Psalm 40: 6-12…..A Messianic Psalm.

Comment: In a number of places in the Bible the claim is made that God was in control of what was written and He means for it to be there! The so called Messianic psalms and similar passages where found in other books, are prophetic proclamations of who/what the Messiah is going to be and to what He is going to be like. There is also a meaning related to the writer’s (here David’s) life but here he is a prophet as well as a poet.

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required. Comment: This sounds strange as we know that a very detailed sacrificial system is given in the early books of the Bible. Animals are not much in the thinking of most Westerners (graziers excluded) but to an agricultural society they were the bank. Thus to kill an animal was costly and involved loss of life, and they were taught that life is ‘in the blood’. Thus sacrificing was to show that sin is very significant and causes death. Remember that in Genesis sin was that which led to death..
Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O LORD. Comment: Hidden in this passage is the truth proclaimed again and again in the Bible that only the sacrifice of the life of a perfect Man could be an adequate sacrifice for human failure (sin). The Messiah was such a Man and here he is boldly stating this fact for all to hear.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me
beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
my heart fails me. Comment: The Messiah was sinless yet He claims that His iniquities were very heavy and uncountable in number. This is true in the sense that He bore the punishment of the sins of the whole world as He bore them in His one and totally sufficient sacrificial death on the Cross.

Prayer: This is a huge subject and very complex, God. Help me to get my head and faith around it.