Psalms 40:2

_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._ He brought me up also out of an horrible pit - literally, 'from a deep of roaring.' The Hebrew х_ MIBOWR _ (H953) _ SHAA'OWN_ (H7588), from a root, _ SHAA'AH_ (H7582), to roar like waves] is the same as in Isaiah 17:12, "like the rushing of mighty waters." As water does not 'roar' in a "pit," we must understand, not a cistern, but a vast deep cavity, into which roaring waters rush. The "pit" is used of Sheol or Hades, Psalms 28:1; cf. the parallel,...

2._And he drew me out of the roaring pit. _Some translate,_from the pit of desolation, _(80) because the verb שאה, _shaah, _from which the noun שאום, _shaon, _is derived, signifies _to destroy _or _to waste, _as well as _to resound _or _echo. _But it is more appropriate to consider that there is here an allusion to the deep gulfs, where the waters gush with a tumultuous force. (81) By this similitude he shows that he was placed in as imminent peril of death as if he had been cast into a deep pit, roaring with the impetuous rage of waters. To the same purpose also is the similitude of _the miry clay, _by which he intimates that he had been so nearly overwhelmed by the weight of his calamities, that it was no easy matter to extricate him from them. Next, there follows

1-5 Doubts and fears about the eternal state, are a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God. There is power enough in God to help the weakest, and grace enough to help the unworthiest of all that trust in him. The psalmist waited patiently; he continued believing, hoping, and praying. This is applicable to Christ. His agony, in the garden and on the cross, was a horrible pit and miry clay. But those that wait patiently for God do not wait in vain. Those that have been under religious melancholy, and by the grace of God have been relieved, may apply ver. Psalms 40:2 very feelingly to themselves; they are brought up out of a horrible pit. Christ is the Rock on which a poor soul can alone stand fast. Where God has given stedfast hope, he expects there should be a steady, regular walk and conduct. God filled the psalmist with joy, as well as peace in believi...

Verse Psalms 40:2. _A HORRIBLE PIT_] Literally, the _sounding pit_; where nothing was heard except the howlings of wild beasts, or the hollow sounds of winds reverberated and broken from the craggy sides and roof. _THE MIRY CLAY_] Where the longer I stayed the deeper I sank, and was utterly unable to save myself. The _Syriac_ and _Arabic_ translate "The pit of perdition, and the mud of corruption." These are figurative expressions to point out the dreary, dismal, ruinous state of sin and guilt, and the utter inability of a condemned sinner to save himself either from the guilt of his conscience, or the corruption of his heart. _SET MY FEET UPON A ROCK_] Thou hast changed my state from _guilt_ to _pardon_; from _corruption_ to _holiness_; in consequence of which _my goings are established_. I

HE BROUGHT ME UP ALSO OUT OF AN HORRIBLE PIT - Margin: “A pit of noise.” The word used here means a pit; a cistern; a prison; a dungeon; a grave. This last signification of the word is found in Psalms 28:1; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 88:4; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 14:19. It may refer to any calamity - or to trouble, like being in a pit - or it may refer to the grave. The word rendered “horrible” - שׁאון _shâ'ôn_ - means properly “noise, uproar, tumult,” as of waters; of a crowd of men; of war. Then it seems t

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 ...

HE BROUGHT ME UP ALSO OUT OF AN HORRIBLE PIT,.... Which, with the following phrase, OUT OF THE MIRY CLAY, expresses the state and condition Christ was in at the time of his bloody sweat, his crucifixion, and his lying in "sheol", the pit or grave, sometimes rendered hell, which these figurative phrases fitly signify; when it is observed, that he was made sin, and had the sins of all his people on him; and, as the type of Joshua, was clothed with their filthy garments; he might be truly said to be in the miry clay; and also that he was made a curse for them, and bore the wrath of God in their room and stead; and was forsaken by his God and Father, and so endured both the punishment of loss and sense, and what was tantamount to the sufferings of the damned in hell; see Psalms 69:1; to which may be added the noisy insults of malignant men, and the infernal fiends,

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,