Psalm 40Sample

Welcome to this study of Psalm 40! I am filled up with gratefulness to walk these words with you over the next several days. It is my prayer that through this study we would learn how to be gut-honest before God and others, believe that He cares about our pain and desires and delights to delivers us, and that we would become unwavering in our trust in Him.

Psalm 40:1-3 is what I call, “The Redemption Rhythm of God.” These three verses are the crying out to God, His saving of us, and His continued work in our lives as we live by faith and tell others the good news. God gives us a rhythmic cycle of redemption in these poetic words. Over and over and over again through all generations and all time, the gospel is at work. God hears; He saves, and He gives a new song for us to sing to all who will listen. We are participants in this rhythm, because not only is it “once and done”—our saving—but it continues in God’s work in our every day in the ordinary ups and downs of our lives, in our sanctification, our coming to look more like Him.

These three verses are also an overview of the rest of Psalm 40. Our study is going to be primarily based on the redemption rhythm verses, how they connect to the rest of the Psalm and how the themes presented therein apply to our lives. Because the story of God as given to us in the Bible is a vast tapestry of God’s interactions with humanity, we can’t help but let the psalm lead us into the rest of the story to see what God would teach us through the fullness of His Word.

Life is full and surprising and often, confusing. It’s not just full of joy and beauty and crisp Autumn air, baby-head smells, stories that invade our hearts, sunshine, ocean waves, mountain splendor, sugary lattes, and those wonderful warm fuzzy feelings in our tummies that overwhelm in the best of ways; it’s full of mundane days, gut-wrenching loss, quiet desperation, unexpected diagnoses, secret pain, and unhealed wounds. And the question arises, “Where are you in all this God?” More questions follow: “Do you hear my cries for help? Do you even care? Can I really trust you?”

Psalm 40 is an answer to these questions.