Psalms 40:11-17 - Homilies By C. Clemance

Poor and needy: a prayer and a plea.

There are many psalms which begin in a sigh and end with a song, showing us that even in the act of waiting before God, and of waiting on God, the darkness often passes away. We find our burden rolling off in the very act and energy of prayer. In this psalm, however, matters are reversed; and immediately following on a song of triumph and a vow of surrender, there is a piteous wail. This dissimilarity, nay, almost discordance, has led to a very general opinion that what here seems to be the latter part of this psalm is actually another psalm, which has somehow or other come to be attached to this one. The probability of this is confirmed by the fact that Psalms 70:1-5 . is the same as the close of Psalms 40:1-17 . But, of course, at this distance of time, data which would fully explain that cannot be expected to be available. Still, it is a great comfort to be permitted to think of this paragraph as being penned at a different time and under different circumstances from those which called forth the preceding ten verses. It would be discouraging, indeed, if we found that in one and the same breath the psalmist was triumphantly set upon a rock, and then in a minute or two bowed down with a weight of woe! We are not called on to entertain such a doleful supposition; and are glad, therefore, to deal with this piteous prayer and plea as standing by itself. It is not difficult to seize the progress of the thought.

I. HERE IS A SOUL IN DEEP DISTRESS . ( Psalms 40:12 .) Whether the "evils" are the iniquities themselves, or the form in which those iniquities are brought home to him, is not absolutely clear. Probably the latter is the case. Very often surrounding circumstances may bring to us bitterly painful reminders of past sin. And this may be one of God's means of bringing a soul to repentance through the avenue of remorse and shame.

II. HERE IS AN UTTER ABSENCE OF SYMPATHY FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD . Yea, something more than a lack of sympathy; for there is ridicule ( Psalms 40:15 ), there is joy over his sorrow ( Psalms 40:14 , latter part); there is even an effort to destroy his peace, and perchance to further a plot against his life. Note: In the moments of deepest distress, when we look for succour from man, we find that the greater part are so engrossed in their own affairs, that they have never a tear to shed over another's sorrows, nor a hand to help in another's needs. This is hard. But it is a part of the discipline of life; and it is made use of by God to drive us to himself.

III. THE PSALMIST IS SHUT UP TO GOD . ( Psalms 40:11 , Psalms 40:13 , Psalms 40:17 .) It is not for nought that we are sometimes shut off from the sympathies of man. However trying, it is an infinite mercy when we are left with God alone. There, however, we have a perpetual Refuge. There are no fewer than four comforting thoughts specified here.

IV. TO GOD HE UTTERS A FERVENT , PLEADING PRAYER .

1 . One part of his prayer, and a prominent part too, is against his enemies. ( Psalms 40:15 .) We need not imitate David here" (see our homily on Psalms 35:1-28 .). Let us leave our enemies in the hands of God; or, rather, let us pray for them.

2 . A second part of his prayer is on behalf of the godly. ( Psalms 40:16 .) Note: This indicates that the psalmist was not moved by private feeling only, but by a pious public spirit.

3 . A third part of his prayer is for himself. ( Psalms 40:13 and Psalms 40:17 .) Note: It will be very selfish of us if we pray only for ourselves, and very unnatural if we do not include ourselves.—C.

Psalms 40:6-8 (taken along with Hebrews 10:5-9 )

The supreme surrender, and its eternal value.

That some of the psalms are applied to Christ does not warrant us in applying them all to him; £ and even if some verses of any one psalm are applied to the Messiah, we. are not thereby, warranted in applying all the verses in such psalm to him. £ There are direct Messianic psalms, which apply only to the Lord Jesus Christ; such are the second and the hundred and tenth psalms. Critics—some of them, at least—demur to this as being contrary to psychological law. But it is not merely by the psychological law of the natural man that these Messianic psalms are declared to have been written. We are pointed, for their origin, to a fourfold divergence from naturalistic psychology.

1 . It is not of psychology we have to think, but of pneumatology.

2 . Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man.

3 . Of the pneumatology of the spiritual man when "borne along" by the Divine Pneuma.

4 . Of such action of the Divine Pneuma on the human for a specific Divine purpose. All this is indicated in 2 Peter 1:21 ; and therefore all such critics as those to which we refer are totally beside the mark (see our remarks on Psalms 32:1-11 .). But there are also psalms which are indirectly Messianic. They are marked, speaking generally, by the pronoun "I." The writer speaks for himself, in the first instance; but whether he knew or intended it or not, the words had such a far-reachingness about them, that they could only be filled up in their perfect meaning by the Lord Jesus Christ. £ Such is the case with the verses now before us. They first of all apply to David, and it is quite possible that he intended nothing further; if so, unwittingly to himself, he was borne along to utter words whose fulness of meaning could only be disclosed by the Incarnation, by David's Son, who had eternally been David's Lord; and, as such, the doctrines they contain are truly sublime. There is a somewhat difficult matter, which may be indicated by the questions:

I. THERE IS A MOMENTOUS PRINCIPLE UNDERLYING BOTH THE HEBREW AND THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMIES . It is this—that sin has disturbed the relations between man and God, so that nothing is right with man till these relations are readjusted and harmony is restored. The whole of the Mosaic economy was an education in the evil of sin. "By Law is the knowledge of sin" ( Romans 3:20 ); "The Law was our child-guide unto Christ" ( Galatians 3:24 ).

II. UNDER THE LAW , THE PEOPLE WERE TAUGHT THAT SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY BY SACRIFICE . "Without shedding of blood is no remission" ( Hebrews 9:22 ). But there will ever remain this wide, this infinite, difference between Jewish and pagan sacrifices—the pagan sacrifices started from man, and expressed his desire to propitiate God; the Jewish sacrifices were appointed by God himself, as by One pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, who would cancel guilt only as sin had been condemned.

III. THE VARIED SACRIFICES UNDER THE LAW WERE BUT A " FIGURE FOR THE TIME THEN PRESENT ." The doctrine of the insufficiency of fleshly sacrifices is found not only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but also in the Old Testament (see 1 Samuel 15:22 ,-23; Psalms 51:16 ; Psalms 40:6-8 ; Isaiah 1:11-17 ; Jeremiah 7:22 , Jeremiah 7:23 ; Micah 6:6-8 ). The more discerning and spiritually minded of the Hebrew saints saw and felt how ineffective were all the varied offerings £ to ensure peace with God; and, because ineffective, they were necessarily typical Hence—

IV. THE OLD TESTAMENT DISPENSATION WAS IN ITS ENTIRETY BUT PROPHETIC OF ONE WHO SHOULD COME . (Cf. Luke 24:44 ; Acts 17:2 , Acts 17:3 ; Acts 28:23 ; Daniel 9:24-27 . £ ) The entire argument in Hebrews 9:1-28 . and 10. shows this. From the time when he who saw Messiah's day from afar said, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering," the outlook of the Church of God was towards One "who should come into the world."

V. THE LORD JESUS CHRIST , IN THE FACT OF HIS INCARNATION , DECLARED THAT BE HAD COME TO ACCOMPLISH THE UNFULFILLED MEANING OF OLD TESTAMENT SACRIFICES . We are not told here that he said this by his Spirit in the fortieth psalm, but that "when he came into the world" he said it. His entrance into our race was itself the great declaration. £ That act of "emptying himself" spake volumes then, and will do through all time; and thus he put upon the ancient words the sublimest possible significance.

VI. IN ACCOMPLISHING TYPE AND PROPHECY , JESUS FULFILLED THE WORD OF GOD . His advent to earth was an absolute self-surrender to the Father's will (cf. John 4:34 ; John 6:38 ). He fulfilled the Father's will

VII. ON THE GROUND OF THIS SURRENDER OF HIMSELF , SIN IS PUT AWAY . "He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself" ( Hebrews 9:26 ). The absolute surrender of the will of the Eternal Son to the Eternal Father accomplished, in fact, that which all past sacrifices had accomplished only in figure. The surrender of that will ensured the fulfilment of all the purposes for which that will was surrendered. "He hath obtained the eternal redemption for us" ( Hebrews 9:12 ; see John 6:38-40 ).

VIII. SIN HAVING BEEN PUT AWAY FOR EVER , THE ANCIENT SACRIFICES HAVE CEASED FOR EVER . "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second" ( Hebrews 10:9 ); "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Any pretended repetition of the Saviour's sacrifice in the Mass is impiety. No repetition of it is possible. All Old Testament sacrifices have ceased; the Old Testament priesthood has ceased, and has never been renewed. £ Note: What now remains for us? Only