MEDITATIONS IN THE PSALMS (11-10-24) [An outline of the Psalm A good devotional study when using the scripture indicated] Psalm 40:1-3, “A Horrible Pit” ` In Psalm 40:1-10 are the reflections of David as he looks back on God’s past deliverances from the horrible pit he dug for himself by his sin with Bathsheba: and in vs.11-17 his troubles with Absalom. It’s also a Messianic Psalm, Jesus our Messiah in His enduring agonies on Calvary’s Cross. Vs 6-8 are directly appealed to in Heb.10:5-10. The iniquities in v12 are our iniquities imputed to Christ. The “pit” is that which sin digs; the language befits that estate of our Lord when He bore in His own person the terrible curse due to sin. He was cast down as a prisoner in a deep, dark dungeon. He was deserted, by His friends then by His Father. Here too by arrangement the delivered sinner can realize his experience; differing in that he was cast under his own personal transgressions, whereas Christ was cast under the sins of an unnumbered multitude. Let us consider the text as it applies to the personal deliverance of the awakened sinner. V1: In the Hebrew the first word is doubled “Waiting I waited” denoting earnestness, constancy, and patience. The Hebrew term is in the sense of expectancy; totally opposite of fatalism. This type of patient waiting gains God’s manifestation of Himself, “And He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.” Inclined is bended or bowed and implies attention; “He heard” so as to answer. V2: “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit.” “Brought up” implies that He came down into the pit where we were (Ps.88:6). Here is condescension, the voluntary humiliation of the Lord of glory, that He would leave His heavenly world of glory and splendor and step into man’s fallen world, read Philippians 2:6-8. Let us consider the “pit” where we were: the Vulgate reads, “The pit of misery”; Syriac, “Pit of woe; Arabic, “pit of perdition.” This is the “pit” sin dug. The transgression of Adam plunged us all into this pit. “Out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay.” The “pit” and its substance “miry clay” are one and the same; mire of filth, mud of corruption, the filth of dregs, all descriptive of sins pollutions. Sin is a terrible “slime pit,” the more a man tries to deliver himself from it the more he sinks into it. Job 33:23-24, “the pit of destruction” is man’s estate by nature, he is always going down and away from God; observe vv 16-18; 29-30. He is in a “pit” waiting Judgment, if he dies without Christ he wakes up to the reality that his pit has no bottom to it. The “pit” of eternal destruction is called the “bottomless pit,” men who die without Christ are flung into this pit. Why is this pit termed “horrible?” It’s a pit of darkness Matt.22:12-13, implying solitary confinement. There is no sympathy, each being taken up in their own individual misery, a pit of tormenting fire, “furnace of fire” Matt.13. Is the fire of hell literal? I hope so. A term God chose which men are familiar with to relate its torment to their minds. It could be and possibly is many times worse than fire as we know it, if it were no worse it would be hell enough. It is a pit of death and destruction Ps.55:23, a pit of degradation and debasement. Thank God a “ransom” has been found, Ps.40:2-3; 27:5; 69:1-2, 14. ~~T.Worthan,1938-20222
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