Psalm 40 Sketch Notes

Psalm 40 Study Notes
1. Waiting on the Lord means to serve Him with gladness, to attend to Him, to lean upon Him, think of Him, sing to Him, trust in Him, talk to Him, praise Him for His blessings already, dwell upon His kindness, gentleness, love and faithfulness, in other words to fill your heart and mind with His love, answered prayers, commitment to you, and never-ending help for you.

2. To wait patiently means to stand firm in these just mentioned no matter what is going on around you. Patience means while trouble is happening we shall not be moved, shaken, or stirred out of place. Patience is a quiet, steadfast resolve to trust that He knows and cares and is already moving on the matter because we asked for His help and He loves us so much He can’t sit by without guiding us through.

3. “He inclined to me and heard my cry.” Inclined means to lean toward, to stoop down, to have His attention. When we cry out to Him we know that we have His attention. And with His attention comes His help. I have heard people say, “God only helps those who help themselves.” This is not true. God helps those who call to Him for help and He does it gladly because HE loves us dearly and we have proved our love and trust of Him by our prayer for help. He absolutely loves us to trust Him.

4. “He brought me out of a horrible pit.” The pit is where I can only see walls around me. I seem to have fallen into something and need help getting out. The pit is a low place, below the level of my privileges as a child of God. We have to be thrown “down” to be in a pit. We can also fall into a pit or sometimes we choose to jump in on our own when we do things against His will. The only way out is up. So, we must look up to the heavens to call for a rope.

5. “Out of the miry clay.” The miry clay is slippery substance. The more you try to get out on your own the more slippery and stuck we get. We can’t walk rightly in the slippery mud and continue to fall on our faces; we get bogged down in slimy things and need help to get out. If we’re not careful we may give up and try and make the pit our home. We’ll try and just live our lives without freedom in the low, slippery places of life, and may even try to pull others down into the pit with us so we will be more comfortable in our misery. When all along we should be looking up and calling to the One who has the high ground and the strength to pull us out.

6. “And set my feet upon a rock.” God not only pulls out of the pit when we call for His rope, He makes sure to place us way away from the mud on solid rock. He gives us a firm foundation that is not easily shaken or moved. A strong surface for our feet which steady’s the rest of our movements. We can now continue our journey because of the solid ground; His word is our solid ground. We can walk safely through His word like a huge, green lush meadow we can live free in. (The Rock is Jesus, solid people in the church, a descent job, school, phone numbers of ladder people, definitely His word, and His love and guidance which is promised to those who will trust Him.) What else? “Jesus is our firm foundation; I know that His love is true… Jesus is our firm foundation; I will trust in his holy word, I will trust in His holy word…”