me in God's holy word to the book of Psalms. Our text tonight is Psalm 40. And we continue to look at not all, but a number of Psalms. that teach us about crying to the Lord. As we do this series, looking at various Psalms, tonight we're going to look at Psalm 40. So please give careful attention as we hear the word of God Almighty. Psalm 40. To the choir master, a Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my step secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I say it. Behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed together who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, oh my God. Thus ends the reading of God's very Word. Let's pray. O Lord God, we thank you for your Word. It is holy. It is eternal. It is infallible. It is inerrant. It is authoritative. It is sufficient. O Lord, we desire your Word more than gold. Yes, much fine gold. Your word is sweeter to us than honey, than the honey of the honeycomb. And so, Lord, we pray that you would come and that you would show us more of your beauty, Lord Jesus, from this portion of Holy Scripture. and that you would take us by the hand as your little children and lead us in your paths to trust and follow and love and live for you. In Jesus we pray. Amen. Well, Psalm 40, like some of the other psalms that we have looked at, is rich indeed. In a unique way, this psalm not only is the psalm of David, but it is also the words of our Lord Jesus himself. Not in every verse in the sense that Jesus is the one who is saying these about himself, but he is either moving David his servant to cry to him or for David to speak on his behalf, revealing him. Some of these verses, as we will see, the Lord Jesus is the one that is the ultimate author or speaker. We see that, for example, in verses 6 and following. These are words that Jesus himself utters. But there are other verses in this psalm that are David and are not Jesus uttering in the sense that he is the one talking about himself, but he is leading David and he is moving David to speak these words. For example, we see in verse 2, Jesus was not one who had sunk into the pit of sin that needed rescue, for He is the spotless, pure Lamb of God. We see over in verse 11 and following, the Lord Jesus did not have iniquity, let alone iniquities without number. But David did. And so I hope you can see the difference of these two particular sections of Psalm 40 just at first glance. We see that some of these words are the words of Messiah himself, and the rest of these words are words to Messiah. So let's dig in and learn what God would teach us from Psalm 40 about crying to the Lord. We see, first of all, in Psalm 40, this rich psalm, the experience of crying to the Lord. We see that every child of God who would be seeking the face of God is one who has this experience of crying to God. And notice how David describes this experience of crying to the Lord. Verse 1, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined me and heard my cry. One of the things that God teaches us right at the start of this psalm is that God, while He is always able to instantly come to our rescue, like he did with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The Lord did not wait a long time to come to their deliverance. They would have been burnt to a cinder had he done so, but it was an immediate rescue. But other times, the Lord is pleased to have us wait. to have us stay in Herod's prison until he comes. And here the experience of David crying to the Lord, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. The Lord is teaching us in this psalm that we need to be following this example and remembering David's experience that we are to cry to God for help, for deliverance. And sometimes the Lord is pleased for His own glory and our ultimate good to have us wait. And the Lord would have us wait patiently. with confidence and hope and joy that he yet has heard our cry and will take action in his good time to rescue us. David in verse two recounts his experience of God's rescue in his good time. He drew me up from the pit of destruction. out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure." What a picture this paints for us of the quicksand of sin. Here's this picture of sinking down into a pit, a miry bog, where the more we would seek to escape in our own strength, the deeper we would sink. But the Lord reaches down and draws us up in the saving work of His Son. He sets our feet upon a rock, making our steps secure. In Matthew chapter 7, the Lord described the wise man and the foolish man. The wise man builds his house on the rock, and when the floods come, Instead of sinking down into the miry bog, instead of being destroyed, that wise man, that wise woman, that wise boy, that wise girl builds upon Jesus and His Word, taking to heart the gospel of Jesus Christ, making our steps secure. What a contrast Jesus paints for us in Matthew 7. The foolish man, the foolish woman, builds their house on the sand. And it is quicksand indeed. It is the miry bog. It leads to the pit of destruction. But Jesus came and steps forth in human history to rescue us and all those who call upon the name of the Lord experience this amazing work of God Almighty plucking us from the pit of despair, from the pit of sin and death and hell. Our experience then in verse 3, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Yes, we love to sing the old songs of praise to God, but as the Lord is at work in our lives, we have fresh material to give thanks to the living God for. That's the new song. It is the fresh applications to us. of the gospel, of answered prayer, of seeing the Lord's tender mercies unfold before us. There's an old gospel hymn, count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. The Lord warns us recording the experience of David to not forget to say thank you to the Lord. It would be our joy increased to remember the past deliverances of our God. It would be a good practice for us when we lay our head down on the pillow at night to think back on the mercies of God even that day. Indeed, may the Lord grant to us that as we cry to the Lord for salvation and help and mercy and blessing, as we see God delivering us personal salvation in all of those difficult situations that variously in God's providence we find ourselves in. And when the Lord does indeed deliver us, and even anticipating deliverance, that we would sing praise to the Lord and give thanks to Him, for He is good and His mercy endures forever. Well, then we see in verses 4 and 5, David boasting of the Lord and his praise to God for answering his deliverance. We see in verses four and five, blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them Yet they are more than can be told. And so here we see in verses four and five, David boasting. First of all, he is praising God himself. He is declaring in the presence of God how blessed he is because of the joy and privilege to trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. He is also exhorting and encouraging the people around him to join into that state of being blessed. To not go after the lie. All through Scripture we see Satan lying. We see it in Genesis chapter 3. Has God really said? We see all through Scripture. In the book of Genesis, at the Tower of Babel, we see the lie being joined together corporately of man thinking that he can build a tower to heaven. He does not need the Lord's Christ to solve his problems personally or corporately. What a lie. The Lord, He alone, can rescue us. He alone can deliver. He alone can save. His name is Jesus. And as we experience trusting in Him, we boast of Him. We boast for our own rescue. Praising God, Lord, you have made me a blessed man in your grace. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud. I'm not going to think and live the way the world says. I'm going to follow Jesus because His way is life. He is my life. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. He is boasting to the Lord, saying, Lord, you are such an amazing God. All of the things that you know and have planned and are doing, guiding history, you made me and you have remade me in your Son. None can compare with you. Oh, may the Lord stir us up to experience crying to the Lord, not only for rescue, but also boasting of His greatness, boasting of His perfections, boasting of what He has done, His wondrous deeds, His thoughts toward us. None can compare with our God. And then we see David declaring, I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. David says, I will never run out of material to be thanking God for, boasting before Him, or telling other people. That is what it looks like to cry to the Lord. And then in verses 6 and following, we have the one that we cry to. We have the perfect righteous Savior. Now before we look at these verses in detail, I want you to turn with me over in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And here we see. In verses 1 and following, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, and here we have now, from our text in Psalm 40. This passage tells us several things about our verses. The sacrifice that is being talked about here is Christ himself who steps forth in the fullness of time to take away sin. All of the sacrifices throughout the Old Testament were glorious signposts pointing to this one sacrifice that would be offered once for all time to make satisfaction for sins. And we see that Christ is the one who alone can utter these words as the one who is that sacrifice. Verse five, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. And then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Christ is that sacrifice who comes. He is the one who alone perfectly does the Father's will. And because He is the perfect sacrifice, He can take away sin. Because He is God in human flesh, He can be one of us and He has the power and authority to be the sin bearer. In verse 8 we read, when He said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then He added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And so in Psalm 40, this is the one that David identifies. as the one he's crying to. This is the one that alone can make us right with the living God. This is the one who our song is all about. It is about this perfect Savior who came in the fullness of time. David looked forward to His coming. We look back to His first coming. And of course, He will come again in glory to complete history and usher in the perfect day forever. Back in Psalm 40, in sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. And then I say it, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will. Oh my God, your law is within my heart. Now in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord promised that one of the things Messiah would do when he would come, he would write God's law upon the hearts of all of God's people. And He is the one who perfectly delighted in that law and kept that law. He is our justification. The second we believe in Him, He also adopts us and He also is sanctifying us, causing us to delight in Him and to rejoice to follow Him. Then we see in verses 9 and 10, Another reference to Messiah. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation." Again, if you'll turn with me in the book of Hebrews, this time Hebrews chapter 2 we have the Lord revealing to us that again David he desired to speak of the Lord Jesus so does every child of God we've already seen that but this section of Psalm 40 is pointing us to the reason why we want to tell others. There is one who in a perfect, powerful way has revealed the Father to us. It is the Son of God come in the flesh. We see in Hebrews chapter 2 The apostles declaring that they had the joy and the privilege of preaching the gospel, of speaking the Word of God. The good news. Look at verses 1 and following of Hebrews 2. And therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? And so he's comparing the glorious giving of the Word of God through the Old Testament time, mediated by angels, glorious. But the new covenant has been mediated by none other than the Son of God come in the flesh. And he is the one who sent forth his apostles to finish fleshing out the explanation of the revelation of God Almighty in the rest of the New Testament. And so we read, The end of verse 3, it was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will. All through the scriptures, whenever God would speak a new word, He would accompany that new revelation with miracles, with signs, and with wonders. And if we had time, we could go over to the book of Exodus. chapter 3 and chapter 4 and read about God commissioning Moses and how Moses says, well, what if I go and say the Lord has sent me and what if they don't believe? And so the Lord gave him miracles to do. to testify to the truth of that Word. And we see when the Son of God Himself comes, there were miracles that were done that had never been done in the history of the world. in the quantity and quality of those miracles. All through the Old Testament, there were all kinds of miracles that were done, but nothing like when the Son of God came. The deaf heard, the blind saw, and even the dead were raised to life. Lepers were cleansed. Lame men leaped for joy. all of that testifying that indeed God has spoken and the Lord Jesus is that Word. On down in this passage we see in verse 9 But we see him talking about Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source, and that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. And this is a direct quote from Psalm 22, but it also is echoed in our psalm, in Psalm 40. That Jesus, not only is the sacrifice who died, but He is alive now. And He's the one who comes and makes the fathers known to His people in the midst of the great congregation. Every week when we gather together, we gather to hear Jesus come and speak His Word to our hearts. If the only reason we gathered together was to hear a pipsqueak man speak, we would do better to stay away. But we gather to hear King Jesus come by His Spirit and take His Word. And through the foolishness of preaching, He comes and makes the Father's name known to His congregation. And notice what it says there in Hebrews 2 verse 11, that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. That was why David's heart was singing praise, because he not only looked forward to this one who would come in the fullness of time, but that is who his faith was in. And the reason why we have the song of praise to God, and we cry to God for help and deliverance, and we have confidence that He has the power not only to save us, lifting us out of the mirey bog of sin, but all of the difficulties and troubles we will ever find ourselves in, we cry to God and we wait patiently for Him. Why? because Jesus has come as the perfect Savior, and Jesus is the one who speaks the Father's glory to us. That's why we love Jesus. Jesus has preached his gospel to our hearts. He has come in the midst of the great congregation and declared the Father's name to us. Oh, what wonder we have to have such a Savior. No wonder David's heart was singing joy and praise. And then the last section that we see in this Psalm is David crying to God and declaring his glory to others back and forth. It is the result of all of this. Look at verse 11 of Psalm 40. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me in light of who this glorious Savior is. David is confident, Lord, You're not going to be stingy with Your mercy. If God was willing to give His own Son to rescue us, Do you think God is going to be stingy with His mercy? Oh, we have a God who is rich in mercy. A God who is abounding in mercy. He is slow to anger and abounding in love and kindness. He delights to give good gifts to His children. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me." And so in light of this glorious Savior that speaks in this psalm, that is our confidence. Not because of who we are, but because of who He is. For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me." The more we grow to see the beauty and the glory of our God, the more we are aware of our own sin. and the more we love Jesus. You remember over in Luke chapter 7, the Lord Jesus was invited to the home of Simon the Pharisee. It was not Simon Peter, it was a different Simon, same name. And when he came in to this dinner party, there was a woman in the town who had a reputation of being a sinner. And she crashed the party. Now that was brazen. She was not invited. But she heard that Jesus was going to be at this home. And we don't know the history of how she had heard perhaps about Jesus or heard Him herself on some previous occasion. And she was determined to go and to declare her love for this great Savior who had so rescued her from the miry pit. And so she crashed the party and she came in and she knelt at Jesus' feet. He was reclined at the table with all the guests and she began to weep. That's uncomfortable. I mean, you know, you're out in public. A woman who's not been invited, a woman who has a tainted reputation comes and she starts weeping. And she takes her hair down and she anoints Jesus' head with oil and she begins to wash his feet with her tears. And Simon, he looks at all of this and he says to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know what sort of woman this is. And he would have kicked her away. And Jesus said, Simon, I have something to say to you. And Simon said, say it, teacher. And Jesus said, a man was a money lender and he had two debtors. One owed him 50 days wages, and the other owed him 500 days wages. And he graciously forgave them, which of them will love him more?" And Simon said, well, I suppose the one that he forgave more. And he said, you are correct. Simon, I came to your house. You didn't wash my feet. You didn't wipe the dust off of my feet, but this woman, she has wept and washed my feet with her tears, Simon. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but this woman did. Simon, I tell you, this woman, the reason she loves much is because she has been forgiven much. Now, he didn't spell it out, but The bottom line was the reason Simon didn't love Jesus was because he didn't see who he was. But David, he sees. And the closer you get to God, the closer you see the glory of Jesus, oh, the more you and I will love this glory of Savior. The more we will be conscious, like Isaiah in the throne room, when he sees the glory of Jesus. And John chapter 12 tells us that Isaiah said these things because he saw His, Jesus' glory. And when he saw the glory of Jesus, what did he do? He saw the throne room. He saw the Lord seated upon his throne. The temple was filling with smoke. The angels were crying out one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. What did Isaiah do? He says, woe is me for I am an unclean man. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of glory. Woe is me, I'm coming unglued. He was a prophet. Isaiah has been referred to as the Prince of the Prophets. He was a mighty man of God, but the closeness he had now with the King of glory, he just is painfully conscious of his sin. And what does the Lord do? He orders one of the mighty angels to go over to the altar and get a burning coal and place it upon Isaiah's lips. He said, see, I have taken away your iniquity. And then the Lord said, who will go for us? Whom shall I send? And Isaiah doesn't say, well, tell me what the job is. We'll talk. He just steps forward and he says, Lord, here am I. Send me. And that's what happens when we see the Lord of glory. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me, for evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. Here were people mocking David, not only threatening his life, but mocking his Savior. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. As for me, I'm poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay, oh my God. And so here's another psalm that teaches us about crying to the Lord. And I pray that as we grow in the Lord Jesus, that these passages of scripture will be used of the Lord to encourage us and strengthen us to have hope and joy and trust in Jesus. To be those who hate our own sin more and more and delight in Jesus. that God would show us our sin, not so that we would wallow in it and despair in it, but so that we would glory even more in Jesus, our Savior, and love Him much, because we realize we have been forgiven much. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. Amen. Well, let's pray. Father, we ask that you would write these words upon our hearts. We thank you for David's experience. His testimony, Lord, that is what we ask You would grant us. And we thank You for the glorious one in the middle of this psalm that He cried to. And that's the one that we, by Your grace, cried to. It is You, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you are the perfect Savior, that you are the one who came forth to do the Father's will, and you laid down your life on the cross as that spotless, perfect Lamb of God. We thank you that death could not hold you. And we, as your little lambs, Lord, are those that you have spoken the Father's name to our hearts. And you keep coming to revive us and renew us. And so, Lord, we cry to you and we give ourselves anew to you. We thank you that we can declare tonight, great is the Lord. In Jesus we pray, amen.