Psalm 40… The Lord Inclines: (Part 3)

November 29, 2010 at 1:39 am (About Sin, Assurance, Devotional Thoughts., Forgiveness, Guidance, Lighter Burdens., Our Unchanging God, Sins, Sovereignty of God, Transformation., When you are afraid, When You Feel Like Crying., Wisdom)

Originally posted on June 16, 2010 at 11:25 pm

Scripture References;

I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.  Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.  Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.  Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.  I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.  Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.  Psalm 40 KJV

I have these past few days been looking at Psalm 40.  So far I have focused on verses 1-5.  Now I am moving along.

⁶Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

“Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire”… I am pausing here, because blogs can have so many types of readers. I will often look at my “Dashboard”, but the graph gives me very little information about my readers. They are anonymous to me. Only the readers who choose to comment give clues to what they know and believe. I like to make my blog entries simple, so that if someone comes along who knows very little about the Bible, they will still be able to understand the thoughts that I am conveying. I also must admit that  even though I have a good amount of scripture hidden in my heart, there are many “topics” that I still know very little about, so please know that  there are many things that can be taught from these verses that I might not even mention. My Blog is about “glimpses” and in no way would ever be considered “exhaustive”,…LOL . However,  just because it is simple doesn’t mean that it cannot benefit readers who know more than I do. We all know that it is nice to be reminded of things that we already know to be true.
Okay, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire”…I guess I will start with some background, and what better place to start but in Genesis:

^“9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?¹⁰And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.¹¹And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?¹²And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.¹³And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.¹⁴And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:9-15 KJV

God had told them that they could eat from any tree except the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”:

^“9And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil..¹⁶And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  Genesis 2:9, 16, and17. KJV

This eating of the tree that they were told not to eat of is the first sin ever committed by man and woman. It is referred to as “The Fall of Man”. If they had not sinned they could have lived there forever. After that all people that were ever born came into the world in that fallen state and would eventually spend an eternity in Hell when they died. But God had a plan to save people from that horrible penalty. Look again at Genesis 3:15:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

Here are two more references that have to do with being bitten by serpents, and what that actually represented:

⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,  to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

⁶ Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. Numbers 21:4-9 NIV

¹³No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:13-18 NIV

Many many years later a woman named Mary, one of Adam and Eve’s descendants, would give birth to a son; not an ordinary son, but God’s only begotten Son. He would come to the  earth and be born from a virgin. His name would be called Jesus, and He would live a perfectly sinless life in mankind’s place and lay down His life by allowing himself to be crucified on a cross, and would rise from the dead. In fact,  He would also be a descendant of David who also was a descendant of Adam and Eve along with the rest of the Human race. Because of this, Jesus was sometimes referred to as “The Son of David”

Adam and Eve did not know all of these details, but they as well as their descendants knew that although they were the ones that initiated the fall of man, it would be God’s provision of a Messiah that would provide the escape from those tragic consequences. They knew that it would also involve a sacrifice. Now look at this verse:

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.   Genesis 3:22 ^KJV

I was taught that an animal lost its life in order for that skin (covering) to be provided for them. This would have been the first sacrifice ever made. After that God’s people in the Old Testament were instructed to make different types of sacrifices. Some were offered routinely in a specific way, and others were to be offered when specific circumstances( like when someone committed certain kinds of sins) called for them.  Those sacrifices pictured the ultimate sacrifice of the Messiah that would take place some day in their future. The people of the Old Testament were saved by their faith that was placed in the Messiah to come. Those who lived at the time Jesus had His earthly ministry were saved by their faith that was placed in the Messiah that had finally come, and after that right up until the present time salvation is provided for all who place their faith in the Messiah who already came, and it will always be that way until the Lord finally returns again.

Now lets look at that phrase from Psalm 40:6 again:  “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire”, If you have read many of David’s Psalms you know that he often confessed that he was a sinner, and as you continue to read this Psalm you will see that in verse 12 he says, “mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”…I have been thinking about this phrase and got stuck. I even read some comments by scholars. I do not want my blog entries to be complicated, so instead of trying to think of all of the possible things that were on David’s mind, I am going to share what is on my mind. There are times when I am in prayer and I begin to confess my sin, and there is no way that I could name them one by one; not even if I were to confess them every hour, so when I pray I usually mention categories of sin, and even doing that can take a few minutes to list them. At times it truly is hard to look up. However,  David’s hope was not in sacrifice and offering.   His hope was in the Lord; in what the Lord had to offer. The Lord had opened his ears so that He could hear the Lord’s thoughts on the matter, and as a result David’s confidence in the Lord was revived. I have a tendency to become so preoccupied with my guilt and fears that I fail to hear and look up, but the Lord opens my ears, too, and causes me to look up. He call us by name, and that always gets our attention. Our God is an unchanging God. There is no shadow of turning with Him (James 1:17). Do you hear Him calling? Has He been on your mind? Look up, and you will be glad that you did!

Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord?  Please click here: “https://pronetoponder.wordpress.com/category/about-salvation-very-important-words/ ”  and make sure.

Do you have a Bible? If you don’t have one, you need not worry. Just go to http://www.biblegateway.com. They have many versions and translations of the Bible that you can read. Some of the best things in life are free!