Let us turn once again to the
Word of God, directing your attention to the psalm that we read, Psalm
40. And for our text, I want us to
take the first verse of the psalm. Psalm 40 and verse 1. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He inclined unto me. and heard my cry." Or reading
the alternative reading which we have in the margin, in waiting,
I waited for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my
cry. It is evident then in that marginal
reading which is a more literal rendering we are told of the
original that the emphasis very much falls upon this waiting
in waiting I waited says David and in the text that idea is
brought out by the rendering of patient waiting, I waited
patiently for the Lord," says David. What is the cause of such
waiting that David is speaking of at the beginning of the psalm? Well, we can answer that question
best by examining the content of the psalm, the things that
he goes on to say in these following verses. And surely, what caused
David to wait upon his God, to wait patiently for the Lord,
was sin. And that awful sense of sin that
David had, how he was burdened by it. And he acknowledges that
in the course of the psalm. In verse 12 he says, For innumerable
evils encompass me about, My 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. He can do nothing for himself.
There is no deliverance, no help in self. He feels the reality
of his sinnership, and he must therefore look to God, and he
must wait only upon God. Look at the language that he
employs in that twelfth verse that we just read. He speaks
of how he is encompassed with sin. Innumerable evils encompass
me about, for how they surround him on every hand. How he's entrapped
by these things. We see something similar in the
experience of Jonah, when he is in the belly of that great
fish, when he is sunk in the depths of the sea. And why is
Jonah in such circumstances? It's because of his rebellion
against God. God had commanded him to be his
prophet and to go to the city of Nineveh. but he refused and
instead of traveling east to Nineveh he had gone to Joppa
and had found a ship that was going in the opposite direction
to the western extremities of the Mediterranean to the land
of Tarshish and he had paid the fare and there he was on board
that particular ship when the Lord had pursued Jonah by means
of a great storm Jonah so secure in his sin and in his rebellion. He's in the very bowels of the
ship and he's sleeping. But the mariners come and they
awaken him and he has to confess that he really is the cause of
all that has come upon that particular vessel and they cast him overboard.
He's followed by a great fish and then in the second chapter
of Jonah, we have the record of his prayer, that remarkable
prayer that he is brought to utter from the fish, from the
fish's belly. Chapter 2 and verse 5 he says,
The waters compassed me about, even to the soul. The depth closed
me round about, The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went
down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth with her bars was about
me forever." How similar the language is to what David is
saying here in the psalm when he speaks of these innumerable
evils that have encompassed him about. How they've all, as it
were, taken hold upon him. This is Not only David's experiencing,
it's a similar experience that Jonah is passing through here. And there, in the very depths
of the sea, he is brought to acknowledge that salvation is
of the Lord. As such, But he says, Yes, as
thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God, when
my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came
in unto thee, into thine holy temple. Oh, how these men knew
what he was, to feel that they were encompassed by their sin,
by their rebellion, by their unbelief. David time and again
acknowledges these things. We only have to read just a few
of the Psalms of David to see how awful a thing sin was to
that man, the man after God's own heart. Elsewhere he cries
out, iniquities prevail against him. All he was encompassed then
by his sin, by the consequences of his sin. as he was one who,
like Jonah, would rebel against the Lord and transgress the commandments
of his God. But not only does he speak here
in verse 12 of having these evils encompassing
him on every hand, he also goes on to speak of how sin had seized
hold of him. Look at the language that he
He employs there in that verse, he says, My iniquities have taken
hold upon me. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about, yes, that's one thing, but now he says something more. Iniquities have taken hold upon
me. Oh, he is in the very grip of
sin. And yet the strange thing is
that it's when one is in that awful position and has such a
sense of one's sinnership and the impossibility of disentangling
oneself or freeing oneself it is then that there is real hope
for the sinner. Though the Apostle Paul certainly
knew that because he speaks in Philippians chapter 3 about the
Lord Jesus Christ apprehended him. I am apprehended, he says,
of Christ Jesus. And the word that is used there,
the word apprehended, it might suggest the alternative reading
in the margin in your Bible, but the alternative reading is
to take hold of, or to seize, that's the force of that particular
verb. It's really the same as what
David is here saying with regards to his iniquities. His iniquities
have taken hold of him, and yet Paul speaks about the Lord Jesus
Christ apprehended, took hold of him, seized him. Oh, there
is hope, you see, for the sinner that is in that awful predicament. And do we not witness that in
the experience of Paul when he was sold? Where was it that the
Lord really arrested him and seized him? It was when he was
at the gate of Damascus. When the Lord comes and the Lord
addresses him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? is the question
that the Lord puts to him. He was such a persecutor of the
early church He was there at the stoning of Stephen, approving
of these things. He has gone to Damascus with
letters now from the Jewish rulers, that he might take hold of those
who are the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in all
that he is doing, he is not simply persecuting those who are Christ's
disciples. He is persecuting the Lord Himself
by the churches. And so the Lord says to him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Why persecutest thou me? And we have Saul's answer, Who
art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. And yet there the Lord is really
laying hold of him. The Lord is laying hold of him.
As the hymn writer says, Thus the eternal counsel ran, Almighty
love arrest that man. Oh, that man who is in the very
grip of sin, that man who is seized by sin. Oh, the Lord comes and saves
such sinners as this. This is how David is waiting
then upon the Lord his God, his encompass. with evils. Iniquities have taken
hold upon him. And yet his situation is not
dissimilar to that of Saul of Tharsis. Though he feels himself
to be in the grip of sin, yet the Lord is there. We see it
in some way when David is guilty of the most gross sin. He is
adultery with Bathsheba. He is arranging the murder of
her husband Uriah, the way in which he wants to cover his sins,
he wants to conceal his sins. And yet he is frustrated at every
turn. He is the most wicked man and
then the prophet Nathan. so faithful, so bold as he comes
to the king and tells him plainly of his sin and says to David
thou art the man ought to be apprehended and arrested by the
Lord Jesus to know that we are the sinner this was David's experience
this was Saul of Tarsus' experience these men were made to know that
they were sinners encompassed with sin seized by sin. But then furthermore here in
verse 12 we read about He is bowed down by His sin. I am not
able to look up His sins. All is so burdened and so cast
down, so bowed down by what He is. Does He not remind us of
another that we read in the Scriptures? We think of the the publican
of whom the Lord Jesus Christ speaks in John 18. Now those two men go to the temple
at the hour of prayer, the Pharisee, that religious man, that man
so much respected in Israel, and the publican, that most despised
of men in the employ of the occupying Roman authorities, a tax gatherer,
and often abusing his position that he might feather his own
nest, taking more than the Romans required, keeping some for himself. So despised were those publicans. And these two men go to the temple. Ah, but what do we read concerning
the publican? Christ says, standing afar off. He would not lift up so much
as his eyes onto heaven. He cannot look up. He cannot
look up. His burdens, his down costs. And this is David here, I am
not able to look up, he says. Innumerable evils encompass me
about. My iniquities have taken hold
of me. I am not able to look up. He's just like that publican,
standing afar off, his eyes cast down to the ground, smiting upon
his breast and saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And remember what the Lord says
concerning that character. There in Luke 18, he says that
that's the man who goes to his house justified. That's the man
who goes to his house justified, rather than the other. Or the
self-righteous pharisee. He would justify himself, just
as Saul of Tarsus was a pharisee and the son of a pharisee. and
once imagined that concerning the righteousness which is of
the law he was blameless. That's how he speaks of himself
in those former days in Philippians chapter 2. He was a self-righteous
pharisee. But that self-righteous man is
not the justified man. The man whom the Lord accounts
righteous is that sinner, that publican. who stands afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. God be merciful to me, the sinner. Here is David then, waiting upon
the Lord. What is the cause of him waiting
patiently for the Lord his God? Because he's so burdened. burdened
by himself, burdened by his sins, but he's not only encompassed
by sin and seized by sin and bowed down by sin, he's altogether
overwhelmed by his sin. There at the end of verse 12
he says, My heart faileth me. My heart faileth me. Why? The margin says, that it literally
says, forsaketh. My heart forsaketh me. He has no heart at all. He's
utterly, completely undone. In no way is he able to help
himself. Or he says, there's something
similar previously here, in Psalm 38. And verse 10, my heart
panteth, he says, my strength faileth me. As for the light
of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My heart faileth. My heart forsaketh me. He's saying
all his strength is failing. He's got nothing. He can do nothing.
All he can do is wait and wait and wait and wait upon God. That's what he says in the psalm,
in waiting I waited. Oh how this man is caused to
wait. because there's no strength in
him to do anything but that. All this burden of his sin is
the cause of him thus waiting upon his God. But then, see how
in this waiting he is also crying. This waiting is not something
inactive We're not to think that he's altogether passive. Waiting
upon God is not a passive thing. Where there is that real waiting
upon God, there's all that exercise going on in the soul of the man.
That's what David indicates in the language that he is using
here in verse 12 with regards to the sense of his sin. He's
a man who has to cry out and he does cry out. We see here
something of the activity. of the faith of David as he waits
upon God he inclined unto me he says and heard my cry or we
are not to be those who would wait in unbelief we are not to
wait in slothfulness just to do nothing to become fatalistic
there is that great danger of course when we so profess the
doctrines of the sovereign grace of God, when like Jonah we're
brought to acknowledge salvation is of the Lord and we mean it.
We recognize the fact that salvation is of the Lord from beginning
to end. Salvation is that mighty work of the three-in-one God. All the persons in the Godhead
are involved in salvation. It is that that was purposed
from all eternity and purposed by the Father, or the electing
love of God the Father. He is the one who is the author
of salvation. He purposed it. He entered into
covenant with His eternal Son and how the Son in that covenant
willingly became the Father's servant. Behold my servant whom
I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put
my spirit upon him. He is the anointed one, he is
the Son, he is the Christ, the promised one who comes in the
fullness of the time and comes as one who is made of a woman
and made unto the Lord. He comes to to save His people. And how does He save His people?
Why? He stands in their place, He stands as their shelter and
He answers before the Holy Lord of God on their account. For them He will obey that Lord
of God. For them He will accomplish a
glorious righteousness by His obedience to all the commandments
of God, that man who is holy and righteous and just of whom
the father can say this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased and then why that just one is the one who dies for the
unjust he dies as a substitute in the place of his people the
great doctrine of substitutionary atonement Jesus in the sinner's
place or salvation is of the Lord purpose by the Father, why
it was procured by the Son. He has saved His people. But
then also it is the Spirit Himself who must apply that salvation. It is the Spirit who comes as
the Spirit of Christ and doesn't speak of Himself but takes of
the things of Christ and reveals them to sinners. He is the one
who comes and quickens the soul. The sinner is born again of the
Spirit, and as the Spirit works that mighty work of regeneration
in the soul, so also He works that saving faith, that faith
that comes by the operation of God, that faith that is the gift
of God, that saving faith. It is all by the gracious workings
of the Spirit Salvation is of the Lord. And it's a glorious
truth, is it not? How we love it, how we rejoice
in it. I remember the lay pastor here
saying on occasion how good it was to sing those hymns of a
man like John Kenneth who so gloried in the eternal covenant
That great covenant of redemption between the persons in the Godhead,
the covenant of grace. And Mr. Mattrell would say, you
know, you sing something like Kent's lovely hymn, Sovereign
Grace, or Sin Abounding. He said, does it not make the
hair stand on your neck? To sing those things, to glory
in those things. As we feel the truth of that
doctrine, Because we know, like David, that we're all together
helpless and hopeless. We can do nothing for ourselves.
We're so burdened by sin. We have to wait upon the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord. But as I said, there is a danger
because we can then become so fatalistic and passive. We just wait. There's nothing.
Just wait. But the waiting of which we read
here in our text this evening is not that waiting in unbelief. It is not that slothful waiting
in which we're doing nothing. No, there is to be all that blessed
activity in the soul, all that expectation Even that
hope. This is how David is waiting.
He's waiting in hope. All he desires is God to come.
He desires God to make haste, to appear quickly. Look at how
he speaks in verse 13. He says, Be pleased, O Lord,
to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Yes, he's waiting. But there's
an urgency in all his waiting. He wants the Lord to come, he
wants the Lord to appear for him. Again, he says it there
in verse 17. At the end of the psalm he says,
Thou art my helper, my deliverer, make no tarrying. Oh my God,
he doesn't want God to tarry a moment. He wants God to come speedier. He says then at verse 16, let
all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in them. Oh, he's
the one who is seeking, urgently seeking, looking to his God,
crying to his God, calling upon the name of his God in waiting.
In waiting, I waited, he says. And here with him there, there
is clearly nothing at all of himself. Nothing of any self-righteousness. Verse 4 he says, blessed is that
man that maketh the Lord his trust. All his trust is only
in the Lord his God. He is the blessed man, that man
who is trusting in the Lord. We read much of the blessed man
in the book of Psalms. We see the blessed man previously
in the 32nd Psalm. But remember how Paul when he
is writing of justifying faith in the epistle to the Romans
makes clear reference to that 32nd Psalm. He is a man, you see, who does
nothing for himself. He can do no work for himself. He is speaking of Abraham. In Romans 4, if Abraham were
justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.
And then he goes on, verse 4, Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. But them that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without work, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. O the blessed man! He has no
righteousness, he is of his own, he has nothing of his own. All
he has, as we have just said, is that sin that he is so burdened
by, in verse 12. But he is looking to the Lord,
he is trusting in the Lord. There is all this activity of
fight going on in the man's soul as he waits upon God. Here in verse 4 he says, Blessed
is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not
the proud. Oh, there's no creature's strength
here, no pride here, nor such as turn aside to lies. All he
feels is his helplessness as a sinner before God. And he doesn't
want the lies of men, those who tell him that he can do something,
he's to do something. that's how men so often speak
or there's something to be done God has done his part you must
now do your part know this man although there's all that activity
of faith yet it is evidence in the way in which he is constantly
only trusting in God only waiting upon God his only hope you see
ultimately is him who is the the one object of faith That's
where his hope is. His hope is in something, someone
outside of himself. There in verse 12 he only confesses
that he himself is nothing but sin. As Joseph Hart says in one of
his hymns, Jesus to thee I make my moan. my doleful tale I tell to thee
for thou canst help and thou alone a loathsome lump of sin
like me that's how this man feels lifeless, loathsome but he looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ and the psalm the psalm speaks to us of the Lord Jesus
Christ Christ is in this psalm those verses 6, 7, and 8 also appear in that portion
that we read in Hebrews chapter 10 and there in that epistle
to the Hebrews Paul makes it abundantly clear that the one
being spoken of is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the fulfillment of all
the Old Testament Sacrifices, in burnt offering and sacrifices
for sin, writes Paul, thou hast had no pleasure. Verse 7, there
in Hebrews 10, Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the
book it is written of me to do thy will, O God, above when He
said sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering
for sins, though wouldest not neither hath pleasure therein
which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second." All the Old Testament types are
taken away. There is but one sacrifice for
sins, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we see how that death
of the Lord Jesus Christ was truly a substitutionary death. If the psalm speaks of Christ,
as doubtless it does, I'm the authority of what we've just
read in Hebrews chapter 10. Why? Verse 12 speaks of Christ. He is Christ, the great sin-bearer.
All the sins of his people imputed to him. reckoned to his account,
and he feels an awful burden in all the agonies of his dying
upon the cross as a substitute. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I
am not able to look up, thou more than the hairs of mine head,
therefore my heart faileth me." How the Lord felt these things.
or he who knew no sin was made sin for us says Paul that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him this is the only one in whom David has
any hope the great sin bearer but not only the sin bearer he
also speaks of that righteousness of the Lord Jesus In verse 9,
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation. Though
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest, I 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. O the Lord Jesus
came as that one who would accomplish all righteousness. and how that righteousness that
Christ accomplished by the obedience of His sinless life is to be
proclaimed. Oh, and David, so much delighted
in the Lord as his righteousness. He saw that he had nothing of
himself. In Psalm 71, here is David, an
aged man. What does he say? Psalm 71 verse 15,
My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day for I know not the numbers thereof I will go in
the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness even of
thine only. Now also when I am old and gray
headed O God forsake me not until I have showed Thy strength unto
this generation and Thy power to everyone that is to come.
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high. We must do great
things, O God, who is like unto Thee. All my tongue also shall
talk of Thy righteousness all the day long, He said. David here is waiting upon God
and he's waiting in faith, and there's all that activity of
faith taking place in his soul, all that exercise, all those
sighs and those cries, as he waits upon the God. There's nothing
of any self-righteousness or pride here. His only hope is
in the One of whom he is speaking in prophecy. It's a prophetic
psalm, a messianic psalm. As I said, he speaks of Christ
and His great sacrifice, and he speaks of Christ as the one
who accomplished the glorious righteousness for sinners. And so ultimately here we see
that there is comfort. Oh, there is comfort for those
who wait upon the Lord. They do not wait in vain. They cannot wait in vain. David says, I waited patiently
for the Lord and He enclosed unto me and heard my cry. God hears the cry of His child
previously in Psalm 34 and verse 6 this poor man cried and the
Lord heard him and delivered him Oh, this is the God, you see,
that David is constantly waiting upon. The God who hears, the
God who answers prayers. He hears, He saves, He delivers
out of every trouble. And so, this poor sinner doesn't
wait in vain. He doesn't wait in vain. God
is inclined to him. It's a lovely expression. I waited
patiently for the Lord and He inclined unto me and heard my
cry. What are we to understand? What
is His inclination in God? Well, God is inclined to David. God is inclined to all of His
people in the sense that He thinks. He thinks upon them. Again in verse 5, David says,
Thy thoughts which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. What a lovely idea
it is that God thinks upon us. And God constantly thinks upon
us. I don't know, maybe you're different to me but sometimes
when I can't sleep and I lie awake and I try to pray and prayer
is not easy, thoughts are scattered and one tries again to pray and
then I think well let me try to think. So I try to think and
I think over life and the Lord's dealings and the Lord's providences
and sometimes the thoughts are very sweet and precious to think
to think about God, to meditate upon God and God's wise and God's
dealing so He has not dealt with us after our sins He doesn't
reward us according to our inequities He is a good God and He does
good and how wonderful to be able to say with David that God's
thoughts are to us all and they're so numerous that
they cannot be reckoned up in order. They're more than can
be numbered. The thoughts of God towards his
people. Now, what are these thoughts? Well, they're personal. That's
a wonderful thing, is it not? That salvation is personal. Look at what he says in verse
17. But I am poor and needy, yet
the Lord thinketh upon me." God thinks upon me, individually. God thinks upon you, individually. Oh, that's precious, is it not?
That God should take account of you, that God should take
account of me. Why? If we're the Lord's, our
names are written in heaven. That's how much God thinks upon
us. Even now our names are written in heaven. They're written there
in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. How the Lord thinks upon His people. Again, remember how in Psalm
65 David speaks of this blessed man. Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest, he says, and causes to approach untruthfully. Oh
God has made choice of a people and those that he has made choice
of they're the ones whom he causes to approach. How do they approach?
They wait. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me, and
heard my cry, the thoughts of God are personal thoughts. Ah, but then God's thoughts,
they're very different to our thoughts, what I just said about
my own thoughts, they might be precious. And thank God I can
say that on occasions as one has laid there and gone over
one's life and thought, there have been precious thoughts.
But God's thoughts are so different, God's thoughts are so preeminent,
he says my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways
my way saith the Lord for as the heaven is higher than the
earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts and
your thoughts why if we can have precious thoughts of God and
God's dealings with us and God's great patience with us and his
His forbearance, how He is a God so long-suffering in spite of
all our folly and all our sin, if we can have precious thoughts
of God, oh, how much greater are God's thoughts towards us. God's thoughts are so much higher
than our thoughts. They are preeminent. They are personal. The Lord thinketh
upon me, says David, They're so preeminent, so glorious, and
they're also purposeful. They're purposeful. He says through
Jeremiah to the children of Israel, I know the thoughts that I think
towards you. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. Now, those words historically
were spoken by God through the prophet Jeremiah
to a people who were going into exile. They were being taken
into captivity. And they were going to be there
70 years. And whilst they were there, Jerusalem
would lie in ruin. No temple of the Lord, or there
they were in a strange land, cut off from God. and yet God
tells them through his servant I know the thoughts that I think
towards you and they are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give
you an expected end there would be an end it was purpose it's
all in God's hands it's all in God's time all our times are
in God's hands oh let us be those then who would wait upon him
As David waits here in the psalm, I waited patiently. In waiting,
I waited for the Lord. And He inclined unto me, and
heard my cry. 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. For there was such a blessed,
such a glorious deliverance granted to him. He didn't wait in vain. There was deliverance from that
horrible pit. David must have been pleading
and pleading all the time that he was there waiting. Look at
how he speaks previously in Psalm 69, verse 14, deliver me out of the mire, and let me not
sink. Let me be delivered from them
that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the water
flood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let
not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Hear me, O Lord." And the
Lord hears. For the Lord hears, the Lord
answers. And so, David here, makes it
quite clear that he did not wait upon his God in vain. God did
deliver him, God brought him up out of that horrible pit,
delivered him out of the miry clay, set his feet upon a rock,
or even the rock Christ Jesus. He is the rock. And God established
his goings and put a new song in his mouth even, praise unto
our God, many shall see it. and fear, and shall trust in
the Lord. O God, grant that we might be
those who, waiting, are trusting in the Lord our God. The Lord
bless to us His Word. Amen.