Psalms 40:15

_LET THEM BE DESOLATE FOR A REWARD OF THEIR SHAME THAT SAY UNTO ME, AHA, AHA._ Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame ... Let all those that seek thee rejoice ... let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified. There are here two pairs, with the same petitions, in reverse order respectively. Psalms 40:13, 'Deliver me ... shame them that seek after my soul;' Psalms 40:14, 'Shame them ... let all those that seek thee rejoice, and magnify thee for thy salvation.' These petitions constitute the main body of the second part, and are introduced by Psalms 40:11, and concluded by Psalms 40:17. ...

When the Psalmist prays (verse 15) that his enemies _may be destroyed for a reward of their shame, _the meaning is this: As their sole desire has been to overwhelm me with shame, in order that, while thus dismayed and confounded, they might make me the object of their derision; so let a similar confusion fall upon their own heads. In the second clause of the verse he describes the nature of this confusion by relating the terms of their wicked triumphing, by which they poured contempt upon him while he was so oppressed with misery and affliction. We are here taught that, when our enemies shall have persecuted us to the uttermost, a recompense is also prepared for them; and that God will turn back, and cause to fall upon their own heads, all the evil which they had devised against us; and this doctrine ought to act as a restraint upon us, that we may behave ourselves compassionately and ki...

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 40:15. _THAT SAY UNTO ME, AHA, AHA._] האח האח _heach, heach_. See on Psalms 35:21....

LET THEM BE DESOLATE - The word here employed means to be astonished or amazed; then, to be laid waste, or made desolate. As used here, it refers to their purposes, and the wish or prayer is that they might be wholly unsuccessful, or that in respect to success they might be like a waste and desolate field where nothing grows. FOR A REWARD - The word used here - עקב _‛__êqeb_ - means the end, the last of anything; then, the recompence, reward, wages, as being the end, the result, or issue of a certain course of conduct. That is, in this case, the desolation prayed for would be a proper recompence for their purpose, or for what they said. “Of their shame.” Of their shameful act or purpose; their act as deserving of ignominy. THAT SAY UNTO ME, AHA, AHA - That use language of reproach and contempt. This is a term of exultati

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 ...

LET THEM BE DESOLATE FOR A REWARD OF THEIR SHAME,.... Of their shameful wishes, words, and actions, as they were: their habitations in Jerusalem were desolate, and so was their house or temple there, and their whole land, and they themselves were stripped of everything, when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed; see Matthew 23:38 Acts 1:20; THAT SAY UNTO ME, AHA, AHA; words expressive of joy, Psalms 35:21, exulting at his miseries and sufferings on the cross, Matthew 27:39; so the Targum, "we have rejoiced at his destruction, with joy at his affliction.''...

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,