Commentary on the opening verses of Psalm 40

There are many other ways to study and contemplate the psalms, but for the sake of this article, I have chosen to consider the beauty of God’s loving care for us as demonstrated in the opening verses of Psalm 40.

I waited, I waited for the Lord
and he stooped down to me;
he heard my cry.

He drew me from the deadly pit,
from the miry clay.
He set my feet upon a rock,
made my footsteps firm.

He put a new song into my mouth,
praise of our God. (vv 2-4a)

The New Grail translation. © 2010 Conception Abbey/The Grail, administered by GIA Publications, Inc.

We cry; God hears. When God hears, God acts. Sometimes he acts quickly, sometimes it takes a lifetime. We cannot predict or control the way He chooses to act, or the means through which He will express His response to our cry. And so we need to wait. Patiently---and that is difficult for us to do, isn’t it?

The psalm recalls the Lord’s action in response to our cry: “He stooped down to me.” What an incredibly human image: God is on high, and we are here below. It is God’s initiative to reach down to us. I love this image of God stooping; it recalls the sight of a parent stooping down in order to speak to a child on its own level. In addition to that, I often think of this image in terms of the Eucharist, when at each and every Mass throughout history, the Lord comes down, so to speak, to the altar and become present to us not as a ghost or spectre, but rather as concrete tangible reality: as stuff that is man-made but becoming God Himself for us to handle, consume, eat and drink and take into ourselves.

How does God respond to our great need in this psalm: He draws us out of what is ensnaring us, and the snares are extreme and deadly, and apparently it is easy for our feet to get stuck in the muck and mire of our daily lives. But He draws us free from all that. I picture myself shaking the muck from my feet as He helps me to ascend from what threatened to devour me like quicksand.

What is the muck and mire? Take a look at your life and see what it is that is holding you bound, or even what threatens to destroy you. From what do you need to be rescued? This descent into the mire, and then the ascension from the mire is an archetypal pattern; it is the pattern of the Paschal Mystery itself: he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again (The Apostles’ Creed). We live the pattern of the Paschal Mystery again and again in our lives, and as often as we descend, God stoops to us so that we might rise with Him, this time to a place of stability and security: our feet on a rock, our footsteps firm.

Do you currently feel yourself stuck and crying out for help? Then let these verses be a promise to you, and pray for the virtues of patience and hope that can sustain you during your time of waiting.

Have you in your life experienced these times, or even moments of stability and security? If so, give thanks for them and let Him put a new song into your mouth: the song of the Psalm, perhaps, as you sing His praises for the powerful and intensely real way that he has saved you. Give thanks always.

God bless you and stoop down to you with His saving love.