Psalm 40: Part 2

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. 

(Psa 40:2-3 ESV)

When we were kids, my brother and I used to spend our summers “exploring” the timber. Word of explanation. In Iowa, some people own a plot of woods known as a stand of timber. Usually timbers are used for such activities as deer hunting and turkey hunting. On the edge of our timber, Mom put in a pond, and through the timber ran a very small creek. That creek is where my brother and I would lose our boots.

The ground was soft clay, and apparently the combination of clay and water would create what my brother and I would affectionately call “quick mud.” I would be walking along, and then suddenly one foot would go down. Stuck. Trying to pull the foot out boot intact was pointless; the mud’s pull was too strong. The only solution was to extricate (good word usage huh) my foot from the boot, then pulling together, Eric and I could with all our might get the boot out. From that point on in the day, we would be careful to walk on the rocks.

Psalm 40 says, “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay.” How often are we walking through life when suddenly we’re stuck in the mud? The only difference is that we don’t have a boot to take off. The only way to extricate ourselves from the situation is to have someone else pull us out. Going back to verse 1 from a couple of weeks ago, God hears our cry and pulls us out of the mud and sets us on the Rock. Christ. The Hymn writer says, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”

How true. Only in Christ can I walk without getting bogged down. Unfortunately, I don’t know about you, but I seem to, more often than not, think that I can handle stuff. I say, “No, that’s okay God, I’ve got this one.” And so begins the mucking about until finally I’m stuck and I have to cry out for help. What would my walk look like if I spent less time getting myself stuck, and more time walking on the Rock?

Speaking of reliance on God, what does this needed reliance say about our worship? “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” He put, not I put! I don’t have any capacity to worship God minus the Holy Spirit. None, none whatsoever. This should and does concern me. Really. Do I quench the moving of the Spirit in worship? I’m talking both private and corporate worship. What gets in the way? The obvious answer is me of course, but what do I do about that? How do I get myself out of the way? I don’t! But I’d better be spending serious time with the Lord, so that when I’m worshipping the focus upward is already in place.

The next verse is great. What is the result of living this way? “Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” Here is a promise we need to grab hold of. If we walk with the Lord, we are going to be different and people are going to notice.