PM Service, 04 January 2026
Psalm 40 My Help and My Deliverer
Text: Psalm 40:1–17
Title: My Help and My Deliverer
Setting: Evening Worship Service, First Sunday in January
Introduction
Brothers and sisters, as we gather on this first Sunday evening of the new year, many of us carry mixed emotions. A new year brings fresh hopes, new resolutions, and the sense of a clean slate. But it also brings forward the burdens of yesterday—the struggles that didn’t disappear when the calendar flipped, the sins that still cling, the fears that still press. In such a moment, we need words of faith that both look back and look forward.
Psalm 40 gives us just that. It is David’s testimony of how God rescued him in the past, and his urgent prayer for help in the present. It is at once a psalm of thanksgiving and of lament. It shows us what it looks like to wait on the Lord, to trust in Him rather than idols, to delight in His will, to confess sin honestly, and to end the year—and begin the next—with the humble cry: “You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.”
And, as with every psalm, these words do not stop with David. The New Testament teaches us that Christ Himself takes this psalm on His lips. He is the one who waited in the pit of death and was raised. He is the one who perfectly delighted to do the Father’s will. He is the one who, though rich, became poor and needy for our sake. Psalm 40, then, is both our prayer and His.
This evening, we will walk through the psalm in five movements:
- Patient waiting and certain deliverance.
- Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
- The heart of true obedience.
- Plea for mercy and deliverance.
- The poor and needy and the Lord’s care.
And in each movement, we will see how Christ fulfills the psalm, and how He enables us to live it out in this new year.
Transition to Point I
So let us begin where David begins—in the pit, in the waiting, in the place where we can do nothing but look up to the Lord. For it is there that we learn our first lesson: patient waiting leads to certain deliverance.
I. Patient Waiting and Certain Deliverance (vv. 1–3)
Exposition
David begins: “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” The Hebrew has the sense of “waiting, I waited”—not a short delay, but a prolonged season of endurance. The image is vivid: David was trapped in a “pit of destruction” and “miry bog.” In the ancient world, a pit often symbolized death, Sheol, or helplessness; a bog meant there was no solid footing, no escape in one’s own strength. But the LORD intervened. He bent down, heard David’s cry, lifted him up, set his feet upon the rock, and gave him a firm place to stand.
The result? A new song. “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.” Deliverance leads to worship, and worship becomes a testimony to others. What God does for one becomes an encouragement to many.
Christ’s Fulfillment
Here we see a shadow of Christ Himself. He was the One who entered the ultimate pit—the grave. He bore the weight of sin and death, and for three days, He lay in that miry bog. But on the third day, the Father raised Him up, set His feet upon the immovable rock of resurrection life, and gave Him a song of triumph. And now the nations hear and fear, and put their trust in the risen Lord Jesus.
Beloved, Christ has fulfilled this psalm for us. He has waited, He has been delivered, and because He lives, He gives us the new song of salvation.
Applications
- To the weary and waiting: Some of you are in a season of waiting—waiting for healing, for reconciliation, for guidance, for God’s answer to prayer. Do not despair. Waiting is not wasted when it is waiting on the Lord. Christ Himself waited in the grave, and the Father vindicated Him. He will not abandon you.
- To the discouraged: Notice that David’s deliverance became a testimony to others. Your endurance in waiting, your confidence in God’s timing, can encourage other believers. Do not underestimate how your quiet faith can strengthen those around you.
- Exhortation: As we begin a new year, do not run to false comforts when the Lord delays. Wait patiently for Him. He hears, He will act, and when He does, He will put a song of praise in your mouth.
Transition to Point II
But waiting is not the only lesson here. David looks beyond his own experience and declares who truly is blessed—not the self-reliant, not the idolater, not the proud—but the one who trusts in the LORD. If deliverance leads us to song, it must also lead us to trust. And so we move to our second point: Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
II. Blessed Is the One Who Trusts in the Lord (vv. 4–5)
Exposition
David continues: “Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!” In the ancient world, power was found in alliances, wealth, or idols. To “turn to the proud” meant to lean on human strength, and to “go after a lie” was to trust false gods. But true blessing—the deep covenant blessing of God—belongs to the one who makes the LORD his trust.
David then lifts his eyes higher: “You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.” God’s mercies are too numerous to count, His thoughts toward His people too vast to measure.
Christ’s Fulfillment
Who is this “Blessed Man” par excellence? It is Christ Himself. He is the true Israelite, the greater David, the Man who never turned aside to idols or self-reliance. He trusted His Father perfectly—even when Satan tempted Him with shortcuts to power, even when His disciples forsook Him, even when the cross loomed before Him. And because He trusted perfectly, He is now exalted, and in Him we share the blessing of God.
Applications
- To the self-reliant and proud: Beloved, hear the warning—human pride is a lie, self-sufficiency is an illusion. You may be tempted in this new year to lean on your own strength, to depend on your money, health, or reputation. But David tells us: that way is a lie. Only those who trust the Lord are truly blessed.
- To the discouraged and doubtful: Do you wonder if God thinks of you? Hear the Word: “Your thoughts toward us are more than can be told.” In Christ, the Father’s thoughts toward you are thoughts of peace, hope, and future (Jer. 29:11 fulfilled in the new covenant). You are not forgotten.
- Exhortation: As we enter this year, let us make the Lord our trust. Not the markets, not political leaders, not our own cleverness. Christ, the Blessed Man, trusted for us and now enables us to trust Him day by day.
Transition to Point III
But trust cannot remain abstract—it takes flesh in obedience. David says that God is not pleased with empty ritual, but with a heart that delights to do His will. And here we find the deepest fulfillment in Christ, who came into the world saying, “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.” Let us then turn to our third point: The heart of true obedience.
III. The Heart of True Obedience (vv. 6–10)
Exposition
David declares: “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. 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.’”
Here David is not abolishing sacrifices (for they were commanded under the law), but he is placing them in their proper context. Sacrifices without heart-obedience are worthless. God desires covenant loyalty, not empty ritual. True religion is not merely outward, but inward: a heart that delights to do God’s will.
David also declares that he has proclaimed God’s faithfulness openly (vv. 9–10). He has not hidden God’s steadfast love in his heart as a private treasure but has announced it to the great congregation.
Christ’s Fulfillment
The writer of Hebrews takes these very verses (Heb. 10:5–10) and applies them directly to Christ. He is the One who came into the world saying: “Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.”
- The sacrifices of the old covenant could never take away sin; they pointed forward to the perfect obedience and sacrifice of Christ.
- Jesus delighted to do the Father’s will, even unto death. His whole life was one of joyful obedience—culminating in the cross.
- By His obedience, we are made holy. By His once-for-all sacrifice, we are perfected for all time.
Applications
- To those content with outward religion: Beloved, beware of resting in external forms—church attendance, outward acts of piety—without the heart. God desires your love, your obedience, your delight in His will. Christ frees us from the futility of empty ritual.
- To the guilty and conscience-stricken: You may say, “But I do not delight to do God’s will—I so often fail!” Yes, but Christ has delighted for you. His obedience is counted as yours. And by His Spirit, He is writing God’s law upon your heart so that you can begin to walk in newness of life.
- Exhortation: Begin this year not with resolutions rooted in your own strength, but with Christ’s finished obedience. Trust in His sacrifice, and then, in union with Him, present your life as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Transition to Point IV
But even as David speaks of delighting in God’s will, he quickly turns back to reality—his sins are many, his enemies are fierce, and his need for mercy is urgent. The same man who proclaims God’s steadfast love also cries out for deliverance. And so we come to our fourth point: A plea for mercy and deliverance.
IV. Plea for Mercy and Deliverance (vv. 11–15)
Exposition
David shifts from testimony to urgent prayer: “As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!” (v. 11). Notice the tension—David has experienced God’s mercies in the past, yet he cries for them anew in the present. God’s mercy is not a one-time gift but a continual need.
Then David confesses: “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see.” His sins are like a flood, too heavy for him to bear. At the same time, enemies surround him, seeking his shame and destruction (vv. 13–15). In the honor-shame culture of the ancient Near East, public disgrace was a form of death. David longs for vindication.
Christ’s Fulfillment
Here we see Christ foreshadowed again—but with a profound difference. David confesses his own sins. Christ, though sinless, bore ours. On the cross He could rightly pray these words, not for sins He committed, but for the iniquities laid upon Him by imputation.
- He was surrounded by evils beyond number—betrayal, mockery, scourging, crucifixion.
- He was encompassed by enemies who cried for His shame and death.
- And yet He entrusted Himself to His Father’s steadfast love, even as He bore the wrath our sins deserved.
By His death, He conquered our sin. By His resurrection, He triumphed over our enemies—sin, Satan, and death itself.
Applications
- To the guilty and burdened with sin: Do your sins feel too heavy, too many to count? You say with David, “They are more than the hairs of my head.” Christ has borne them for you. Do not carry what He has already taken to the cross. Confess, and receive His cleansing.
- To the afflicted by enemies and trials: Perhaps you feel surrounded—mocked at school, opposed at work, misunderstood in your family, tempted by the evil one. Take heart: Christ was surrounded for you. He knows your trials, and He intercedes for you now at the Father’s right hand.
- Exhortation: Do not despair under sin’s weight or crumble under the world’s pressure. Cry as David cried: “Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!” And know that because of Christ, God delights to answer.
Transition to Point V
Yet even as David pleads for mercy, he ends the psalm not in despair but in hope. He confesses his weakness—“I am poor and needy”—but anchors his confidence in this truth: “The Lord takes thought for me.” This brings us to our final point: The poor and needy and the Lord’s care.
V. The Poor and Needy and the Lord’s Care (vv. 16–17)
Exposition
David widens his prayer in v. 16: “But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, ‘Great is the LORD!’” Deliverance is never for ourselves alone—it draws the whole community of God’s people into joy and praise. True worship is contagious; when God delivers one, many rejoice.
Then comes the final confession: “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God!” David, the king of Israel, acknowledges that he is spiritually bankrupt, needy before God, utterly dependent on divine mercy. This is the final paradox of faith: the greater our weakness, the more clearly God’s sufficiency shines.
Christ’s Fulfillment
Here again we see the Lord Jesus. Though He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). He humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant, entering our neediness in full. He bore our weakness, our poverty, our shame, our cross.
And now, risen and exalted, He remains mindful of His people. The Lord of glory “takes thought for you.” He intercedes at the Father’s right hand, He sends His Spirit to dwell within, and He promises never to leave nor forsake His own.
Applications
- To the poor and needy in spirit: Do you feel small, insignificant, or forgotten? Take heart—the Lord thinks upon you. You are never out of His sight, never beyond His care. Christ became poor for you so that you might know His riches.
- To the congregation as a whole: This is how we begin a new year—not with prideful strength, not with boastful resolutions, but with humble dependence: “I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.”
- Exhortation: Make this verse your prayer this year. Confess your neediness daily, and cling to Christ as your Help and Deliverer. Live with the urgency of David’s cry: “Do not delay, O my God!”
Conclusion
Psalm 40 teaches us the rhythm of the believer’s life:
- Waiting patiently, and being delivered (vv. 1–3).
- Trusting wholly in the Lord (vv. 4–5).
- Obeying joyfully from the heart (vv. 6–10).
- Pleading earnestly for mercy and deliverance (vv. 11–15).
- Confessing humbly our poverty, and rejoicing in the Lord’s care (vv. 16–17).
But more than that, Psalm 40 points us to Christ, who has fulfilled every line:
- He waited in the grave and was raised.
- He trusted the Father perfectly.
- He delighted to do God’s will, becoming the true sacrifice.
- He bore our sins and triumphed over our enemies.
- He became poor and needy, that He might be our Help and Deliverer.
Beloved, as you step into a new year, do not rely on yourself. Do not cling to idols. Do not be content with hollow religion. Instead, confess your poverty, trust in Christ, wait for His timing, obey by His Spirit, and rejoice in His salvation. Let your prayer each day be David’s: “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.”
Closing Prayer
O Lord, our Help and our Deliverer,
We confess tonight that we are poor and needy. Our sins are too many to count, our enemies too strong, our strength too small. But we rejoice that You take thought for us. You have lifted us from the pit of destruction and set our feet upon the rock. You have given us a new song in Christ our Savior.
Grant us grace in this new year to wait patiently upon You, to trust You more fully, to obey You more joyfully, to confess our sins more honestly, and to rejoice in Your salvation continually. Write Your law upon our hearts, that we may delight to do Your will. Protect us from our enemies, comfort us in our trials, and assure us daily that we are never forgotten.
Above all, fix our eyes on Jesus—the true Sacrifice, the perfect Obedient One, the Righteous Sufferer, the Deliverer of the poor and needy. May His life be our song, His cross our boast, His resurrection our hope, and His return our longing.
We ask this in His precious name, Amen.