◄ What Does Psalm 40:2 Mean? ►

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.

Psalm 40:2(NASB)

Verse of the Day

This psalm begins as 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.

It seems that the Lord responded to the sweet psalmist of Israel, after a long period of prayer and patient petition. The problem he 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.

But the Lord raised him up, out of the pit of destruction. He was rescued from the miry clay and the Lord set his feet upon the rock of his salvation and established his steps: "Making my footsteps firm," is David's delighted statement.

From being a little shepherd boy on the Bethlehem hills, David demonstrated a life dedicated to the Lord. He was a man after God's own heart whose patient endurance and trusting faith brought him deliverance, encouragement, hope, and salvation.

His rescue from the pit of destruction and release from the slimy clay, brings to mind the terrible suffering of Joseph whose brothers flung him carelessly down a deep pit of desolate before selling him as a slave to the passing Midianite traders. His fate also reminds us of men like Job and Jeremiah who both faced terrible trials, similar to those about which David patiently sought the Lord.

Perhaps the Man Who sank into the deepest pit of destruction and Whose patient endurance eclipses all others is our Saviour, Jesus Christ Whose trust in His Father never failed, despite the cesspool of sin into which He willingly sank when crucified on a Roman cross so that we might be raised up from our pit of destruction into life immortal, by faith in Him.

He waited patiently for God as He hung on Calvary's Tree, bearing the weight of the sin of the world on His sinless shoulders. And although the Father was caused to turn away from the Son of His love as He became sin for you and for me, the Lord inclined His ear, heard His cry, and brought Him up from the terrible pit of destruction and the miry clay so that He could become the Rock of our salvation upon Whom we can stand firm, through time and into eternity.

No matter what pit of suffering and shame we may be required to endure, and no matter how deeply we sink into the quicksand of destruction, we have His assurance that He will set our feet back on the Rock of our Salvation and establish our goings out and our comings in, from this time forth even for evermore.

My Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank You that there is no pit of destruction so deep and no miry clay so oppressive, that Your hand of blessing and encouragement is not able to reach down, raise me up, and set my feet upon the Rock of my salvation. Help me to wait patiently for You to act on my behalf. Let me never doubt Your Word to heal or Your will to save. In Jesus' name, AMEN.