Psalm 40:2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock, and established my goings. This passage has been very frequently, and rightly, used as telling the experience of God's people. Yet I am not certain that the first verse could be rightly uttered by all of us. Could we say, "I waited patiently for the Lord"? Might it not be more truthfully said of us, "I waited impatiently for the Lord"? Alas, patience is still a scarce virtue upon the earth. Therefore, though we may regard the psalm as in a secondary sense belonging to David, in the first instance a greater than David is here. For the first person who uttered these words was the Messiah. Our text, therefore, belongs primarily to Him. Note, then — I. OUR LORD'S BEHAVIOUR as here set forth. 1. He waited upon the Lord. He did so all His life, but this waiting became more conspicuous in His passion and death. 2. And patiently. His atonement had not been complete had it been otherwise. No expiation could have been made by an impatient Saviour. 3. And prayerfully. Let Gethsemane tell. Jabbok is outdone by Kidron. See, then, our pattern. Have we waited, and waited thus? II. OUR LORD'S DELIVERANCE. 1. It is represented as a bringing up out of a horrible pit. I have been in the dungeon at Rome in which, according to tradition, Peter and Paul were confined. It was, indeed, a horrible pit, for originally it had no entrance but a round hole in the rock above; and when that was blocked neither light nor fresh air could enter. No being has ever been so cruel to man as man. Man is the worst of monsters to his kind, and his cruel inventions are many. Now, our Lord was like a man put into a pit. Hence he was quite alone. Thus it happened to our Saviour. All His disciples forsook Him and fled. And in total darkness. Midnight brooded over His spirit. And full of distress. The grief and sorrow which He felt can never be described. He felt care upon care, night blackening night. But He was brought up out of all this; at that moment when He said, "It is finished"; and at the resurrection and by His ascension to the right hand of God. Now His sorrow is ended. 2. A second figure is used to tell of His grief. "Out of the miry clay." In such horrible pits the imprisoned wretch often found himself sinking in the mire. And our blessed Lord found when He was suffering for us that everything appeared to give way beneath Him. But He was brought up like Jonah was from the deeps. And He was set "on a rock." He stands on a firm foundation in all that He does for us. Judgment and truth confirm His ways. When He saves He has a right to save. And His goings are established for continuance, certainty, victory. Best of all, there is a new song in His mouth, "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee." The song of heaven is "the song of Moses and the Lamb." III. THE LORD'S REWARD. "Many" — not all, but many — "shall see it and fear," etc. They shall, for He hath the key of all hearts. They shall see; see Him as their Saviour, and shall fear. It makes men fear to see a bleeding Christ. And best of all, they "shall trust in the Lord." IV. THE LORD'S LIKENESS IN HIS PEOPLE. All this may be repeated in them. Like sorrow, but let there be like waiting, and there shall be like deliverance. Sinner sinking in guilt, He can deliver you. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. |
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