Psalm 40

Psalm 40:1–3 — Waiting, Roaring, and the Miry Mud

Welcome to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing studies in the Psalms that we call Tehillim Talks. And in this episode, we finally find ourselves in Psalm 40. If you’ve been following along with Psalms 38 and 39, then, probably like me, you’re in a bit of a rush to get to this Psalm.

38 and 39 are pretty bleak. In 38, David just doesn’t seem to have any hope at all, and he’s pouring out his grief and crying out to God to do something, and you get to the end of the Psalm, and God’s silent. Then in Psalm 39, he does it almost all again, and this time it’s even more bleak.

And you get to the end of the Psalm, God is still silent. I just don’t think we could take a third Psalm like those two. But in Psalm 40, God speaks.

The Psalm opens this way to the Choir Master, a Psalm of David. And then it says, I waited. Yes, waited.

The way it is in Hebrew, you can see at the bottom of the screen, kavokaviti (קַוּוֹ קִוִּיתִי), both words come from the same root. I waited, that’s Psalm 38. Yes, waited for Adonai, there’s Psalm 39.

He inclined to me and heard my cry, Psalm 40.

You know, I’ve come to realize something about our great God, and that is this. If he chooses to be silent to our cries for a while, somehow it’s for our good.

If he chooses to hide himself for a while and make it seem as if he’s nowhere around, it’s somehow for our good. And as with David, he went through Psalm 38, then he went deeper into Psalm 39. There have been times in my life where I would—I needed something from the Lord, and I would cry out to him, just pour out everything I knew to pour out to him, and there’s no answer.

The only thing to do is go back, pour out more, dig deeper, and I find myself tapping into parts of my soul I didn’t even know were there. And that’s what God wanted me to do. And when finally my prayer evolves and shapes and grows and refines itself to what it’s supposed to be, then God responds, and his waiting for me was good for me.

Painful, I didn’t like it, not one little bit, but he knows what’s best. And everything he does for us is out of a father’s heart of love, and it’s always for our good. So let’s read the three verses.

Then I bring out some Hebrew insights. I waited, yes, waited for Adonai. He inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up from the pit of roaring— and your translation probably says destruction, which is okay— out of the miry mud and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. But he put in my mouth a new song. Praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and trust in Adonai. (Psalm 40:1–3)

The phrase, I waited, yes, waited, is only two words in Hebrew, kvoh, kaviti (קְוֹה קִוִּיתִי), and you can see they’re very similar. And the word kvah (קוה), which is the root of this, means to wait.

And if you put a tov in front of it, it becomes tikvah (תִּקְוָה), which means to hope. In fact, Hatikvah (הַתִּקְוָה) is the name of Israel’s national anthem, the hope. What’s the difference between waiting and hope?

Well, if you’re hoping for something, that implies you are waiting. It’s not here yet. So in all hope, there is waiting.

But not all waiting has hope attached to it. And I hope that if you’re waiting for something, you are hopeful that it will come. And you have to understand that in the scriptures, hope is never having your fingers crossed.

“Well, I hope it happens, probably won’t, but I hope it will.” No, hope means I’m waiting until it happens because I know it will. Because my God is going to come through.

That’s what true hope is. That’s what tikvah (תִּקְוָה) is. But until the tikvah arrives, we must kavah (קוה).

We must wait. So sometimes we have to wait and wait. And that’s what kavokaviti (קַוּוֹ קִוִּיתִי) means.

Now, in verse 2, it says, He drew me up from the pit of roaring. That word for roaring is the word sha’on (שָׁאוֹן) that you can see at the bottom of your screen. Sha’on is always translated roaring or upheaval or uproar in the scriptures.

Let me give you a couple of examples, both from the Psalms. Psalm 65-7 says, Who stills the roaring, the sha’on of the seas, the roaring, the sha’on of their waves? (Psalm 65:7) And in Psalm 74-23, Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the sha’on, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually. (Psalm 74:23)

Now, the reason many translations translate this word as destruction in this verse is because the word sha’on is believed to come from a root which is sha’ah (שָׁעָה), which does mean to destroy. In fact, it’s where we get to the term Yom HaShoah (יוֹם הַשּׁוֹאָה), the day of the Holocaust, or Holocaust Memorial Day, because the word for Holocaust in Hebrew is Shoah (שׁוֹאָה), from sha’ah. But that is not the word used here.

It’s the word sha’on (שָׁאוֹן). Why did David use the word sha’on roaring instead of just using the word destruction? Well, Robin and I were discussing this, and we’ve both had the experience that when God seems silent, and the enemy is attacking, and trying to lure you into giving into fear and worry, there’s like a roaring in your ears.

It’s like static. And it’s like just noise. And the enemy, I think, one of his weapons that he uses in our souls is just noise.

It’s hard to think when it’s noisy, especially when that noise is in your head. And reading Psalms 38 and 39, it’s pretty obvious that David had some real roaring going on in his heart and soul. But what did God do?

He drew me up from the pit of roaring out of the miry mud. Now, the word for miry there is very interesting. It’s the word Yavin (יָוָן).

Now, if you look at this word Yad Vav Nun, that is also the word for Greece, not the grease you cook in, but the country Greece. So it could almost be read, he brought me up out of the Greek mud or the mud of Greece. What is that supposed to mean?

And is that actually what David intended in his mind? Was he thinking of the country of Greece? Did the country of Greece even known as Yavin (יָוָן) at that time? I don’t know, but it is prophetic.

Because the culture of Greece, Greek philosophy, the Greek way of thinking, the humanism that came out of Greece that was what the War of the Maccabees was all about, as we celebrate the story of Hanukkah. It was the forces of Greece trying to wipe out Torah, wisdom, anything that had to do with the scriptural understanding of who God was.

And this war continues today. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the country of Greece or Greek people. That’s not what I’m talking about.

But this understanding of Greece and the humanism and the humanism philosophy, living according to your own human reasoning and science, rather than living according to God’s wisdom and faith, these two have been butting heads for the last 2,000 plus years. And it’s easy to get stuck in this mud of this humanism, the mud of this way of thinking to where the universe revolves around my human thinking, my human logic, my own reasoning around science, and God kind of disappears from view. We need to realize that God is the creator of the universe, not evolution.

God is the one who runs the world, not Newtonian physics. And that God is the one who determines who we are, how we should live. He’s the one who gives us his law in the form of his Torah.

And gives us his principles for wisdom and faith. And that is how we’re to live life in this world. And if we don’t, we find ourselves stuck in the miry mud, the Greek mud, the mud of just doing things my own human way.

We were meant for something greater than that. We’re made in God’s image, not in the image as a monkey we evolved from. God’s image.

And God wants us to bear his image. He wants to restore his image to us. So we live lives that are fit for the garden.

We live lives that are fit for the kingdom that he is bringing to this world. Makes sense? So, anyways, you can chew on that.

Psalm 40:4–5 — Ashrei, Trust (Bitachon), and the Great Shaking

Verses four and five. Contented. Ashrei (אַשְׁרֵי) is the word in Hebrew, which is also the very first word of Psalms.

Psalm one begins with the words Ashrei ha’ish (אַשְׁרֵי הָאִישׁ), contented is the man. (Psalm 1:1) And here it says again, contented is the man who makes Adonai his trust. Doesn’t trust in this world, doesn’t trust in this world’s philosophy.

He trusts in Adonai, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. And that describes modern culture and modern way of thinking better than anything I can think of. The people today go astray after a lie.

You have multiplied, O Adonai, my God, your wondrous deeds, and your thoughts are for us. What he’s saying there is that God’s thoughts are preoccupied with you and me. The God of the universe, the God who runs the world, we are always on his mind.

Don’t you ever doubt that. You are always on God’s mind. And one of the things I think is so telling about the difference between God and me is he desires fellowship with me more than I desire it with him.

And that’s very convicting to me because his mind, his thoughts, are preoccupied with me. And often my thoughts are preoccupied with stuff that’s just stuff of nonsense. It makes no difference.

But what a God we have. And then it goes on, none can compare with you. I will proclaim and speak of them, though they are more than can be recounted. (Psalm 40:4–5)

What is the them? It’s talking about his wonders, your wondrous deeds. Now, I want to go back to this word trust.

It’s the word mivtach (מִבְטָח). It comes from the word bitachon (בִּטָּחוֹן), which is the word for trust in the Bible. And God has really been speaking to my heart over the last year, I think, and predominantly in the last few months, that as this world goes through the shaking it is going through, and it’s going to get worse.

Things are going to get more shaky each year.

That the only ones who are going to stand at the end of this shaking are those who are totally surrendered to God. And if you are not totally surrendered to God, then fix it. Otherwise, you will fall.

The purpose of this shaking is to reveal who the sons of God truly are, who the children of God truly are, and who the ones are who are truly devoted to him as his bride. And if we are not totally surrendered to him in every area of our lives, then that shaking is going to reveal that. So I challenge you to fully trust in God.

Don’t be self-protective. Don’t hold yourself back. Risk loving God, risk loving others.

Put everything on the line. Be totally devoted to him, to his word, and to his purpose for this world in building his kingdom. Now you might ask the question, what’s the difference between trust and faith?

Well, I find a lot of people have faith, but fewer people have real trust. And the difference is this. Faith means you believe that God exists and that he runs the world, and he is who he says he is.

Trust means I believe he has me in mind, that his thoughts are for me, and he does everything for my good. It’s easy to believe God has faith and believe God’s out there running things and doing things, but that he cares for you? To believe that, that is real trust.

If you want to read a short book of the Bible that illustrates the difference between faith and trust, read the book of Ruth, and focus on the character of Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, who went out of Bethlehem full. She had a husband and two healthy grown sons, but when she comes back, she’s a widow. Her sons are dead, and she has this Moabite daughter-in-law who comes back with her, who’s also a widow. (Ruth 1)

She went out full and came back empty. And when she comes back to Bethlehem, her neighbors see her, and Naomi makes no bones about it. She gives all the glory, if you will, to God, even though it wasn’t meant to be glorious, I don’t think, but she gives all the credit to God for all the pain and suffering she’d experienced: God did this to me. He took my sons. He took my husband. He’s the one who brought me to this. God did all of this. Her faith in God was strong.

But she didn’t have much trust in him because she couldn’t see how what God had done was for her good. That everything God had done was to bring Ruth into the people of Israel. But by the time you get to the end of the book, Naomi not only has strong faith in God, she has strong trust in God. (Ruth 4)

Her world had been shaken. But through that shaking, she came to give great glory to God, great praise to God, because she trusted God. Read the book, and then ask yourself, how strong is your faith?

And then how strong is your trust? Are you totally and utterly surrendered to God? That is the challenge for me, for you, and I think for all who call themselves believers today.

Because this shaking that the world is going through is going to reveal who are utterly submitted to Him and those who are not.

Psalm 40:6–8 — Sacrifice, Pierced Ears, and the Devoted Servant

Moving on, verses six through eight. Now this is a fascinating, fascinating passage.

Sacrifice and meal offering you have not desired. You have pierced my ears. Burn offering and sin offering you have not required.

Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God.

Your Torah is in my inner being. (Psalm 40:6–8)

What in the world is going on? Well, first of all, I have underlined here four different terms for different kinds of sacrifices.

Sacrifice and meal offering. This is zevech (זֶבַח) and minchah (מִנְחָה). These two often go together in scriptures, zevechand minchah, sacrifices and meal offerings.

A meal offering is also a Thanksgiving offering. And when one wanted to express real gratitude to God, he would often bring a zevech and a minchah. He would bring a sacrifice and a meal offering together.

So you have these two. And then you have two more, burn offering, that’s olah (עֹלָה), and sin offering, chet’ (חֵטְא). Burn offerings and sin offerings.

Burn offerings were for expressing total devotion to God, being utterly surrendered to him. It was a whole burn offering. Sin offerings were to express repentance for things you had done wrong and for your failures.

So you can think of these four offerings as like a menorah. You have two branches over here, the zevech and minchah. You have two branches over on the right, the olah and the chet’.

But what’s right in the middle? What is holding up the menorah? And the answer would be my ears.

My ears. What does that have to do with anything? There’s a principle in scripture that whoever has your ear has you.

Whatever has your ear has you. If the culture of the world has your ear, the culture of the world has you. If your fears and worries and insecurities have your ear, you’re always listening to them, then they have you.

If Satan and his lies have your ear, then Satan has you. But if God’s word has your ear, then God has you. Because the word Shema (שְׁמַע), to hear, is the same Hebrew word for obey.

And when you truly hear God, you’ll obey him. If you’re not obeying him, you’re not really hearing him. And this piercing of the ears is based on something from this week’s Torah portion.

I’m doing this teaching here early in February, second week of February, and it happens to be the Torah portion, Mishpatim (מִּשְׁפָּטִים) in Exodus. It begins in chapter 21. And the opening of Mishpatim is about the servant who has fulfilled his six years of servitude to his master, and now he’s free to leave in the seventh year.

And this is what it says in chapter 21 of Exodus, verses five and six. But if the servant, the slave plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost.

Now that word for God is the word Elohim (אֱלֹהִים). It could also mean the judges of the city. So either way, bring him to God or bring him to the judges of the city.

And to the door, the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, so he pierces his ear. He pierces his ear right to the doorpost, right to the door, right where we put the mezuzah (מְזוּזָה) on the doorpost. And he shall be his slave or his servant forever. (Exodus 21:5–6)

That is what David is referring here. He’s saying, God, I could go and live my life however I want, but I don’t want to be free.

I want to be your servant forever. Here’s my ear. Here’s both of them.

You know, if you have a mezuzah on your doorpost, this little decorative box that has a little scroll in it with a passage from Deuteronomy 6 with the Shema (שְׁמַע), Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our God, Adonai is one. You shall love Adonai, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your resources. And it goes on. (Deuteronomy 6:4–5)

That passage is on a scroll inside the case, which is called the mezuzah. The mezuzah is actually the word for the doorpost itself. But the little case has come to be known as a mezuzah.

And on a mezuzah, you’ll see the letter shin (ש). The letter shin is the letter that kind of looks like this. It’s got three lines that come down to a point.

Because shin is the first letter of the word Shema (שְׁמַע), hear. And the mezuzah is placed on the doorpost right about at ear level. And whenever I pass the mezuzah, it reminds me as I go into my home that I have given my ear, I’ve surrendered myself to God to hear his word and to obey it, to be utterly devoted to God, utterly surrendered to him.

And when this servant would give his ear to be pierced by the awl, there’d be a blood spot on that door. And that mezuzah to me is a reminder of the blood spot I’ve given myself to God. It also is a sign to people coming to my home that when you cross this threshold, you’re stepping from the world of Yavan (יָוָן), Greece and its culture, and you’re stepping in to the kingdom of God where his rules are in place, where God is king, where we obey his ways.

So that mezuzah is a powerful reminder. So David is saying here, sacrifice and meal offerings, whole-burn offerings and sin offerings, all of those are pictures of what I want to be. But I don’t want to just give these offerings to you.

I want to give myself to you as a living sacrifice. Here’s my ears, pierce them, let blood come from them, because as you have my ears, you have my obedience, and I am your slave forever. So it’s so easy to give God the things that picture obedience.

And to give him those things instead of giving him our actual obedience. To give him things instead of giving him ourselves. And so David says, I’m giving you me.

Now what’s really fascinating about this passage is that it is quoted over in Hebrews chapter 10. And many of you are aware of this, but we’re going to take a break from Psalms, and we’re going to look at this passage in Hebrews 10 verses 4 through 10. And you’ll recognize the quote from Psalm 40.

It says, For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And the writer of Hebrews is discussing Yom Kippur when the blood of bulls and goats will be brought in to the Holy of Holies. Consequently, when Messiah came into the world, he said, and now here, get this, the writer of Hebrews is quoting these verses from Psalm 40 and saying, these are Messiah’s words.

The Messiah, the son of David. And here’s what he says, Zevach and minchah (זֶבַח וּמִנְחָה), sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. In olah and chet’ and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. (Hebrews 10:4–7; Psalm 40:6–8)

When he said above, you have neither desired and taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, which are offered according to the Torah, then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ), the Messiah, once for all. (Hebrews 10:8–10)

The entire book of Hebrews was written to the Jewish people, for whom the temple was the focal point of their entire faith and religion. It was the focal point.

It was the house of God. It was the only place where you could come to bring a sacrifice, the only place you could come to have true fellowship with God. It was the place where you came to give praise to God.

You were commanded three times a year to come to the temple on Passover, on Shavuot, and then on Sukkot in the fall. This is where you brought your offerings. This is the place of celebration.

Again, it was the bullseye. It was the focal point of the entire Jewish faith. But the writer of Hebrews is preparing the people for a time when the temple will be gone.

Because a few years after the writer of Hebrews, some say it happened before he wrote the book. I think it happened shortly after he wrote Hebrews. The temple was destroyed.

And the sacrifices came to an end because you can’t bring sacrifices without a priesthood, without a temple. And he’s preparing the people for that. And that’s why he says he takes away the first in order to establish the second.

Now we do know the temple will be rebuilt and the sacrifices will resume. But for the last 2,000 years, there’s been no temple. There have been no sacrifices.

So let’s return now to the quote. Do you see where the writer of Hebrew has misquoted Psalm 40? In Psalm 40, where it says, You have pierced my ears, the writer of Hebrew changes that to say a body— let me get my marker, there we go—a body, have you prepared for me?

Now did the writer of Hebrew just get it wrong? No, of course not. But this is a teaching technique used by rabbis where they’ll take a very familiar passage of scripture, in this case from Psalm 40, and they’ll take a word or a phrase and just change it.

Now they’re not trying to deceive anyone because the people who are reading what the writer of Hebrews was writing knew this all intimately. So they would have gotten the inside joke, so to speak. Oh, he changed pierced ears to a body prepared me because he has Messiah saying this.

And so this is a way of him bringing out a derash (דְּרָשׁ) by simply swapping out a word, swapping out a phrase. Again, not to deceive, but to bring home a truth. And what he is saying here, just as a servant would give his ear to be pierced onto the wooden doorpost because he wants to be a servant to God, to his master forever.

And just as David said, I want you to pierce my ears, Father, I will give myself to you to be your servant forever. The writer of Hebrew is saying that Yeshua literally did this, a body you’ve prepared me. Both my hands were pierced and nailed to the wood.

My feet were pierced and nailed to the wood because I’m giving myself totally, utterly, and completely to you. So we see here David expressing something about his desire to serve God. There’s a lesson here about how we should also give ourselves an utter submission to God and how Messiah set the example for how that’s done.

So the next time you think of Messiah’s words, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

He’s inviting us to choose him instead of freedom to live our lives the way we want. The servant’s been set free, you can go.

And we can go. You can live life however you want to live it. But if you want to know what real freedom is, become a slave to God.

If you want to know what real life is and real joy is, then submit yourself to God’s commandments, to living life according to what He wants you to do. And then when the shaking comes, you’ll stand. You won’t fall.

So I had to bring out this beautiful, it’s wonderful insight from Hebrews as we go through this psalm. This is just one of my favorite psalms. I guess I say it about all of them.

I guess I’ve said that 40 times now, haven’t I? But this is one of my favorite psalms. But my favorite thing about this psalm is how this passage is a picture of Yeshua’s crucifixion.

He didn’t just give his ears to be pierced. In fact, his ears are about the only part of Messiah that isn’t specifically stated as being bloodied up and destroyed. But he gave his whole body.

He gave everything else to be a servant to God. Stop thinking that Yeshua came and died so that we wouldn’t have to die. As George MacDonald wrote, Yeshua did not come and die so that we would not have to die, but so that our death could be like his.

So you can choose your death. You can live life the way you want and then you die, however death is going to come. Or you can choose to die now.

God, I give myself completely to you. I want to die to self. I want to live for you.

I am crucified as Messiah. Nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but I live by faith in Messiah. (Galatians 2:20)

I’m going to live according to faithfulness in you to do your will. All right, your death is over. And however this body that you and I occupy, however it comes to an end, who cares?

We’re going to go out obedient to God, living life fully surrendered to him. So when we step out of this body, it’s stepping through a door, leaving one realm and entering another. And there’s no fear, there’s no sting left.

Psalm 40:9–12 — Good News, the Great Congregation, and the Mercy Loop

All right, we need to pick up the pace. Verses 9 and 10. I have told the good news of righteousness in the great congregation.

That phrase, the great congregation, is found four times in the Psalms. We’ve already met it twice, and these are the last two times it’s found, here in verses 9 and 10. I have told the good news of righteousness.

The word good news is the word besorah (בְּשׂוֹרָה). It is the word that means gospel. I’ve told the besorah, the gospel of righteousness in the great congregation.

Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Adonai. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your Yeshua, your salvation.

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your truth from the great congregation. (Psalm 40:9–10)

What, I have put letters here, A, B, C, D, E, to show the five things that David says he does not hide from the great congregation, the kahal rabah (קָהָל רָבָּה). Kahal (קָהָל) is the Hebrew word that is translated church.

And he says, I have not hidden these five things from my fellow believers, from my fellow followers of God. And I want you to do inventory in your own life. Have you been guilty?

I know I have many times, of hiding these five things from others. So let’s make an agreement. We will no longer hide God’s righteousness within our hearts, but we’ll speak about His righteousness.

I’ve spoken of your faithfulness. Let’s not recognize how faithful God is and just clam up and be quiet about it. Let’s share with our brothers and sisters how faithful God is.

You know, Rudyard Kipling said, keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others. And we need to do the same. And your Yeshua, speak of Yeshua to your brothers and sisters and your love for Him and what He’s done in your life.

I have not concealed your steadfast love as God has shown love to you, as He’s been faithful to you. Share that with others. And your truth from the Great Congregation.

Don’t conceal these things. Don’t hide them in your heart. These are the things we should be talking about.

But too many times, I see brothers and sisters get together. They’ll talk about sports. They’ll talk about politics.

They’ll talk about things just going on around them. And not that these things are wrong, but when we talk about those things, so the neglect of the things that matter, things that will build up the body of Messiah, then something’s wrong. And I am purposing today in front of you to speak of these five things more and not less.

I’ll talk less about the other stuff that doesn’t matter and more about these things that do.

Verses 11 and 12 are kind of jolting because it’s like David’s on this roll. He’s just really pumped. Talk about God and how he’s answered him and pulled him up out of the muddy clay.

And he says, Ask for you out of nigh, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your truth will ever preserve me, for evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see.

They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me. (Psalm 40:11–12)

It’s like, David, why are you going back to this depression again? This is Psalm 38, Psalm 39 talk. It doesn’t belong here in Psalm 40.

What are you doing this for?

Well, you know when you’ve been really sick with a flu or whatever. You start feeling better. You’re finally able to get out of bed and walk around and do some things, but every once in a while, there’s that little pain in your stomach or a little bit of a headache.

It’s just an echo of the pain you’ve been through. It’s not what you’ve been through, but it’s a reminder of what you’ve been through and coming out of. Same thing happens to us spiritually and emotionally.

And that’s what’s happening here with David, I think. And I call these two verses a loop, because as soon as you get to the end of verse 12, you should go right back to verse 11. As for you, Adonai, you will not restrain your mercy from me.

And it goes through, oh, but evils have encompassed me beyond number, my iniquities have overtaken me, I cannot see, there are more in the hairs of my head, my heart fails me, but as for you, Adonai, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your truth will never preserve me.

So when verse 12 wells up in your mind, quote, verse 11, and 12 has always a way of just coming back when her mind’s, oh, I’m such a loser, I’m so prone to sin, I’m such a disappointment to God, and go right back to 11, as for you, Adonai, you will not restrain your mercy from me.

Your steadfast love and your truth will ever preserve me. And no, I don’t deserve it, for you’re faithful, even when I’m not. So if there’s a part of the Psalm you want to memorize, memorize these two verses, and maybe they’ll help you get your foot out of the mud when you start to get stuck.

Psalm 40:13–17 — Enemies, Persecution, Joyful Seekers, and Va’ani, ani

Verses 13 and 15. Now it’s almost as if David says, now it’s time to deal with the enemies. Because when I was sick, when I was depressed, when I was just drowning in sorrow, my enemies came around just to attack and to jeer and to poke at me and just to cheer on my death.

So Lord, it’s time to deal with them. So in verses 13 to 15, he says, be pleased, O Adonai, to deliver me. O Adonai, make haste to help me.

Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha, look, look how he’s messed up.

Look, he’s no better than us. (Psalm 40:13–15)

Let me tell you something right now. If you don’t realize it, then realize it, and it’s this.

If you become totally submitted to God, to follow him completely with your life, you’ve immediately taken on some very serious enemies. You will have enemies. Because you’ve made a very clear distinction about whose side you’re serving.

You’re going to serve God and his kingdom, and you’re going to follow his ways, which are the Torah. And you’re going to be a light in this world. And the moment you do that, the enemy is going to come along.

Guaranteed. You know, why should we be shocked if we grow in Messiah and live a life more like his? Why should we be shocked that people hate us?

After all, here was Yeshua. He was the Son of God. He was sinless.

He was perfect. He was gentle and lowly in heart. He went about doing good. (Matthew 11:29; Acts 10:38)

And look what they did. They falsely convicted him of blasphemy. They beat him and then crucified him as a criminal.

Why should we expect better? And the master himself says, if I, your master, they treat me like this, don’t be surprised they treat you like this. They’ll do the same. (John 15:18–20)

But you know what? It’s worth it. But we will have enemies, so don’t be shocked.

When people persecute you for doing what’s right, the master tells us in Matthew 5 that we are to rejoice, to be exceedingly glad when people persecute us, when they speak all manner of evil against us falsely for his name’s sake. Rejoice! So this is how they treated the prophets. (Matthew 5:11–12)

And God’s allowing you to experience something what I have experienced. He’s allowing you to experience what the prophets experienced. We just need to make sure that we’re getting persecuted.

It’s for righteousness sake, and not just for being a dunce and being a snoot, all right? Make sure it’s because you’re doing what’s right, not because you’re just being self-righteous. And then the Psalm closes.

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Amen. May those who love your Yeshua, your salvation, say continually, Great is Adonai!

As for me, I am poor and needy, but Adonai takes thought of me. Again, his thoughts are about me. You are my help, my deliverer.

Do not delay, oh my God. (Psalm 40:16–17)

You know that the Psalm opened with the two words, kavokaviti (קַוּוֹ קִוִּיתִי). Did I quote that correctly?

kavokaviti.

And the last verse of the Psalm has a similar sort of thing going on. As for me, I am poor. It’s just two words in Hebrew. Va’ani, ani (וַאֲנִי עָנִי).

Va’ani, ani. But as you can see, these are two different words. Va’ani (וַאֲנִי) is spelled with an aleph.

And then the second word, ani (עָנִי), is spelled with an ayin.

Va’ani means and I, or as for me. Ani with an ayin means I’m poor. I am poor.

I’m going to close with this thought. When you take that word, ani (אֲנִי), the word for I, aleph, nun, yud, all you have to do is reverse the last two letters. It becomes the word ayin (אַיִן), which means nothing.

Nothing. Ayin (אַיִן). Nothing, nothingness.

And we’re just that close to being nothing. We’re made from dust. What is dust?

It’s nothing. The only difference between you and dust, the only difference between me and dust, is God’s neshama(נְשָׁמָה) being breathed into us. We’re just that close to being nothing at all.

But because of His Spirit breathed into us, we’re not nothing. We’re an I, an ani (אֲנִי). And we need to give ani to Him, completely and totally.

And the rabbis say you should carry around two pieces of paper, one in your left pocket and one in your right pocket. And the one paper says, I’m but dust and ashes. In other words, I’m nothing.

I’m an, I’m nothing. But the other paper says, the world was created for my sake.

Because both of them are true.

But if you believe one without the other, you’re going to be a hot mess. But we can hold on to both of these at the same time. In fact, I think you can buy two coins that say that.

You can keep them in your pockets. I’m nothing. The world was created for my sake.

When you think too much about one, immediately read the other. When you think about that, read this one. And if we can walk in the tension of those two things, that I’m just dust and ashes.

I’m really nothing. God loves me. He laid down His life for me through Yeshua.

And He’s created a world for me. The world to come is for me. He adopts me as His child, and He’s making me part of His bridegroom, of His bride.

But I’m nothing. But through Him, I’m something. Hold on to those two things.

I think Psalms 38, 39, and 40 is the process of David coming to this realization. I know this has been a long teaching. I apologize, but I hope it’s been worth it.

There’s so much here to think about, to take in, and to build into our lives and our awareness. And so I hope this teaching will help you with that, to become someone who’s totally surrendered to God, and therefore unshakable. Until next time, I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם), and may God bless.

Links

Read Psalm 40

Read Ruth