Psalm 40 is one of my favorite psalms. And not just because the band U2 made a rock song out of it. (If you’ve ever been to a U2 concert and heard them play it, and heard the audience singing with it, it’s church. Watch the video below all the way to the end when the audience takes over the song. It’s church.)
I waited patiently upon the Lord;
He stooped to me and heard my cry.
I’m not patient. Like the rest of the planet, I want what I want when I want it. And not just what I want personally in my own life. I have some very definitive ideas about how the world should work, how things should be, how we need to clean up the planet, take better care of each other, end all war and violence, get rid of library fines, just to name a few. I’m impatient for God’s kingdom and the promise of a place where swords are turned into plowshares, and lions and lambs lay down together. I’m impatient for the Lamb of God to take away all sins of the world and what that might look like.
I have a feeling I’m not alone in this. Psalm 40 affirms that God is listening, God comes to my level of understanding, and God hears me and my lament for myself and my planet.
He lifted me out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay.
There is something about the image of mire and clay that reminds me of the image of creation: God creating the earth creature, out of the dirt, out of the clay, giving it breath, and calling it good. The image of the psalm, God lifting us out of the clay, is a birthing image. There are things about my own humanity that are great and indeed good, and there are just as many that aren’t so great, that aren’t so good. The psalm reminds me that God lifts me out of that into my true created self that can be free to be fully human, and fully loved by God.
He set my feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.
What do we do when the footing is not sure? When the path is unclear? When we can’t take the long view and see the road ahead? I am comforted by this promise of God moving us from the lowest of low – the pit – to up high on a cliff where the vista ahead is clear. Cliffs can be dangerous places, so for us to feel our footing is sure on that high cliff, that is faith and confidence in God.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God;
many shall see, and stand in awe,
and put their trust in the Lord.
That’s just the first three verses. Go read the rest. We’ll pray the entire psalm on Sunday in church. Take some time to sit with it this week. Or, another psalm that speaks to your soul right now. What does your soul need? Praise? Lament? Comfort? Chances are, there’s a psalm for that.
*At a concert in Chicago on April 29, 1987, Bono said: “This is a song that when we were being thrown out of the studio… we spent ten minutes writing this next song, ten minutes recording it, ten minutes mixing it, ten minutes playing it back, and that’s nothing to do with why it’s called ’40.'”