Psalm 40 - I waited patiently

Read: Psalm 40 vs 1-17

Waiting can be hard, and waiting when we don’t know ‘what happens next’ can be especially hard. Psalm 40 begins with David looking back to a time when he was waiting, a time when he waited ‘patiently’ (vs 1). At this moment David wasn’t waiting for nothing, and neither actually was he waiting for something. David was waiting for a person, David was waiting ‘for the LORD’. 

If these verses were present tense they would invite us to sit alongside David. The fact that that they are past tense means that they become testimony to us, testimony of somone who has waited for the LORD and who has not been disappointed. So what did the LORD do? He lifted David out of a slimy pit, he set his feet on a rock giving him a firm place to stand (vs 2). 

God however doesn’t just want us to survive. God put a new song in David’s mouth, words that become a summons to others to see God, to fear God and to put their trust in Him (vs 3).

Being ‘blessed’ is about trusting in the LORD. David looks through his own back catalogue of experiences, and the experiences of God’s people and He is overwhelmed with just how much God has done and the plans He has for those who trust in Him (vs 5). God has simply done too many things to tell, echoes here of John’s summary of the life and work of Jesus (John 21: 24-25).

Now back in the present David proclaims ‘in the great assembly’ all the things that God has done. He speaks of God’s faithfulness and love (vs 10). As he looks forward, now with his feet on firm ground, he asks that God will not withhold further mercy from him (vs 11) and that the LORD’s love and faithfulness will always protect him. 

Troubles are all around, sin is within (vs 12), enemies gather (vs 14), David in this moment is ‘poor and needy’ (vs 17) but David knows who his help is, and it is to Him that He prays for deliverance, once again waiting.

Prayer: LORD I wait patiently for you. Do not withhold your mercy from me. May your love and faithfulness always protect me. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.