Alan G. Nute
"Sacrifice and offering thou hast no delight in; mine ears hast thou opened:
burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I am come;
in the roll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God;
yea, thy law is within my heart." (Psalm 40:6-8).
THE fortieth psalm divides fairly simply into two parts. The latter section describes a strange and acute period of need through which David passed, whereas the earlier part tells of how he looks back to a past deliverance when powerful relief was afforded to him by his God. The two parts fit together. He finds confidence in his present need by recalling to mind God's faithfulness in the past. These two sections provide a context for the three verses which we now propose to consider.
There is no doubt about his present state of acute need. "For innumerable evils have compassed me about" (v.12); "But I am poor and needy" (v.17). David explains that his sufferings arise from two sources. There is the plague of his own heart: "Mine iniquities have overtaken [74/75] me, so that I am not able to look up". This is an experience which we have all shared. Despite the fact that we are fully forgiven and accepted in the Beloved, we are at times dismayed by a fresh awareness of our deep sinfulness. This is particularly the case when we stand in the light of God's holiness, with something more of His majestic glory dawning upon us. But the psalmist's sense of need also arises from the opposition of the enemy. He describes it in the phrase: "They seek after my soul to destroy it ... they delight in my hurt" (v.14). Christians also are attacked in the same way. "They say unto me, Aha, Aha!" All who mix with people of the world know only too well what it is to be treated with this kind of cynical contempt. Even if nothing specifically spiritual is in view, it is enough to stand for what is good and right to be met with the hurtful sarcasm of those who jeer: "Aha, Aha!"
So it is that the psalmist ends his story with this description of his plight: "I am poor and needy". Happily he knows how to face the situation, and he does so in the wisest possible way, that is, by calling to remembrance a past powerful and gracious deliverance given to him by the Lord. That was a never-to-be-forgotten time of need, but David records the marvellous faithfulness of the Lord to him. He was in "a horrible pit" full of "miry clay"; at least that is the only way in which he could describe his plight, even if it is figurative language. He remembered how he felt encompassed on every side, hemmed in and restricted as though in some frightening pit, only able to look up and, when he did that, finding that heaven itself seemed very far away.
Deeply conscious of his unparalleled need, down in that miry mud, he did two things. First he set himself to wait patiently for the Lord, and then he cried earnestly to the Lord. This, then, was the thing to do then and this is the right procedure now. "I will wait," he says, "as I did on the previous occasion. But I will not be supine in resignation, sitting down with folded arms, but will spend my waiting time calling on the Lord. My call was heard. God inclined to listen to me. He stooped to where I was and with His strong hands He lifted me out of the deep pit of my need and, what is more, He placed my feet securely on a rock." The story does not end there. The Lord did not leave him standing, but showed him a new and secure path and, as he trod this path, he discovered that there was a song, a new song, in his mouth. So we find the delivered psalmist declaring to all the wonderful salvation which God had given him.
The central portion of this psalm consists of verses 6 to 8 and seems to set out for us some of the deep spiritual lessons which he had learned during his time of trial and waiting upon God. Why does the Lord allow us to pass through this kind of distress? Not just to have the pleasure of displaying His delivering power, but in order that in those depths we may learn how to know Him better. These experiences teach us lessons that otherwise we might never learn. If you encounter a person with a powerful living ministry, you will always discover that somewhere in their lives there has been an occasion of great distress, what we might even call tragedy. These are the people who can look back at the spiritual secrets which they have learned in their distresses. We realise that these experiences have made them the men of God they now are. Through the horrible pit and the miry clay, through their patient waiting and proving the faithfulness of God, they have learned these secrets which have affected their whole after life. Into this context, then, we fit these verses which reveal some of the powerful lessons which David learned. They can perhaps be summarised in the one word: Obedience. In this inward secret of heart obedience, David was far in advance of most of his contemporaries; he was in fact an Old Covenant saint in the good of a New Covenant experience.
1. Obedience is the Secret of Blessing
There is no abracadabra to holiness, no magic key can be used to unlock the door of life on to a new level; nor is there any once-for-all experience which yields an access of power never again to leave one. The Christian life has this as its secret, that if we are to know the blessing and power of God day by day, we can only do so by constant obedience. So David discovered that priority must be given to obedience; his words can surely have no other meaning. Someone might well ask him: "How can you say that God has not required nor desired sacrifice? Was it not He who commanded the offerings? Was it not by His direction that Moses laid down regulations about them? What do you mean, David, by saying that God has no delight in sacrifices and offerings? Are you not audacious to make such statements?" [75/76]
One answer to such questions can be found in the argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews that such sacrifices were only temporary and that of themselves they could never put away sin. They were just timely expedients until the time of fulfilment should come when Christ would put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The full truth did not dawn until many centuries later, but David discloses in another psalm that he had some understanding of it. He had to confess that he himself had been guilty of two capital sins, adultery and murder, for which no sacrifices were prescribed. He found forgiveness, though, having been shown that there is a heavenly hyssop which can purge away sin and there is a heavenly laver at which men may wash and be clean. For this reason he was able to say: "Thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it; thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering" (Psalm 51:16).
This is one answer, but although it is true I do not think that this is the point which David makes in our passage. Perhaps we can best understand his meaning if we consider Samuel's words to Saul: "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22). This was before David's time, but he would know that the Amalekites were so desperately wicked that spiritual surgery was needed to excise them from the political body. It had to be done, and done thoroughly, so king Saul was ordered to carry through the task. When, however, he saw the flocks and herds, he decided that some of them were too good to be killed. The prophet came on the scene and -- with an attempt at pious bluff -- the king said to him: "Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord". Samuel, having a sensitive ear, called his bluff by asking the searching question: "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" Saul did his best to keep up the bluff by explaining that the special animals were being reserved as a sacrifice to the Lord. Back came God's reply: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" (1 Samuel 15:22).
