Psalms 40

I waited patiently for the LORD. He bent down toward me and heard me when I cried out.

1I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

NoteLORD printed in capitals stands for the personal name of God in Hebrew (the four letters usually written YHWH), which Jewish readers did not pronounce; where the text has the ordinary word for "master, lord" (as in verse 17) it is printed "Lord" in normal type. "He bent down toward me" is a physical image, stooping and turning an ear the way you lean toward someone speaking from below.

2He also lifted me up out of a horrible pit, out of the deep, sticky mud. He set my feet on a rock and made my steps steady.

2He 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.

NoteA "pit" in this world was a real thing: a cistern or storage hole cut into rock, sometimes used as a prison, with sludge at the bottom and smooth sides no one could climb. The same word is also a common image for the grave, so the line can be heard either as rescue from danger or rescue from death.

3He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see it and be filled with awe, and they will put their trust in the LORD.

3And 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.

NoteA "new song" is a fixed expression in the Psalms for the song of thanks composed and sung publicly after a rescue, as opposed to the standing repertoire of temple songs.

4Happy is the person who makes the LORD the one he trusts, who does not turn to proud people or to those who go off after lies.

4Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "happy" is a congratulation ("how fortunate is the person who…"), rather than a description of a mood. "Proud people" translates a rare word that some take as arrogant men and others as boastful false gods; "lies" is frequently used elsewhere of idols, so the two halves may be describing the same thing.

5LORD my God, the wonderful things you have done are many, and so are the plans you have for us. No one can be compared to you. If I tried to tell them and speak of them all, there would be more than anyone could count.

5Many, 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 and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

NoteThe middle phrase is genuinely unclear in Hebrew. It can mean "no one can be set alongside you" (so: nothing compares to you) or "they cannot be laid out in order before you" (so: the list is too long to recite). Translations split between the two.

6You did not want sacrifices and grain offerings. You have opened my ears. You did not ask for burnt offerings or sin offerings.

6Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

NoteFour kinds of temple gift are named. A "sacrifice" was an animal killed and shared as a meal, a "grain offering" a gift of flour or baked grain, a "burnt offering" an animal burned up whole so that none was eaten, and a "sin offering" the animal brought to put right a specific wrong. Naming them in pairs like this is a way of saying "the whole system." "You have opened my ears" is literally "ears you have dug for me", an odd phrase, usually understood as being given the ability to hear and obey. The ancient Greek translation read it instead as "a body you have prepared for me," and that is the form quoted in the New Testament.

7Then I said, "Here I am. I have come. It is written about me in the scroll:

7Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

NoteBooks in this period were scrolls, long sheets of papyrus or leather rolled on a rod, so "the volume of the book" simply means "the scroll." Which scroll is not stated: proposals include the written law, a royal record, or a book listing what is required of the speaker.

8I am glad to do what you want, my God. Your law is inside my heart."

8I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Note"Law" translates torah, which means instruction or teaching as much as legislation, the whole body of what God has directed, not only a legal code.

9I have announced what is right in the great gathering of people. I did not hold my lips back, LORD, and you know it.

9I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

NoteThe "great gathering" is the crowd of worshipers assembled at the sanctuary, the normal setting for paying a vow of thanks out loud. The verb behind "announced" is the one used for a herald bringing good news.

10I have not hidden your righteousness inside my heart. I have spoken openly about how faithful you are and how you save. I have not kept your steady love and your truth secret from the great gathering.

10I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Note"Steady love" renders hesed, the loyalty owed within a binding relationship, reliable commitment rather than warm feeling. The word paired with it, translated "truth," means dependability, being solid and worth relying on, more than factual accuracy.

11LORD, do not hold back your tender mercy from me. Let your steady love and your truth always keep me safe.

11Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

Note"Tender mercy" translates a word built on the Hebrew for womb; it carries the sense of the gut-level compassion of a parent for a child.

12Troubles I cannot count have closed in around me. My sins have caught up with me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs on my head, and my heart has failed inside me.

12For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

NoteThe word rendered "sins" covers the wrong act, the guilt it leaves, and the trouble that follows from it, all in one term, which is why the sins can be pictured as chasing the speaker down. "So that I cannot see" is what the Hebrew says; some take it as literal failing eyesight from distress, others as being unable to look up or see a way out. "Heart" in Hebrew usage is the seat of thought, will and courage, not of feeling.

13Please be willing, LORD, to rescue me. LORD, hurry and help me.

13Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.

14Let all those who are hunting my life to destroy it be ashamed and confused together. Let those who want to harm me be driven back and disgraced.

14Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.

Note"Hunting my life" translates a phrase using nephesh, which means a person's life or self, the breathing creature, not a soul as distinct from a body. To seek someone's nephesh is to be out to kill them.

15Let those who jeer at me, "Aha! Aha!" be left stunned and empty as the payment for their shame.

15Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.

Note"Aha! Aha!" reproduces a Hebrew exclamation of malicious delight, the noise made by someone enjoying another's downfall.

16But let all who look for you be full of joy and gladness because of you. Let those who love the way you save keep saying, "The LORD is great!"

16Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.

NoteTo "magnify" someone here means to declare them great in public, not to enlarge them; it is a shout of acclamation.

17But I am poor and needy. Still, the Lord is thinking about me. You are my help and the one who sets me free. My God, do not wait.

17But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

Note"Poor and needy" is a standard pairing in the Psalms for someone with no resources and no protector, dependent on outside help; it describes a position of powerlessness and is not necessarily a statement about money. Note also that "Lord" here is the ordinary word for master, not the divine name used elsewhere in the psalm. Verses 13 to 17 appear again, with small differences, as the whole of Psalm 70.