Up and Out Psalm 40 — E.A. Johnston

Repeated Discoveries in Psalm 40

I can't recall the actual number of times I've preached from Psalm 40 through the years, but I know that every time I have applied expository preaching to it, I have come away with a different message every time.

The Word of God as Buried Treasure

I believe the reason for this is simply that the Word of God is like a buried treasure found and opened that continually amazes and astounds with its vast riches. The Bible in one sense is as deep as the ocean, which can never be completely fathomed this side of eternity.

A First Sermon in a Prison

The very first public sermon I ever preached was from Psalm 40. I preached it in the cement bowels of a penitentiary in the South. I was as rough in my delivery to my rough audience of murderers, thieves, and hoodlums.

Me and another evangelist were escorted by a prison guard through several security checkpoints until we were led into a cheerless gray room with cement floors and cement walls. Forty to fifty folding chairs sat vacant until an iron door opened and the prisoners were led in.

I've never been so scared in my life, and I was scared for two real reasons. I had never preached publicly before, and I was nervous. And I was afraid for my life as the prison guard left us alone with about forty hardened convicts.

The men looked at me intently as I began my message and stood at the little wooden podium. And the message I had prepared for them that evening was a message of hope. I drew out of Psalm 40 as much hope as a preacher can pull out of it and still be true to the text.

I just kept preaching hope and love to these hardened men as I told them about a God of hope and a Christ who is a Savior and a God who delivers. All the while I preached, I was worried that I'd be jumped by these men and physically hurt because as I preached to them, their looks grew intense and more serious as I proceeded with my message.

When I finished my sermon, my worst fears occurred as the men suddenly jumped up from their chairs and rushed me. My body froze as stiff as an ironing board, and I closed my eyes, awaiting my attackers.

When I opened my eyes, I saw tears in their eyes as they threw their arms around me and hugged me so hard I could hardly breathe. They thanked me one after another for taking the time to drive two hours out in the country to be with them and to share the Word of God.

The Gospel's Call to Reach Sinners

I learned some things that night I'll never forget. First, I learned that the human heart is hungry for the reality of God. Secondly, I learned never again to fear man as I preached, but only to fear God.

Thirdly, I learned that all men are sinners in need of a Savior, and it's up to us, the ones who are saved, to go out and reach them with the gospel of Christ Jesus. I also learned that the Word of God can be transformational if it's preached in its simplicity, its purity, and in its proper order.

David's Affliction in the Bottleneck Pit

Now, friends, with those thoughts in mind, I'd like to take another crack at this wonderful psalm, which is a song of deliverance. David is the author of the psalm, and he was in a jam. Somehow or another, he ended up at the bottom of a bottleneck prison.

A bottleneck prison, back in Bible times, was a pit dug out of the earth, either by natural means or human means. It was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top like a glass Coke bottle. The walls leaned inward, and there was no human way to climb out of it.

These bottleneck pits were often used as temporary prisons in the absence of a cave or a building. To make matters worse, when it rained, the water would make the bottom of the pit muddy with thick, slippery mire.

You could hardly get your footing without falling over once you were shut up in there. The only way out was if someone else lifted you out. It's called a pit of noise because of all the hollering going on in it, as this was the only way to call attention to yourself in the hopes that someone passing by would stop to help you and drop down a rope.

So this is David's predicament as I see it. He is trapped, one way or the other. He wants out of his trouble. He is in a place of desperation, for he has been in this place of affliction now for a prolonged period, and he is ready for it to come to an end.

Have you ever been there, friend? Have you ever been in circumstances too big for you to get out from under on your own? Have you ever been in such trial of affliction that your only hope was in the blessed hope, the Lord Jesus Christ?

Maybe some of you are there now. Maybe you have wondered if God has forgotten about you and even forsaken you. Well, don't believe that for a skinny minute, friend, because if you are a child of God, he always has his eyes on you.

When silver is purged of its impurities, as it is placed into the refiner's fire, the refiner, the silversmith, never once takes his eyes off the silver. Well, I want to read us now the first three verses of Psalm 40.

Waiting Patiently for God to Hear

Here now is the word of God, and may God's spirit attend and enliven his holy word. I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and he heard my cry. Let me pause here, friends, to say the Hebrew expression here is waiting, I waited.

The emphasis is on waiting upon God for a thing, hoping in him for a thing, leaning on him in prayer for support until deliverance comes. The words he inclined unto me gives an anthropomorphic illustration of God sitting in heaven on his throne.

As he leans over to hear someone call from below, he cups his hand to his ear, so to speak, as he gives his undivided attention to that desperate cry. Do you believe God hears us when we pray? I believe God hears desperate prayer, like the prayer of Hannah for a child, like the prayer of Elijah for rain.

God will lean over his throne and cup his ear to listen to that kind of supplication. Our text says, he heard my cry. Well, next we read, he brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

Deliverance, Praise, and a Fresh Testimony

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and trust in the Lord. I want to draw out several aspects here before I close this message today, friends.

I want to draw these out from our passage today. The subject of Psalm 40 is the Lord. It is he who is waited upon. The Lord is the mighty one who shows favor and goes into action on behalf of his child.

The object of the psalm is deliverance. When deliverance finally comes, it comes suddenly and completely. Up and out is what happens. Up and out he is brought from his dilemma. He is then set and established on solid footing with a fresh testimony of praise toward God in his mouth.

He is a witness to this deliverance to others as he tells about a God who is mighty to save. And many shall turn and fear and trust in the Lord from his proclamation. Up and out, when God goes to work, friends, he gets up off his throne, so to speak, to get us out for our good and for his glory.

Let us pray.