Psalm 40:1-5

In this exalted passage, the Messiah is describing some of the marvelous exchanges which He brings to those who receive Him. He gives beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for heaviness.

We bring Him the ashes of a life burned out with pleasure, the ashes of a body ruined by liquor or drugs. We bring Him the ashes of wasted years in the wilderness, or the ashes of frustrated hopes and shattered dreams. And what do we get? He gives us beauty, the beauty of a dazzling bridal diadem....

Sing aloud to God our strength; make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob. Raise a song and strike the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the lute. § He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. § The joy of the Lord is your strength. Paul … thanked God and took courage.Knowing the time, that now it is...

Thus says the Lord: “I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness.” § I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. § I will visit you and perform My good word toward you … For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.As the heavens are higher than the earth,...

God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of...

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. § No eye pitied you … but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you … ,“Live!”He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God.When we were still without strength, in due time...

We … do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. § That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His...

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. § The Son of God . . . loved me and gave Himself for me. § He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? § God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.Who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. § Who...

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. § You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world … we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh.Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed. § Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You...

I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil. § “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”How precious … are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You. § O...

That Rock was Christ. § Simon Peter … said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” … “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” § Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.Full assurance of faith … Hope without wavering. § Faith, with no doubting. He who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.Who shall separate us from...