Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew

Psalm 40 – Trust in the LORD – A Patient Wait! (Part 3 of 3)

III. When We Wait (vs. 11-17) – Trusting the LORD is one of the most difficult and challenging things that every child of God struggles with in life. He wants the trial to end as soon as possible so that peace of mind might return. He wants the persecution to stop so that the mental anguish and the physical pain might cease. However, the LORD says all His children must learn patience and therefore they must wait patiently for His deliverance to come. David struggled with waiting patiently as he cried to the LORD: “Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” The “delay” in the arrival of help from the LORD prompted David to cry to the LORD to not withhold His tender mercies from him. God’s mercies refer to His withholding punishment that one deserves. This means that when mercies were withheld, David felt the pain and the hurt of the ministry. This is a common experience of all faithful servants of the LORD. Those who do not serve often face disciplinary actions from the LORD. But those who serve faithfully like David often face trials that are to strengthen and build up their faith and trust in the LORD. If the LORD’s mercies came to David his difficulties would stop. The pain and suffering would end. In the meantime David had to endure them patiently.

David continued to hold on to God’s lovingkindness and His truth to preserve him. God's lovingkindness has the notion of loving loyalty that is based upon a personal covenantal relationship. It was more than just a feeling of love and kindness. The basis for this love and kindness was more important. God’s love and kindness that David held on to as he awaited the mercies of the LORD were the results of the covenantal relationship that is founded in Christ alone. David said that no matter how long he had to wait for the Lord’s mercies to come, he would wait and not doubt the LORD's loving kindness toward him. David’s knowledge of the LORD’s love and kindness toward him was not based upon his feeling of no pain or suffering for Christ. Despite the pain and hardships of life in serving the LORD, David knew that the LORD’s love for him remained constant. He would hold on to this as it was based not upon feelings but God's perfect Truth, the Bible! The promises of God’s Word remains constant like the rising and setting of the sun unlike the believer’s feelings and faith that waiver and go up and down like a yoyo. David knew that even though the mercies of God had not come, the LORD’s lovingkindness and truth would be sufficient to see him through the trial whatever it might be.

Verse 12 (synthetic parallelism) – “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine 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.” David was overwhelmed by the evils that had compassed him. What these evils were cannot be determined. But the word "evil" can refer to something that is wicked or difficulties that bring hardship. These were the trials that David referred to that he felt he had to endure. He even said that he somehow deserved what he was going through as his iniquities were the cause of them. It could be true in the sense that the trials in life were the result of a particular sin that he might have committed against the LORD; it could also be the general understanding that as sinners saved by grace, the sins that were once committed in the past were justification that his "iniquities have taken hold upon me." It means that his sins had finally “caught up” to him! Either way David was overwhelmed and admitted that he was "not able to look up." He had no one to blame but himself, not even his enemies, even if there were any. He could not find the strength to look up. What this phrase "look up" means is that David felt so ashamed of his numerous transgressions that he dared not look up to God and ask for reprieve from the trials he felt he deservingly ought to experience. This understanding is in congruence with what David admitted in the next line of this verse. He said that his iniquities were "more than the hairs" on his head.

As a result of this, David affirmed that his heart had failed within him. He was despondent and the weakness within his soul was unbearable. In the tragedies of life, including the life of every believer, physical pain pales to insignificance when compared to the pain of the soul, especially the thought that the LORD might have forgotten him and loved ones had stopped caring for him!

Verse 13 (synonymous parallelism) – David literally begged the LORD to deliver him! He cried, "Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me." The phrase "be pleased" has the idea of a debt being paid. David used a verb that implies that whatever debt he owed, and he had to pay for the many sins that he had committed against the LORD, let it be fully paid so that the LORD would deliver him. He was not pleading for the LORD to do something that was against His perfect justice. David's standing before the LORD was based upon the future finished work of Christ on Calvary. It was enough. What David probably referred to was the earthly consequences that all believers have to endure for their transgressions. If believers do not experience temporal earthly consequences for the sins they commit on earth, then there will be chaos and they will sin with impunity and many might believe in Christ for this carnal reason.

So David cried to the LORD that if in His eyes he had suffered sufficiently on earth for the innumerable sins that he had committed on earth, then make haste to help him.

Verse 14 (synonymous parallelism) – When the LORD’s help comes, David said, "Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil." Was David being vindictive when he asked the LORD to make them ashamed and be confounded? No it was not out of a vindictive heart as this was written by way of inspiration. David was crying for God's justice. To be made ashamed means to help the men who persecuted him see that what they were doing was not right. It is an unjust act that they had committed against David. By this understanding of shame they would not only stop but they would also repent of their sin and turn to the LORD since it was the LORD who convicted them and not just their own conscience. It was the right thing to ask for David’s enemies. Furthermore, to confound them means to stop their sinful intentions. This is again a good and right thing to ask as this means that the sin of David’s enemies would be lighter and not so severe.

David used synonymous parallelism to emphasize his point before the LORD. He understood that when God’s people suffer unjustly (even though like him they see this as their just desserts because of man’s sinful nature before salvation) it does not mean that those who persecute God’s people will not be held accountable and be judged by God. They will definitely be judged by God even though God may use these sinful acts and turn them into priceless lessons to teach His children and to strengthen their faith. Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ which resulted in Christ’s death and resurrection and sinners being saved from sin, yet it does not mean that Judas’ greed and betrayal were not acts of great wickedness against God. David prayed for the LORD to stop the evil in his life so that his time of suffering might end and the persecutors would not continue to sin against God and David.

Verse 15 (synthetic parallelism) – David continued by saying, “Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.” David asked the LORD to not let his and God’s enemies succeed and even be rewarded for their transgressions. If they succeeded and were rewarded, they might be encouraged to sin even more! David did not want that for his enemies! He asked the LORD to make their missions of persecution desolate and to turn them into failures!

They mocked David by uttering “Aha, Aha!” The word “Aha” is a compound word which means “look . . . alas.” It is like saying to David: Why do you still want to trust in your LORD when he does not come to help you and He lets you suffer? Such taunting attacks the believer’s faith. David held on to his faith and continued to trust in his LORD even as he cried to the LORD to deliver him. In the midst of his cries he wanted his enemies to come to know the LORD as well. What a wonderful testimony from a man after God's own heart in the face of his personal enemies. These were David’s and not God’s enemies! David wanted them to turn to the LORD.

Verse 16 (synthetic parallelism) – Therefore David says, “Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.” David did not say “let me rejoice” as if he alone was privileged enough to praise the LORD. He deliberately used the third person to include even his enemies, that instead of persecuting God’s servants they would also come and know the LORD and be blessed. They did not have to be God’s enemies. They could be God’s children. David said that all they needed to do was to seek the LORD. The joy of the LORD would become their experience in life. The word “seek” has the idea of striving after something and primarily through worship or prayer. This is salvation openly offered to all sinners. No one needs to be in the state of sin and remain an enemy of God and God’s servants. They can turn to the LORD in Christ and become God’s children and servants. The joy they have will be real and eternal. The reason is that the object of their joy is in the LORD Himself. The temporal joy on earth will fade and goes up and down like a yoyo because people are emotional and they sin. But the LORD is immutable in His goodness and kindness and remains forever the same. The joy all believers have in the LORD is eternal because the LORD is eternal.

The conclusion is that all those who have truly experienced the LORD’s salvation will magnify the LORD in their lives. To magnify the LORD is to praise Him and live daily in holiness for Him. The LORD is seen in their lives. This means that they live lives that are according to Holy Scriptures. They conduct themselves according to the Bible and Christ’s image will be seen clearly in their lives.

Verse 17 (synthetic parallelism) – David’s final acknowledgement to his LORD was that he was undeserving of the LORD’s deliverance. He confesses, “But I ampoor and needy; yetthe Lord thinketh upon me: thou artmy help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.” David said that he was poor and needy. The word “poor” means “poor in mind or circumstance” rather than poor in substance. Poor in circumstance means that he might have many material things but he is poor in peace of mind. This was how David felt under the circumstances. He was correct. He also described his state as needy. The word “needy” has the idea of having a sense of want in his feelings. David’s feelings or emotions were frail and thin probably due to the long drawn persecution. This happens to all believers. But the LORD “thinketh” upon him. The word “thinketh” means “to interpenetrate” or “to weave.” This means that the LORD was allowing the trials in David’s life to shape him from within into a better and more faithful all round witness for the LORD, like weaving all sorts of colourful threads into a beautiful tapestry of colourful design. It was not a one dimensional approach but a multi directional approach of shaping His servant into a mature all rounded servant of the Most High God.

Even though the help had yet to arrive and David had not yet experienced the LORD’s mercy, he declared that the LORD will forever remain his help and his deliverer. Help in times of trials so that he would continue to experience the sufficiency of His grace. Deliverance would come soon at the end of the trial so that David would experience the LORD’s mercies! He asked the LORD to tarry no more. He had been using the name “LORD” (emphasis on the covenantal relationship) since verse 11 onwards and now finally he used the word “God” which emphasizes the power of God. David knew that the LORD who is God will deliver. He has the power to do so. Even though he was prepared to wait for as long as the LORD determined, it does not mean that God's servants cannot or should not ask for the trial to cease. This was what young Joseph did when he languished in the Egyptian prison in Genesis. He was a godly testimony for the LORD in prison and yet he asked the butler to remember him when he left the prison and to say a good word to Pharaoh that he was innocent and did not deserve to be in prison. This happened two years prior to Joseph's release.

Conclusion – Why we wait, how we wait, and when we wait are three questions that Psalm 40 deals with in the life of David who suffered in his life of witness and service for the LORD. All obedient and faithful believers will suffer when they witness a good confession for Christ. All believers need to know how they can respond correctly during these times of suffering so that their holy witness for Christ will remain intact. Psalm 40 is one of the best psalms to learn from, for David endured sufferings for Christ that were extremely intense and they lasted for years. David shared from personal experiences on how he overcame them. All believers need to do the same today! Amen.