Today’s Passage: Psalm 40
David waited, and God pulled him up out of the pit and put a new song in his mouth. In the middle of that thanksgiving he tells us what God had wanted all along: not sacrifice, but a life that says, here I am. When Hebrews takes up these same words, it hears in them the Son stepping into the world, saying, a body You prepared, I have come to do Your will. We should not soften that into nothing more than David’s own offering. David spoke the words truly, and the apostles carried them all the way home. It is one gospel, from the psalm to the letter.
As you read, hold this: A body You prepared. I have come to do Your will.
Context Of David, thanksgiving and need together
“For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.” The first half of this song is a rescue already given, and the last verses are help that is still needed. In fact verses 13 through 17 turn up again, with a little variation, as Psalm 70. Here is a man holding thanksgiving and ongoing need together in one breath, a rescued life that is still asking.
Psalm 40:1-3 (BSB)
¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. ² He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm. ³ He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
This is waiting that has finally ended, a cry that God has heard. There was the pit and the miry clay, and then, under his feet, a rock and firm footing. What changed was not his mood but the very ground he stood on. The new song begins as one man’s alone, and then it moves outward, until many will see it and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40:4-5 (BSB)
⁴ Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. ⁵ Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
The rescue that was so personal now opens into a blessing for anyone who has placed the same trust in God. Two other places a person might look for confidence are named and set aside: the proud, and those who lapse into falsehood. Then verse 5 widens the view even further, to wonders too many to count. The pit David was lifted from turns out to be only one entry in a list that never finishes.
Psalm 40:6-8 (BSB)
⁶ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. ⁷ Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: ⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”
Here I am. I have come. I delight to do Your will, and Your law is within my heart. This is David’s own surrender, offered honestly through oznayim, pronounced oz-NA-yim. Strong's H241, ears (dual of ear). The verb behind “ears” means to dig or to bore, the same verb used for digging a well: these are ears that God has dug open. What He wanted was never the blood of an animal as the end of the matter. It was a person able to hear Him, and then to do what he heard. The Greek Old Testament rendered this line as “a body You prepared for Me,” for an opened ear is simply a body made ready. Hebrews will take that very line and preach it as the Son’s. God had already opened, out of a life that God has already rescued.
Study notes Hebrews names the body
"Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. Then I said, "Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God."' In the passage above He says, 'Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them' (although they are offered according to the law). Then He adds, 'Here I am, I have come to do Your will.' He takes away the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Hebrews 10:5-10 (BSB)
When Christ came into the world, He said these words. We read them here the way Hebrews reads them. He takes away the first to establish the second, and we are sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. David’s “here I am” was real and true. Yet its fullest voice belongs to the Son, who said it with a body prepared for Him, with nothing held back, and no sacrifice left to be required after His.
Psalm 40:9-10 (BSB)
⁹ I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know. ¹⁰ I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.
Listen to how many ways he says it: he has proclaimed it, he has not sealed his lips, he has not covered it in his heart, he has declared it, he has not concealed it. The new song of verse 3 is being sung out loud, in the place where other people can hear it.
Psalm 40:11-13 (BSB)
¹¹ O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me. ¹² For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me. ¹³ Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; hurry, O LORD, to help me.
Here the psalm turns. Now it is evils without number, and sins more than the hairs of his head. He lifted me up from the pit, he said back in verse 2, and here in verse 12 his heart has failed within him. Both of these live inside one prayer. Thanksgiving for what God has already done does not retire our need to keep on asking Him.
Psalm 40:14-17 (BSB)
¹⁴ May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated. ¹⁵ May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled at their own shame. ¹⁶ May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation always say, “The LORD be magnified!” ¹⁷ But I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and deliverer; O my God, do not delay.
The hard prayer against his enemies is real, and we should neither baptize it as a license for private revenge nor sand it smooth. He asks that those who hunt him would meet their own shame, and he leaves the acting of it with God. Then he turns to the other group, those who seek the LORD, and asks that they would be glad, and that the LORD would be magnified. The last line sets both groups down and names only himself: I am poor and needy, do not delay. A life that has already been rescued once is still, honestly, asking.
A body You prepared. I have come to do Your will.