Psalms 40:15

"Let them be desolate by reason of their shame

That say unto me, Aha, Aha.

Let all that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee:

Let such as love thy salvation say continually, Jehovah be magnified.

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."

"Let them be desolate" (Psalms 40:15). As noted above, this is a far cry from a prayer for the death and/or destruction of the opponents. Desolation is a status that has led many to seek and find the Lord.

"I am poor and needy" (Psalms 40:17). There is no way that these words are half as appropriate as descriptive of David as they are as descriptive of the Christ. Our Lord had nowhere to lay his head, and apparently the only thing he ever owned was the clothing that he wore. This does not apply to David. "He who was rich became poor for our sakes, that we through his poverty might be made rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

"Yet the Lord thinketh upon me" (Psalms 40:17). What a delightful thought is this! It is impossible to calculate what the advantage may be for them upon whom the Lord `thinketh.' In the story of Jonah, when the storm threatened the destruction of the ship, Jonah's guilty sleep in the hold of the vessel was broken by the demand of the shipmaster, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not" (Jonah 1:6).

"Make no tarrying, O my God" (Psalms 40:17). The RSV reads this, "Do not tarry, O my God." In the application to Christ, God did indeed speed up his death on the Cross, which came well ahead of the time when it might logically have been expected.

Note: According to Baigent, "The Book of Common Prayer appoints this Psalm for use on Good Friday."[32] By coincidence, I finished the writing of our commentary on this psalm between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. on March 28, Good Friday, 1991, - J.B.C.