Psalms 40

I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry. Long waiting meets an inclined ear; patience is not empty delay but hope that keeps crying until he hears.

Wait without quitting the cry. Trust that he inclines; refuse both frantic haste and a silence that has stopped asking.

Calvin: In waiting I waited—Hebraism of earnest, constant patience. Though God delayed his help, David's heart did not faint; faith is thoroughly tried only by long endurance. When God seems inactive or asleep, that is totally different from deceit; the fitting season of deliverance will arrive.

Endure the trial that proves faith. Do not lose courage when help comes more slowly than desire; wait until he hears.

He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. Wesley: Pit—Desperate dangers and calamities. Rock—A place of strength and safety. Established—Kept me from falling into mischief. Rescue is from miry ruin onto firm footing.

Name the pit as desperation, then the rock as his gift. Stand where he set you; ask him to keep steps from sliding back into the bog.

Calvin: roaring pit and miry clay—imminent death as in a gulf of tumultuous waters; weight of calamity nearly overwhelmed him. Then sudden change: feet set upon a rock, steps established—greatness of the grace made manifest.

Trace deliverance to his drawing hand, not self-extraction. Remember the miry near-death so praise matches the rescue.

He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. Wesley: And fear—Shall stand in awe of that God, whom they see to have so great power, either to save or to destroy. New praise becomes public instruction.

Sing the new song he put there. Let others see deliverance and learn holy fear and trust; do not pocket praise in private only.

Calvin: new song marks consummation of deliverance—exquisite, not ordinary, matching singular grace. Many shall see, fear, and trust: fear and hope joined; none hope in God's favor whose mind is not first imbued with his fear. See means perception of the mind by the Spirit, not bare eyes on events.

Let one believer's rescue teach the church. Stir fervent praise proportional to the help; join reverent fear to trust.

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor those who turn aside to lies! Wesley: The proud—Or, the mighty, the great and proud potentates of the world, to whom most men are apt to look and trust. To lies—lying vanities that promise more than they perform.

Plant trust in the LORD alone. Turn from proud props and lying vanities; bless the man who refuses that false turn.

Calvin: blessed who set Jehovah for confidence and regard not the proud who turn aside to lying. Not merely the rich or great as props, but those puffed up whose examples allure to apostasy; pride and vanity oppose holy trust in God alone.

Guard against imitating the prosperous proud. Refuse vanity that puts fancy in God's place; rest confidence in him alone.

You have multiplied, O LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be told. Wesley: Many—This verse seems to be interposed as a wall of partition, between that which David speaks in his own person, and that which he speaks in the person of the Messiah, in the following verses.

Proclaim what you can, confess what exceeds telling. Let multiplied thoughts toward us humble comparison with any rival.

Calvin: wonderful works and counsels toward us cannot be reckoned up in order—providence surpasses comprehension. Reverently admire what reason cannot order; yet do not bury mention of his counsels because they are high—meditate according to measure and finish in admiration.

Cast cares on this providence rather than earthly fortresses. Refuse both carnal measuring of God and willful ignorance of his works.

Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Wesley: in a proper sense these words belong to the person and times of the Messiah—God did not require legal sacrifices for the satisfaction of his justice and the expiation of sins, which only Christ's blood could accomplish. Opened—Heb. bored; devoted to perpetual service as Exod. 21; the Seventy, whom the apostle follows (Heb. 10:5), render a body hast thou prepared me.

Shared messianic christology with Hebrews 10—both camps confess Christ over empty sacrifice. Hear the open ear as glad obedience; do not invent a timeline quarrel where Wesley and Calvin agree on the better offering.

Calvin: under four kinds of sacrifice David comprehends the law's rites—God takes no pleasure in mere ceremony but requires sincerity, faith, and holiness. Thou hast bored my ears: not the forced Exodus servant custom, but ears cleansed to discern that outward types serve a spiritual end. Hebrews 10: the truth and substance of the figures are in Christ; when they are put in place of true worship they are rejected.

Shared messianic christology with Hebrews 10—Christ's offering fulfills what shadows could not. Yield the heart, not only the altar; refuse hypocrisy that mocks God with cold rite.

Then I said, “Behold, I have come; it is written about me in the scroll of the book.” Wesley: These words literally and truly belong to Christ; lo, I offer myself to come into the world, as Heb. 10:5 applies this place expressly to him. Volume—the law of Moses in roll form, pointing to Christ of whom Moses writes much.

Shared with Hebrews 10—behold the Son who comes as written. Do not pry a camp wedge where Wesley and Calvin both hear Christ's advent; answer with willing “I have come.”

Calvin: Then marks schooling by the Spirit—Lo! I come as willing, not slavish, obedience. In the roll of the book: God writes his own as a general enrolls soldiers; the inward teaching belongs peculiarly to them. Hebrews 10 restricts to Christ the head what belongs to all the elect: referring the whole body of the Church, David must refer us to the head.

Shared with Hebrews 10—come willingly under the written will. Offer yourself, not constrained show; see the body's obedience gathered under Christ's coming.

I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.” Wesley: eminently true of Christ—heroic obedience that not only resolved but delighted to do the Father's will, even a shameful, painful, cursed death. My heart—receive the law with heartiest love, meditating and obeying.

Shared christology—delight, not mere duty, marks the obedient Son. Ask for law written within; refuse a will that only grudges compliance.

Calvin: I have delighted to do thy pleasure; law in the midst of my bowels—cordial preference of God's service, Law fixed deep. The Spirit engraves the Law on the heart; God changes the will that naturally inclines to sin so we cordially seek righteousness. True freedom is the heart framed unto obedience.

Shared christology—begin obedience at the heart under Christ's delight. Seek the Spirit's engraving; refuse splendid works that lack the living root.

I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know, O LORD. Wesley: Righteousness—Thy faithfulness. Great congregation—most public and solemn assemblies, even to the nations. Unrestrained lips publish what God has done.

Tell deliverance aloud where the church gathers. Do not restrain lips from faithfulness; let God know you have spoken.

Calvin: proclaimed righteousness in the great assembly—the lawfully constituted church, not market noise. Open praise edifies; hiding righteousness in the heart seeks to bury God's memory. He calls God witness against hypocritical loudness without affection.

Publish his righteousness for others' building up. Match lip to heart; ask continued favor as a thankful witness.

I have not hidden 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. Mercy, faithfulness, salvation, and steadfast love are stacked in public speech.

Conceal nothing of his steadfast love from the congregation. Speak faithfulness and salvation; refuse a private gospel that never blesses the assembly.

Calvin: accumulation of terms—righteousness, truth, salvation, mercy—magnifies goodness. Mercy induces God to regard us; righteousness protects; truth assures constant help; salvation is the effect. Embrace these as held forth in the Word.

Rehearse the full chain of his goodness. Hold mercy as the fountain and truth as the confirmation; hide none of it from the great assembly.

Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me! Wesley: With-hold not—having been transported to the Messiah's mystery, he is led back to his own case. Thanksgiving turns again to petition for unrestrained mercy.

Ask that mercy not be restrained after praise. Lean on steadfast love and faithfulness to preserve; bring your own need without dropping Christ's confession.

Calvin: withhold not tender mercies; let goodness and truth always preserve—thankful praise keeps the course of mercy open; perverse silence closes the gate. Confidence of salvation begins at free favor and is confirmed by truth keeping promises.

Link gratitude to continued help. Do not stop the fountain by ingratitude; plead mercy and truth as your preservation.

For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me. Wesley: Taken hold—as an officer arrests a man. To look—unto God or men with any comfort: ashamed and confounded. Evils and iniquities overwhelm sight and heart.

Own sins that overtake like an arrest. Bring failing heart and blinded comfort to mercy; refuse excuses that deny the hold of iniquity.

Calvin: innumerable evils compassed on all sides; iniquities have laid hold—he confesses just recompense of transgressions, not unjust severity. Heart fails as to the flesh, yet perseverance in prayer proves faith not wholly extinguished.

Set forth sins in magnitude lest you suspect God of undue severity. Groan as a penitent; keep praying when the heart faints.

Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD! Deliverance is asked from free pleasure, and help with holy haste.

Plead his good pleasure, not your desert. Ask haste without despairing when he times the help.

Calvin: Be pleased—desire help from pure kindness and good-will, free mercy not merit. Make haste: God permits this form even while we must contend against weariness when he delays.

Ask free kindness and permitted haste. Refuse both demand as earned wages and a patience that has stopped pleading.

Let those who seek my soul to destroy it be disappointed and confounded together; let those who delight in my hurt be turned backward and brought to dishonor! Life-snatchers and hurt-lovers are cited before God for shame and turned-back dishonor.

Lay violent foes before the Judge. Seek their disappointment without taking private revenge into your own hand.

Calvin: cites enemies to God's judgment-seat; the more unjustly they afflict, the more God is disposed to help. Imprecations must rise from zeal of the Spirit, not powerful impulse of the flesh—counterfeit imitation is always to be condemned.

Trust recompense to God rather than fleshly passion. Let their cruelty move you to prayer, not to matching malice.

Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha, Aha!” Wesley: Shame—Their sinful and shameful actions. Mocking Aha meets appalling shame.

Bring scorners' taunts to God. Do not answer Aha with Aha; ask that shame fall on sinful mockery.

Calvin: destroyed for a reward of their shame—as they sought to overwhelm him with confusion for derision, let similar confusion fall on them. Their wicked triumph poured contempt while he was oppressed.

Expect God to reverse cruel scorn. Let that doctrine restrain you toward neighbors; refuse the sport of another's misery.

But may all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let the LORD!” One man's deliverance becomes common joy for seekers and lovers of salvation.

Seek him and love his salvation aloud. Make Great is the LORD your continual word; refuse salvation invented apart from him.

Calvin: asks nothing individual that does not pertain to the whole church—gladness for all saints when God proves his readiness to help. Those who love thy salvation expect preservation from God alone; seekers of God contrast with seekers of the psalmist's life; Aha yields to Jehovah be magnified.

Apply one deliverance as common proof of his goodness. Renounce vain hopes; magnify the LORD with those who love his salvation.

He prays that God will be exalted. But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God! Poverty and need meet the Lord's thought; help and deliverer are named against delay.

Confess poor and needy without despair. Trust that he takes thought; ask your help and deliverer not to delay.

Calvin: poor and needy, yet Jehovah hath regarded—grace enhanced because he stretched his hand to one despised and destitute. Thou art my help and deliverer; make no delay—courage from experience that help hitherto given will not fail.

Do not read misery as God's weariness of you. Approach without wavering; plead help and deliverer from proven mercy.