Psalm 40 “Worship Despite Affliction”

Translation & Sermon By Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 10 June 2018

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Introduction

Psalm 40 is a testimony of God’s salvation in David’s experience. Note the sequential imperfects which characterize a historical account.

V.1 I was waiting eagerly for Yahweh, then He leaned toward me and He heeded my hollering.

The Psalm starts out קַוֹּה קִוִּיתִי literally, “waiting I waited” – Most of the English versions rendered the intensive grammar as “patiently,” but I translated it “eagerly” because this kind of waiting is not leaning back in your chair with your hands in your lap and doing nothing. This kind of waiting is anticipation for what the Lord is about to do.
It’s the kind of waiting my kids at home did when Grace Anne told them she was going to come over and take them out for ice cream. Every time her car pulled into the driveway, suddenly there was a flurry of activity from six kids throwing on their socks and shoes so they would not be left out, in case this was the time that big sister was coming to take them out for ice cream!
This is also the kind of anticipatory waiting that the New Testament tells us Christians are characterized by:

Romans 8:24-25 “…we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance…” (NKJV)
1 Cor. 1:5-8 “…in everything, y’all were enriched by Him in every word and in every [piece of] knowledge… so that y’all don’t miss out on any [spiritual] gift as you are eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will also make you firm until the end…” (NAW)
Galatians 5:5 “ For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” (NKJV)
Philippians 3:20 “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” (NKJV)
Hebrews 9:28 “so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”(NKJV)

What does it look like for you to wait eagerly for the Lord?

Part of it is crying out to Him for help frequently, trusting that He is listening to you when you holler, and looking forward to the help He will bring, because He will bring salvation, just as He did to David…

V.2 Then He brought me up from the pit of chaos - from the slimy mud - and he got my feet up on a rock-mountain; He steadied my steps.
David describes what God got him out of, and what God got him onto.

God got him out of the pit of “chaos/horror/misery/destruction/slime/despair”

The Hebrew word sha’on has to do with something big and noisy, and everywhere else it appears in the Bible, it refers to the sound of a crowd of people, especially ungodly people – which is why I translated it “chaos.”^{^[1]}
Nowhere else does it occur together with the word “pit,” so we just have to interpret it as a poetic expression since there are no other Bible passages which define it further except for the parallel phrase “clay mire/mud/bog.”
Whether it was a literal muddy pit full of soldiers yelling and hacking at each other with their swords, or whether it was an emotional or spiritual jumble of confusion – the history accounts in the Bible tell us that David experienced both.

Then v.2 tells us what God got David up into: a rock

There are other Hebrew words like eben and garal for the little rocks you can pick up and skip across a lake, but this kind of sela’-rock was the size of a mountain.
And what rock-mountain did God set David upon? Psalm 18:2 “Yahweh is my rock-mountain, my stronghold, and my deliverer, my God, my landmark-rock…” (NAW, cf. Psalm 31:3)
In the New Testament, the name Yahweh disappears and is replaced with Kurios, the Greek word for Master/Lord, and that word Kurios becomes interchangeable with Jesus who is also called “the Lord.” David’s stand upon the solid, unchangeable, safety of Yahweh is the same as the Christian’s stand upon the rock of Jesus Christ.

V.3 Then he put a new song in my mouth, a praise-song for our God. Many will see and be afraid and trust in Yahweh.

As a result of experiencing the Lord’s salvation, we sing songs to Him!

The word “new” doesn’t necessarily mean “novel” or “brand-new.” The Hebrew word also applies to new versions of an oldie, but, on the other hand, if all you ever sing is the old songs, then there is reason to question whether you have a relationship of your own with God, because if you do, there will be new developments that happen in your relationship about which you will want to sing.
Let it happen spiritually, though. David says that God put the song in his mouth; David didn’t have to chew on the end of his quill for hours trying to come up with something of his own; these songs flowed right through him from the Holy Spirit.
And your new song doesn’t have to be all that profound either: Sometimes I get lyrics in my head that are ridiculously simple, so I won’t bring them to y’all to sing, but I will sing them to God.
Sometimes a song will come into my head and then it evaporates, and all I have is the memory that I had a delightful song I was singing to God, but I can’t remember any of it anymore. That’s o.k. The point is to praise God, not to get the praise of man by achieving a place on the Top Twenty Christian Countdown. It’s a hymn of praise “to our God!”

On the other hand, singing is a way to share our experiences with other people.

In the Old Testament, it was common to equate prophecy with singing because that’s how a lot of prophets got their points across before it all got compiled in the Bible and the music was lost.
As a result of singing this testimony-song of God’s salvation, David anticipates that many individuals will see (be brought to an understanding of who God is), and fear (God’s justice against their sin so that they have a healthy respect for God), and believe (trusting God to save them from sin and evil).
You never know who might be affected in this way if you will just share your testimony – whether in a song or just in telling a story, it doesn’t matter.
About thirty years ago, I composed a little ditty based on Proverbs 11 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your understanding,” and I added a few phrases of my own as my testimony, “His paths are truth, his paths are healing, in them you’ll find rest for your soul.” I think I have only ever performed that song once, and the tape recording I made of it has earned it’s place in an obscure corner of my office, never listened to. But a couple of years ago, I ran across a woman who had been there when I sang that song at that church in Tennessee all those years ago, and she mentioned how it had helped her when her soul was troubled, and she started singing it back to me. What a thrill to discover that God had used my simple testimony in a song to nurture faith in someone else’s life! Don’t be afraid to put your testimony out there. You never know what an impact it may have on someone else’s faith!
And let me reiterate: it needs to be praise “to” or “for” God – a testimony that is more about you than about God isn’t going to create “fear” of God and “faith” in God in anybody.

V.4 The historical narrative of God’s salvation is interrupted now by an excerpt from David’s song of praise: Oh the blessings of the champion who has set Yahweh to be his trust, and who has not paid attention to the insolent ones or the ones who swerve into falsehood.

David’s song starts with a beatitude: “Blessed…”
It is not framed as a promise, as though if you will only work harder at making the Lord your trust you will be blessed; rather it is a simple statement of fact: the person who trusts Yahweh is blessed already. It is past tense because it is a testimony of what David has experienced. “I am blessed!”
The next step, of course, is to call people to trust God and be blessed instead of trusting humans and being cursed.
Jesus spoke similarly in His sermon on the Mount; notice how He also framed it in the present tense: “Blessed are the ones who are lowly in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are the ones who mourn, because it is they who will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, because it is they who will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for it is they who will be satisfied. Blessed are those who show mercy, for it is they who will receive mercy…” (Mat. 5:2-7, NAW)
The alternative to trusting the Lord is to trust in proud men and their lies.

And yet, it is those bold, self-confident, insolent, proud people who are the most interesting to listen to – it’s hard not to pay attention to and respect and turn around and look at them. And oh how many people will follow a man simply because he’s cock-sure of himself without ever cross-checking with God’s word to see if what he’s saying is really true. Don’t be fooled.
Don’t pay attention to the insolent and proud and those who lapse and turn aside and swerve. They may be entertaining, but there is no blessing to be found in it. At the least, it is a waste of time to pay attention to them, and at the worst, you may be led astray by their lies and falsehoods.
The NIV reads “false gods” and the NLT reads “false idols,” although the word “gods” or “idols” isn’t in the Hebrew text, but that’s what ultimately happens – they worship idols and false gods and fall under God’s curse and wrath.

V.5 David continues his song of praise to God: “You Yourself have done many things, Yahweh, my God; there is no way I could provide an accounting to You of Your wonders and Your thoughts toward me. Were I to relate and speak of [them], they would be too numerous to record.”

God’s deeds – His wonders and plans are “too many to count.” Is that how you’d put it? Miracles and acts of God just everywhere – more than you can keep track of?
In the Psalms, God’s wonders include:

Psalm 71:15&17 “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day, For I do not know their limits… O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.” (NKJV)
Psalm 72:17-18 “…His name shall continue as long as the sun. And men shall be blessed in Him; All nations shall call Him blessed. Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, Who only does wondrous things!” (NKJV)
Psalm 78:11-15 “…His works And His wonders that He had shown them… He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; And He made the waters stand up like a heap. In the daytime also He led them with the cloud, And all the night with a light of fire. He split the rocks in the wilderness, And gave them drink in abundance like the depths…” (NKJV)
Psalm 86:10-15 “For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God…For great is Your mercy toward me, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol… You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” (NKJV)
Psalm 96:2-3 “…Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.” (NKJV)
Psalm 107:31 “Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (ESV)
And here in Ps. 40, God’s wonders are His “thoughts/plans toward us”
Psalm 33:11-12 explains that those “plans/thoughts” are of election and reconciliation between God and man: “It is the plan of Yahweh that will stand for ever - the thoughts of His heart for generation after generation! Oh the blessings of the nation where Yahweh is its God, the people group He chose for an inheritance for Himself!” (NAW)

Now, you may not have answered my earlier question affirmatively about experiencing God’s “wonders” as being “too many to count,” but now are you getting a better picture of how multitudinous they are? Especially if you were to count forgiveness of sin – take the number of sinners who ever lived (but whom God saved), and multiply those billions by the billions of sins of each one of them committed day-by-day throughout their lives, sins which God has forgiven one-by-one-by-one-by-one until there is no way to count them all – even if you were an accomplished accountant^{^[2]}!

v.6 You did not delight in a sacrifice or a grain-offering; you prepared a body for me. You didn’t ask for a whole-burnt-offering or a sin offering.

I can understand that the supernatural nature of God would make him not all that interested in material gifts sacrificed to Him. He doesn’t need money or food, so I can see why they would not be what “delights” Him.
God delights in personal relationships – what He has had eternally in His inter-trinitarian fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit, and what He has opened up to us when He created mankind, and what we broke by our selfishness and rebellion. And that’s why God required whole burnt offerings and sin offerings as a covenantal way to restore fellowship with errant humans.
God commanded that the Jews bring these sorts of sacrifices, for instance in Deuteronomy 16:16 "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses… and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.” (NKJV) They had to bring sacrifices. So why does David say that God did not ask for them?

God not asking for or requiring a whole-burnt offering or a sin offering means that there is no sin to atone for^{^[3]}. No more offenses interfering in the relationship between God and man, no guilt to make offering a sacrificial animal’s life necessary! I believe that is the case here in this Psalm: something big has just happened here: the Jewish texts from a thousand years ago describe it as the “opening of the ears,” and the Greek texts from two thousand years ago describe it as the “preparation of a body.”

Hebrews 10:5-10 follows the ancient Septuagint version of Psalm 40 to explain this significant event which did away with sin so that there was no longer any need for animal sacrifices: “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.' After saying above, ‘Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Thy will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (NAS)
This is a prophecy that God would become incarnate; Jesus, the Son of God would take on a human body. He went on to suffer in that human body the wrath of His heavenly Father against our sin - in our place on the cross, and then to resurrect and ascend to the Father in heaven - still in that human body - to be our priest to reconcile us to God. Now do you see why God does not require animal burnt-offerings anymore?

So what do we do with the phrase in Psalm 40:6 in most English Bibles: “You opened up ears for me/pierced my ears”? It doesn’t occur anywhere else in the Bible, which makes me a little suspicious, but…

That’s what the 10^th century Masoretic Hebrew text says.
And then there’s Aquila and Symachus, Jewish translators who didn’t like the way Christians used this psalm to point to Jesus, and who were horrified over the Christian teaching that God took on a human body, so they used this phrase for “opened ears” in their own Greek versions of the Old Testament in the second century, which they published in an attempt to replace the Septuagint that Christians were using as their Bible at the time.
Yet, when Jerome translated the Bible into Latin around the year 400, he decided to go with the “pierced ears” instead of the “prepared body,” and his Vulgate translation was practically the only Bible that Western Christians had for a thousand years.
Although it is my opinion that the original text of Psalm 40 is “you prepared a body for me,” I don’t think it’s appropriate to go on a crusade against the “pierced ears” text. I believe that God would have prevented it from happening if it would have perverted His message. In this case, God allowed the phrase “my years you have opened” to be in the majority of versions of Psalm 40 throughout Christian history. This was part of His providence. We can accept His providence and find more applications to this passage!
Although some Bible scholars have offered Exodus 21 and Deut. 15^{^[4]} as cross-references to interpret this passage in terms of a freeman volunteering to become a slave to another man by getting his ear pierced by that man, I don’t think that interpretation fits, because

it was a different verb (ratza’, not karah)
and the slave only got one ear pierced, whereas the speaker in Psalm 40 has had it done to both of his ears.
And furthermore, the verb in the Hebrew text of Psalm 40 v.6 has more to do with digging than piercing.

The Hebrew verb for “pierced/opened up” (karah) is mostly used to describe digging a well for water. I suggest that that “boring out” both ears, therefore is a metaphor for enabling a person to overcome spiritual deafness and begin to hear and obey God. This concept is found in the prophets:

Isaiah 42:19-20 “Who is blind if not my servant, or deaf like my messenger I send? …seeing much but you will not keep, having open ears, but they do not heed.” (NAW)
Ezekiel 12:2 “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear; for they are a rebellious house.” (NKJ)

When a leper was restored in Leviticus, remember what happened when he offered his animal sacrifice to atone for the guilt of his sin? “Then he shall slaughter the lamb of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt-offering and put it onto the lobe of the right ear of the one who is being purified and onto the thumb of his right hand and onto the big-toe of his right foot.” (Lev. 14:25, NAW) This may have been a symbolic way of saying that his ability to hear and obey God was also spiritually restored. This ties together the blood of the sacrificial animal’s body with its effect upon the worshipper of healing from spiritual deafness to God.
The opening up of ears of the deaf is also connected in the prophets with the coming of the Messiah and His salvation: Isaiah 35:2-3 “God… Himself will come, and He will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped…”

V.7 At that time I said, “Look, I have arrived! In the scroll of the book it is written about me. V.8 It was in doing Your good-pleasure, my God, that I delighted, and Your Torah/instruction/law is in the midst of my inmost parts.

The word az, translated “then” in most of the English versions at the beginning of v.7 is a like a picture frame around a scene that has either happened in the past or a scene yet to happen in the future.
The question is “When did this arrival occur?”

David, as King of Israel, may have seen himself referred to in Deut. 17, which contains God’s instructions to future kings of Israel:

God said, “Don’t buy a bunch of horses; don’t marry a bunch of women; don’t collect a bunch of tax-money, instead, the first thing a king should do when he takes office is to hand-copy the first five books of the Bible, and then he can reign over the nation of Israel as long as he reads and obeys that copy of the law.”
Deuteronomy 17:18 calls that copy a sepher/scroll/book. And the phrase we have here in Psalm 40 verse 7 is מְגִלַּת-סֵפֶר – a “scroll” which contains part of a larger “record.”
In those days you could only get so much text written on a rolled-up animal skin, so it took multiple scrolls to make up a whole Bible, so those individual scrolls were like a book published in several volumes.
According to the International Bible Standard Encyclopedia, “The Hebrew meghillath cepher (Jer. 36:2) means the unwritten roll...^{^[5]}” Here is David, after his divine rescue, installed as king of Israel and now saying, “Hey that chapter in Deuteronomy 17 that I copied onto those blank scrolls – it’s about me! I am to take in God’s word with open ears and obey it every day of my life!”
David delighted in God’s salvation (Acts 13:22) and hid God’s law in his heart (Psalm 119:11).

But was it just about David? Not if you believe in the inspiration of the N.T.!

What does Hebrews 10:8-10 tell us? “He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Thy will.’ He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (NAS) These are also the words of Jesus! Jesus says, “Who is that body that You prepared, Lord, that took away Your desire for animal sacrifices? Who is that person who delighted to do God’s will and kept the Law perfectly in his heart? That was me!” says Jesus, “That was written about me; I did that!”
Jesus perfectly did God’s will: John 6:38-40 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (NKJ)
And when He went to church in His hometown and read about God’s salvation from the scroll of Isaiah’s prophecy He said, “That’s about me! Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing!” (Luke 4:21)

Are you in that scroll too? Absolutely!

Isaiah 24:15 spoke of the nations from all coasts giving glory to God, as we sang earlier.
In the Psalms, David spoke of all the nations worshipping and obeying God, for instance Psalm 22:27 “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to Yahweh, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Your face” (NAW).
You too can say, “Hey, here I am, right here in the Bible! ‘There is no way I could provide an accounting of God’s wonders and thoughts toward me, foremost of which is that God prepared the body of Jesus as a substitute to atone for my sin.’ That’s talking about me!”
We too can relate to Jesus as God and Savior, hide His word in our inmost being where it won’t be forgotten, reflect God’s character by obeying the 10 Commandments, and share the good news of His salvation with others.
Doing God’s will does not come naturally to our flesh, but God promises to empower us to do His will, so you can eagerly anticipate that He will, especially if you cry out to Him to help - like David did. We can eagerly await the fulfillment of Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now may the God of peace… make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever...” (NKJV)

Psalm 40^{^[A]}

LXX Ps. 39	Brenton	DRB	KJV	NAW	MT
1) Εἰς τὸ τέλος· τῷ Δαυιδ ψαλμός . 2) Ὑπομένων ὑπέμεινα τὸν κύριον, καὶ προσέσχεν^{^[B]} μοι καὶ εἰσήκουσεν τῆς δεήσεώς μου	1 For the end, a Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord; and he attended to me, and hearkened to my supplication.	1 Unto the end, a psalm for David himself. 2) With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me. 3) And he heard my prayers	1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.	1 For the concertmaster. A Psalm by David. I was waiting eagerly for Yahweh, then He leaned toward me and He heeded my hollering.	1 לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר: 2 קַוֹּה קִוִּיתִי יְהוָה וַיֵּט אֵלַי וַיִּשְׁמַע שַׁוְעָתִי:
3) καὶ ἀνήγαγέν με ἐκ λάκκου ταλαιπωρίας [καὶ] ἀπὸ πηλοῦ ἰλύος καὶ ἔστησεν ἐπὶ πέτραν τοὺς πόδας μου [καὶ] κατηύθυνεν τὰ διαβήματά μου^{^[C]}	2 And he brought me up out of a pit of misery, [and] from miry clay: and he set my feet on a rock, [and] ordered my goings aright.	and brought me out of the pit of misery [and] the mire of dregs. And he set my feet upon a rock, [and] directed my steps.	2 He brought me up^{^[D]} also out of an horrible^{^[E]} pit, out of the miry clay^{^[F]}, and set my feet upon a rock, and established^{^[G]} my goings.	2 Then He brought me up from the pit of chaos - from the slimy mud - and he got my feet up on a rock-mountain; He steadied my steps.	3 וַיַּעֲלֵנִי מִבּוֹר שָׁאוֹן מִטִּיט הַיָּוֵן^{^[H]} וַיָּקֶם עַל-סֶלַע רַגְלַי כּוֹנֵן^{^[I]} אֲשֻׁרָי:
4) καὶ ἐνέβαλεν εἰς τὸ στόμα μου ᾆσμα καινόν, ὕμνον τῷ θεῷ ἡμῶν· ὄψονται πολλοὶ καὶ φοβηθήσονται καὶ ἐλπιοῦσιν ἐπὶ κύριον.	3 And he put a new song into my mouth, even a hymn to our God: many shall see [it], and fear, and shall hope in the Lord.	4) And he put a new canticle into my mouth, a song to our God. Many shall see, and shall fear: and they shall hope in the Lord.	3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.	3 Then he put a new song in my mouth, a praise-song for our God. Many will see and be afraid and trust in Yahweh.	4 וַיִּתֵּן בְּפִי שִׁיר חָדָשׁ תְּהִלָּה לֵאלֹהֵינוּ יִרְאוּ רַבִּים וְיִירָאוּ וְיִבְטְחוּ בַּיהוָה:
5) μακάριος ἀνήρ, οὗ ἐστιν τὸ ὄνομα^{^[J]} κυρίου ἐλπὶς αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐκ ἐνέβλεψεν^{^[K]} εἰς ματαιότητας καὶ μανίας^{^[L]} ψευδεῖς.	4 Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord, and who has not regarded vanities and false frenzies.	5) Blessed is the man whose trust is in the name of the Lord; and who hath not had regard to vanities, and lying follies.	4 Blessed is that man that ma~~keth~~ the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside^{^[M]} to lie[s].	4 Oh the blessings of the champion who has set Yahweh to be his trust, and who has not paid attention to the insolent ones or the ones who swerve into falsehood.	5 אַשְׁרֵי הַגֶּבֶר אֲשֶׁר-שָׂם יְהוָֹה מִבְטַחוֹ וְלֹא-פָנָה אֶל-רְהָבִים וְשָׂטֵי^{^[N]} כָזָב:
6) πολλὰ ἐποίησας σύ, κύριε ὁ θεός μου, τὰ θαυμάσιά σου, καὶ τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς σου οὐκ ἔστιν τίς ~~ὁμοιωθήσεταί~~ σοι^{^[O]}· ἀπήγγειλα καὶ ἐλάλησα, ἐπληθύνθησαν ὑπὲρ ἀριθμόν^{^[P]}.	5 O Lord my God, thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, and in thy thoughts there is none ~~who shall be likened~~ to thee: I declared and spoke of them: they exceeded number.	6) Thou hast multiplied thy wonderful works, O Lord my God: and in thy thoughts there is no ~~one like~~ to thee. I have declared and I have spoken they are multiplied above number.	5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare^{^[Q]} and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered^{^[R]}.	5. You Yourself have done many things, Yahweh, my God; there is no way I could provide an accounting to You of Your wonders and Your thoughts toward me. Were I to relate and speak of [them], they would be too numerous to record.	6 רַבּוֹת עָשִׂיתָ אַתָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי נִפְלְאֹתֶיךָ וּמַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ אֵלֵינוּ אֵין עֲרֹךְ אֵלֶיךָ אַגִּידָה וַאֲדַבֵּרָה עָצְמוּ מִסַּפֵּר:
7) θυσίαν καὶ προσφορὰν οὐκ ἠθέλησας, σωμα [δὲ] κατηρτίσω^{^[S]} μοι· ὁλοκαύτωμα καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτίας οὐκ ᾔτησας.	6 Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not; [but] a body hast thou prepared me: whole-burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou didst not require.	7) Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire; [but] thou hast pierced ears for me. Burnt offering and sin offering thou didst not require:	6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire^{^[T]}; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.	6 You did not delight in a sacrifice or a grain-offering; you prepared a body for me. You didn’t ask for a whole-burnt-offering or a sin offering.	7 זֶבַח וּמִנְחָה לֹא-חָפַצְתָּ אָזְנַיִם כָּרִיתָ לִּי עוֹלָה וַחֲטָאָה לֹא שָׁאָלְתָּ:
8) τότε εἶπον Ἰδοὺ ἥκω, ἐν κεφαλίδι^{^[U]} βιβλίου γέγραπται περὶ ἐμοῦ·	7 Then I said, Behold, I come: in the volume of the book it is written concerning me,	8) Then said I, Behold I come. In the head of the book it is written of me	7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,	7 At that time I said, “Look, I have arrived! In the scroll of the book it is written about me.	8 אָז אָמַרְתִּי הִנֵּה-בָאתִי בִּמְגִלַּת-סֵפֶר כָּתוּב עָלָי:
9) τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημά σου, ὁ θεός μου, ἐβουλήθην καὶ τὸν νόμον σου ἐν μέσῳ τῆς κοιλίας^{^[V]} μου.	8 I desired to do thy will, O my God, and thy law in the midst of mine ~~heart~~.	9) That I should do thy will: O my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my ~~heart~~.	8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my ~~heart~~X.	8 It was in doing Your good-pleasure, my God, that I delighted, and Your instruction is in the midst of my inmost parts.	9 לַעֲשׂוֹת-רְצוֹנְךָ אֱלֹהַי חָפָצְתִּי וְתוֹרָתְךָ בְּתוֹךְ מֵעָי:

^{^[1]}Cf. Isaiah 57:20 But the wicked are like the tossed sea, for he is not able to rest, but his waters toss mire and mud. In Psalm 39:8 we ran into some similar phraseology but with different words: “I have been stunned and crushed as much as can be; I have been groaning as a result of the tumult [sha’ag] of my heart.” (NAW)

^{^[2]} The Mosaic law required the priest to “arrange” the oil lamps and the shewbread in the holy place before the Lord every day (Leviticus 24:4-8), so this verb connotes more than just a casual assessment.

^{^[3]} Another possibility is that there is so much sin it can’t be forgiven. That was the situation in Isaiah’s day Isaiah 1:11-15 “To what [purpose] of mine is the multitude of your sacrifices?” says Yahweh, “I have had-my-fill of whole-burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of feed-lot-animals; and in blood of bulls and lambs and goats I do not delight… I am not able [to brook] iniquity and solemn assembly… although you multiply prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood.” (NAW) But if you read on in Isaiah, you’ll see that if they did repent, God would want them to resume offering those animal sacrifices (cf. Ps. 51:19) and that God still wanted to the life of the Messiah to be sacrificed (Isa 53:), so I don’t think Psalm 40 is about God giving up on substitutionary atonement for sin.

^{^[4]} Exodus 21:5-6 “But if the servant plainly says, 'I love my master… I will not go out free,' then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce [רצע] his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.”

Deuteronomy 15:16-17 “And if it happens that he says to you, 'I will not go away from you,' because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through [מרצע ונתתה] his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.” (NKJV)

^{^[5]} “…or the roll considered in its material form as contrasted with the work.”

Psalm 40 “Worship Despite Affliction”

Psalm 40[A]

Psalm 40^{^[A]}