Psalms 40:12

_FOR 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._ For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me - the aggregate of both the sins of the whole world and their penal consequences (Isaiah 53:4; Mark 15:28; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Not only was He "compassed" on all sides with countless "evils," but the mass of "iniquities" was laid upon His head. SO THAT I AM NOT ABLE TO LOOK UP - mine eye-sight fails me through anguish (Psalms

12._For innumerable evils have compassed me on all sides _This phrase, in the original, denotes more than can be expressed in an English translation; for he says, עלי _alay, upon me, _meaning by this, that he was not only beset on all sides, but that also an accumulation of evils pressed upon his head. He, however, does not now complain of being punished unjustly, or above his desert, but rather confesses plainly that it is the just recompense of his sins which is rendered to him. For although the word עון, _avon, _which we have rendered _iniquity, _signifies also _the punishment of iniquity, _(as we have elsewhere seen more than once;) yet we must take into consideration the derivation of the word. (95) Accordingly, since David calls the afflictions which he endures the fruit or effect of his transgressions, there is im

11-17 The best saints see themselves undone, unless continually preserved by the grace of God. But see the frightful view the psalmist had of sin. This made the discovery of a Redeemer so welcome. In all his reflections upon each step of his life, he discovered something amiss. The sight and sense of our sins in their own colours, must distract us, if we have not at the same time some sight of a Saviour. If Christ has triumphed over our spiritual enemies, then we, through him, shall be more than conquerors. This may encourage all that seek God and love his salvation, to rejoice in him, and to praise him. No griefs nor poverty can render those miserable who fear the Lord. Their God, and all that he has or does, is the ground of their joy. The prayer of faith can unlock his fulness, which is adapted to all their wants. The promises are sure, the moment of fulfilment hastens forward. He who...

Verse Psalms 40:12. _INNUMERABLE EVILS HAVE COMPASSED ME ABOUT_] This part does not comport with the preceding; and either argues a former experience, or must be considered a part of another Psalm, written at a different time, and on another occasion, and, were we to prefix the two first verses of the _seventieth_ Psalm to it we should find it to be a Psalm as complete in itself as that is. _THEY ARE MORE THAN THE HAIRS OF MINE HEAD_] This could not be said by any person who was exulting in the pardoning mercy of God, as David was at the time he penned the commencement of this Psalm....

FOR INNUMERABLE EVILS HAVE COMPASSED ME ABOUT - Have surrounded me, or have beset me on every side. The evils here referred to, understood as being those which came upon the Messiah, were sorrows that came upon him in consequence of his undertaking to do what could not be done by sacrifices and offerings Psalms 40:6; that is, his undertaking to save men by his own “obedience unto death.” The time referred to here, I apprehend, is that when the full effects of his having assumed the sins of the world to make expiation for them came upon him; when he was about to endure the agonies of Gethsemane and Calvary. MINE INIQUITIES HAVE TAKEN HOLD UPON ME - On this passage, as constituting one of the main objections, and the strongest objection, to the application of the psalm to the Messiah, and on the way in which such objection

EXPOSITION THE occasion of this psalm is some great deliverance which has been vouchsafed to the author of it, for which he desires to praise and thank God. Of this deliverance he speaks in Psalms 40:1, which form a sort of introduction to the whole. He then passes on to a more general praise of God for all his glorious manifestations of himself in the history of his people (Psalms 40:5). The thought next occurs—How is he (the writer)to manifest his gratitude? And this leads to the noble outburst in Psalms 40:6. Not by sacrifice and offering, not by a mere legal and formal obedience, but by complete devotion of the inner man as regards himself ...

FOR INNUMERABLE EVILS HAVE COMPASSED ME ABOUT,.... Like floods of water all around him; see Psalms 18:4; these are the evils of punishment inflicted on him, as the surety and Saviour of his people; such as the sorrows and griefs he bore all his days; the cruel mockings and scourges he endured; his being buffeted and spit upon; his head crowned with thorns, and his hands and feet pierced with nails; insulted by men and devils; crucified between two thieves, and so died the shameful and painful death of the cross; MINE INIQUITIES HAVE TAKEN HOLD UPON ME; not any committed by him; he was conceived, born, and lived without sin, knew none, nor did he any; but the sins of his people, which were imputed to him, laid upon him, and which he voluntarily took and bore; and which he reckoned as his own and was responsible for them; these, when he hung upon the cross, came upon him from

These are the words of David: they are the words of all God's tried and believing people; but above all they are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So complete is the union between Christ and the believer that it is possible to describe them both at the same time. The experience of a child of God, sin alone excepted, is very like the experience of the great Firstborn. But Christ is ever above us, so you will find words in this Psalm which belong to nobody but Jesus in all their fullness. Yet the title of it is «A Psalm of David.» Psalms 40:1. _I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry._ You and I can say that, so could our Divine Master. Oh the wondrous patience of the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer! In that agony in the garden when the bloody sweat showed how great were the wrestlings of his spirit he could then say, «I waited pati

Psalms 40 Christ the Obedient One and the Fruit of His Work _ 1. The path of the Obedient One (Psalms 40:1)_ 2. His prayer and His comfort (Psalms 40:13) Psalms 40:1. The Fortieth and Forty-first Psalms are Messianic. Our Redeemer and Israel's Redeemer is blessedly revealed in them both and with the testimony to Him the first book of the Psalms closes. Psalms 40:1 begins with what may be termed “Christ's resurrection song.” He came and went as the sin-bearer into the horrible pit (Hebrew: the pit of destruction) and the miry clay

XL. A. PSALMS 40:1. A THANKSGIVING FOR DELIVERANCE. The Psalmist believes that his own gratitude will give confidence to others. God, he says, takes no special delight in sacrificial worship. It is gratitude and submission to God's will which find acceptance with Him. Do the contents of the Ps. furnish any real indication of its date? It has been attributed to Jeremiah for reasons which, though plausible, are not convincing, and have now been generally abandoned. (_a_) Psalms 40:2_ a_ certainly recalls the prophet's fate as told in Jeremiah 28:1. But the language of the Ps. is evidently metaphorical, and the words set me on a rock have no parallel in Jeremiah's case. (_b_) The Ps., like Psalms 50, 51,