.
Verses 1-10 are David’s celebration of God’s salvation for his life.
Verses 11-17 Build off that foundation and serve as another example of a lament or call for help deliverance again. David first reminds himself of God’s love and salvation so that he can better face whatever sin or difficulty is pressing on him at that time.
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!
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 delight in 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!”
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!
The first stanza (verses 1-3) give us our three teaching points today. Each one is a pairing of what God has done and what David (and our) response should be.
First Truth
God Moves toward us first
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
· 1-3: He inclined to me and heard, He drew me up, He put a new song
· 5-6: God multiplied deeds and thoughts toward us, You gave me an open ear (ability to listen and believe)
o Rom. 5:8 while we were still sinners
This is how the Gospel works. It’s what we see in the incarnation of Jesus, God with us. God acts on our behalf in our salvation. What we bring to the table is sin and rebellion. We are not flawed people in need of some better advice or more will power, we are dead sinners in need of a savior. Verse 6 talking about God giving us an open ear alludes to the fact that even our conviction and turning toward God for forgiveness is a gift that God initiates giving to us.
10b-11 shows us God’s motivation in inclining or stooping down to us with salvation
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
· 10b-11: steadfast love and faithfulness of God
o Reminder of God exclusively acting in Abrahamic covenant Gen 15 and the Introduction of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20
o Similar to agape love in NT like John 3:16
Having mindset that we should clean ourselves up before being accepted by God rightly understands that sin makes us unclean, but it fails because it leads to have the prideful opinion that we could somehow do something that only God is able to do. A right feeling but a wrong solution.
So what then is the right response…
We move toward God in response
· 4: full faith and trust
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!
So instead of thinking we have to go toward God first, we can move to him as a response to his love and sacrifice already made for us. Without this it would be a perilous thing for us as rebellious sinners to move toward God (think of the Israelites unable to approach Sinai). But now God as made the first move. This verse picks up on the blessed man of God that got introduced in Psalm 1 whose life is like a tree planted by streams of water because he delights in the Lord. And like that godly man he chooses God’s way over the way of the proud and the liars.
Through our culture and social media, we are inundated with the proud (coincidentally we are in “Pride month” now) who tell us that following human desires or strength is the way to ultimately live life. That we are the creators of the standard that should be followed instead of trusting in the Creator God to set the standard to be lived by.
By contrast we can look on the completed salvation offered in Christ and trust fully that the God who was willing to do that on our sinful behalf is worthy of being trusted in all areas of life.
We can also respond with…
· 8: delightful obedience
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
Knowing the character, love, and completed work of God leads us to see obedience to him not as something to grumble and complain about, but as the only true source of joy in life. We are not forced into obedience but free to live life how we are best made to do so.
The second truth that we see about Salvation
God reverses us from death to life
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.
The two images of a life under sin are so clear here. The Pit of destruction communicates the ultimate destination of sin, that it will sooner or later destroy us, whether by natural consequences or in the ultimate judgment of Hell. Sin is not something to be tamed or tolerated but needs to be killed in our lives before it kills us.
Then the miry bog or clay talks about the hold that sin often has on us and the effect of that hold. A miry bog speaks to be stuck and unable to move, feeling like you can’t escape and that fighting to get out only leads you deeper. It’s messy and holds on tight. Many of us can relate to that hold that sin can have on our lives or on the life of someone that we love.
But God saves us from this horrible fate. Not only does David say that he rescues him from the put and the mud, he also sets his feet on a sure and steady rock. God’s salvation takes him from a sucking and destructive trap, to a secure and firm foundation
o Parable of house on sand/stone, Christ as the cornerstone and rock of the church
o Eph 2: dead in sin, children of wrath but God saves by grace and raises us up to be seated with Christ in heavenly places
We respond with repentance, not ritual
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.
God doesn’t desire empty ritual but obedience. David realized that the sacrifices and religious practices were not an end in themselves but were pointing him to the actual sacrifice that God would perform. What God truly desires is obedience and love for him, he isn’t just satisfied with empty ritual
o David likely learned this from Samuel’s response to Saul’s failure to obey God in 1 Samuel 15 “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice”
o Quoted in Hebrews 10 in reference to Jesus taking on the role of high priest that the other priest were only foreshadowing
o John 4:23-24 worship in spirit and truth
What parts of your life have become empty ritual? Where are you just going through the motions because that is what Christians are supposed to do? Or what have you stopped doing all together because you got tired of the empty practice? Pursue actual relationship with the Lord and obedience instead.
One of the greatest acts of relational obedience is Confession along with Repentance.
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.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!
The beauty of know that God is in the business of lifting us out of the mire of sin instead of crushing us in it, is knowing that we can come to him honestly about our sin, confess it, and know that He will forgive us in Christ and lead us into repentance. Repentance is another kind of reversal. It means completely changing direction and even changing one’s mind.
There are many prayers that God may say no or wait to in our lives. But I can assure you that he never says no to a sincere confession that “I am a sinner and I need you as my Savior.”
o 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Third Truth
God gives us a new song of praise
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.
David recognizes that this salvation from the Lord is something that must be celebrated. And it should be celebrated publicly so that others can experience that salvation too. You can already see that this new song is supposed to make a public difference. Many will see fear and put their trust in the Lord.
So, it goes quickly into our response…
· 3a: put a new song in our mouth
We sing that song aloud to others
And this is all over this Psalm.
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.
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.
o Sermon on the Mount: salt, light, city Mt 5:13-16
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!”
These examples show that our praise is for the benefit of both believers/church (mentions of the congregation) and unbelievers (many will see, those who seek). That is why we spend time in worship together. First of all, because God is worthy of our worship with all that we have. But worship is also an encouragement to us. Our singing, our prayer, our talking about what God has done for us are all ways that the church is encouraged and we are spurred on to outward focus of worship, leading more people to salvation through faith in Jesus as our savior.
If salvation is only a benefit to your life individually and not to your family, your friends, your colleagues, and your neighborhood, then I am not certain that you really understand what salvation really means.
Theologian DT Niles says that, “Evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to get bread.”
Pastor Joby Martin: “Once you are rescued (by the Gospel), you immediately become part of the rescue team.”
In this passage we actually see a pretty clear picture of what we call 3D Discipleship at City Awakening. Discipleship is simply the process of being a lifelong learner of Jesus.
Discover: We discover God because he has inclined toward us and become discoverable. His Word, His perfect life, death, and resurrection
Deepen: We then grow in relationship with God through responses like repentance and obedience
Display: We sing the song that God has put in our hearts and mouths so that more people can come to know him
We can close this time out with the last verse that David puts in this Psalm and use it as our call to action and prayer for today.
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!