Psalm 40
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
I waited patiently for the LORD;
and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
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.
And he has put a new song in my mouth,
even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear,
and shall trust in the LORD.
Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust,
and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5
Many, O LORD my God,
are your wonderful works which you have done,
and your thoughts which are to us-ward:
they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you:
if I would declare and speak of them,
they are more than can be numbered.
6
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire;
my ears have you opened:
burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.
Then said I, Lo, I come:
in the volume of the book it is written of me,
I delight to do your will, O my God:
yea, your law is within my heart.
9
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation:
lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know.
I have not hid your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation:
I have not concealed your loving kindness
and your truth from the great congregation.
11
Withhold not you your tender mercies from me, O LORD:
let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.
For innumerable evils have compassed me about:
my iniquities have taken hold upon me,
so that I am not able to look up;
they are more than the hairs of my head:
therefore my heart fails me.
13
Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me:
O LORD, make haste to help me.
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.
Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame
that say unto me, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you:
let such as love your salvation say continually,
The LORD be magnified.
17
But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me:
you are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
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Perhaps the most astonishing thing about this psalm is the simple truth that God thinks about us all the time. Did you catch it? “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me.” And earlier: “Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works, and your thoughts which are toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”
How can we ever say that God has forgotten us? There is not a day that goes by that we are not in his thoughts. The psalmist believed this with all his heart, and that is why we so often hear him cry out to God, “Why?” He knows that God has thought the matter through, so there must be a purpose in all the things he must endure.
I have had occasion in my own life to contemplate what this means. If one is to comfort people who are in terrible trial, it is helpful if he has endured the trial himself. Then, when I consider the terrible pain some suffer in their last days, I conclude that God wants in his kingdom people who know the meaning of pain. Why? That is the question that leads me to contemplate eternity. We leave this life at the peak of knowledge and experience. Is it all wasted, or it there something more to come, something beyond heavenly bliss?