Psalm 40 reminds us that God holds onto us during the good and the bad days. In Psalm 40:2, David reminds us that we were all born into sin. But yet God rescued us from the debt that comes with it. He sent His son, Jesus, who paid our sin debt on the cross and does not require any payment in return.
And like large firm stones forming a path over the waters, you will find that God is a bridge giving you a safe, smooth path on which you can walk with one small firm step at a time.
Psalm 40:2 Brought Me Up and Set My Feet FirmVerse 2 begins a sacrifice of praise to God because the Lord heard the cries of His servant David and answered to his need. David had been patiently waiting for God to respond to his petition and cast himself wholly on the Lord, fully believing God would respond to his cry and deliver him from his difficulties. And David was not disappointed.
David refers to some past experience in which God rescued him from what appeared to be a certain death. David felt like a person who had fallen into a muddy pit and was sinking to death, but God pulled him out and put him on firm ground again. He can now continue his journey, singing as he goes and thereby encouraging others to put their trust in God (vs. 1-3). His song is one of praise to God, whose loving works on behalf of the faithful are more than can be numbered (4-5). 1
It seems that the Lord responded after a long period of prayer and patient petition. The problem David faced must have been significant, for he described himself as being in a deep pit of destruction and a cesspool of miry clay which was sucking him deeper and deeper into its suffocating clutches.
The Pit
This “pit” of “miry clay” is additional poetry describing how deeply desperate David’s plight was. David’s warlike life was full of near-death experiences, some of which seemed so hopeless that they were like being in a trash pit or slimy swamp. One can imagine being abandoned in a cavernous hole in the ground filling with water, mud, and slime. In such a predicament it is impossible to get a foothold, but the Lord reached down to David, answered his cry for help, and pulled him to safety.
The word “pit’ may refer to:
- a cistern;
- a prison;
- a dungeon;
- a grave. This last signification of the word is found in Psalms 28:1; Psalms 30:4; Psalms 88:4; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 14:19.
The pit may refer to any calamity – or to trouble, like being in a pit – or it may refer to the grave.
The word rendered “horrible” means properly “noise, uproar, tumult,” as of waters, or of a crowd of men, or of war. It is used in the sense of “desolation” or “destruction,” as applicable to the grave.
Some understand it to be of a pit, a cavern, or an abyss that roars or is tumultuous; that is, that is impassable like a cavern, deep and dark, where the waters roar, and which seems to be filled with horrors. The Septuagint renders it as “a lake of misery.” It is a deep and horrid cavern, where there is no hope of being rescued, or where it would seem that there would be certain destruction. 2
The miry clay is at the bottom of the pit. Where there was no solid ground – no rock on which to stand. (Jeremiah 38:6; Psalms 69:2, Psalms 69:14)
David says the Lord set his feet on a rock, where there was firm standing, and set him in a much better and more secure place (“established my steps”). The imagery indicates that the Lord rescued David from his enemies and provided security for him.
David reminded us that we were all born into sin. But God rescued us from the debt that comes with it. He sent His son, Jesus, who paid our sin debt on the cross and does not require any payment in return.
And like large firm stones forming a path over the waters, you will find that God is a bridge giving you a safe, smooth path on which you can walk with one small firm step at a time.
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Consider the Daily Bread email message sent on 2/17/2008 and 10/23/2023 which says,
Psalm 40:2 – He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. (NASB)
God can and will be your bridge over troubled waters if you let Him. When life swirls around you with deadlines to meet, concerns about your loved ones, and quarrels at home or at work, concentration on the problems seems to pull you down into the rushing river or the slimy mud. Concentrate instead on the solid things in your life such as love and devotion, and especially reflect on God’s unchanging love. And like large firm stones forming a path over the waters, you will find that God is a bridge giving you a safe, smooth path on which you can walk with one small firm step at a time.
To receive the Daily Bread email messages, free on Mon., Wed., and Fri., in your email inbox, just fill in the form below or send an email, and ask to be added, to jmikeh@jmhowington.com
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