Psalms 40 KJV
A Song of Praise and Prayer
About This Psalm
Waiting patiently for God and being rewarded. He lifted me out of the pit and put a new song in my mouth.
1 waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
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Did You Know?
The phrase 'mine ears hast thou opened' in verse 6 alludes to the ritual of boring a servant's ear in Exodus 21:6, reframing obedience to God as voluntary, lifelong servitude rather than mere ritual compliance.
Verses 6-8 are quoted verbatim in Hebrews 10:5-7 but with the Septuagint's 'a body hast thou prepared me' instead of 'mine ears hast thou opened,' enabling the author to present Christ as the ultimate obedient servant who supersedes the sacrificial system.
Psalm 40:13-17 is reproduced almost word-for-word as the entirety of Psalm 70, indicating that an editor of the Psalter likely extracted a lament segment to create a standalone communal prayer for urgent deliverance.
The 'horrible pit' and 'miry clay' of verse 2 echo both Mesopotamian descent-to-the-underworld motifs and the literal cisterns used as prisons in the ancient Near East, layering David's personal rescue with cosmic overtones of resurrection from Sheol.
By juxtaposing the rejection of sacrifice (vv. 6-8) with the command to proclaim God's righteousness in the great congregation (vv. 9-10), the psalm anticipates the prophetic critique in 1 Samuel 15:22 and Hosea 6:6 while modeling verbal testimony as the true response to grace.