Psalms 40 - Introduction

A.M. 2962. B.C. 1042.

In this Psalm David celebrates God's great goodness to him and all his people. In its primary sense, it may be applicable to the deliverance which God had granted him from sickness, or from the distress to which he had been reduced by his enemies, (see the contents of the two preceding Psalms,) in devout thankfulness for which deliverance he may be supposed to declare his resolution to serve God cheerfully and faithfully. There are some passages, however, in this Psalm, which do not properly belong to David, or to that time and state of the Church; but only to Christ and the times of the New Testament, to which they are applied by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. In these passages David speaks not in his own name and person, but in the name and person of Christ, of whom he was an eminent type: and yet there are other passages which cannot belong to Christ, and which David, therefore, spoke in his own person.

(1,) He praises God for delivering him out of deep distress, Psalms 40:1.

(2,) Thence takes occasion to speak of the work of our redemption by Christ, Psalms 40:6.

(3,) Prays for mercy and grace, both for himself and for his brethren, Psalms 40:11.