My First Bible #8: Psalm 40:1-3

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
    out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
    and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
    and put their trust in him.

Psalm 40:1-3 (NIV)

It would be impossible to have a favourite Bible passage, but this is one of the ones I turn to when pressed to give an answer (usually in icebreaker exercises!). When I was a teenager, I wrote the first three verses of Psalm 40 out and put them on the wall next to my bed, and it still has a special place in my heard.  It's a simple and beautiful story, and it's just as much my story as it is David's.

As I read these words for the first time, and read them again, I am reminded of the time when I realised that God wasn't just an abstract concept and moral code to some people, but something 'real' in their lives, and realised that that experience was not mine.  I don't know if I waited patiently, but there was certainly a deep cry in my heart - 'I want to know you God'.  And God heard that cry, and one November evening, answered it.  

I had been acutely aware, ever since I'd realised that there was more to God than my own self-righteousness, that I had nothing firm on which to stand.  It was a 'dangerous pit', and 'deadly quicksand'-  as my Good News Bible put it - more dramatic than the NIV's 'slimy pit' and 'mud and mire'.  I can't comment on which is a more accurate portrayal of the Hebrew meaning, but both versions reflected my feelings at the time.  There was life in God, but I was on the outside of it.  I had no hope in death and felt like I had little hope in life.  When one's mental health is so poor (as mine was at that time) that it is impossible to enjoy the transient blessings of this life, what is there left?

But God lifted me out of that slimy pit and set my feet on a rock.  At that time I didn't even know who that rock was!  When I gave my life to God all I had to rely on was the deep conviction that I was loved by him unconditionally.   But it was secure, it was trustworthy, and it would hold me through life and death.  By the time I came to write these verses out I'd found out that that rock was the cross - the death and resurrection of Jesus.  I'd found out that by being born as an infant, and by dying a criminal's death and even crying out 'my God, my God, why have you forsaken me!' (Matthew 22:46), that he himself had descended into the slimy pit to meet me.  And that in his resurrection he had joined me to himself and brought me out, and that his place at the Father's right hand is secure, and that he has a place for me.  

Not only that, but he 'put a new song in my mouth'.  What amazing inspiration to the previously so despondent soul that I had not only safety but a new purpose!  And in my life of praise, Psalm 40 promises that others will see and turn to God as a result.  I soon as I became a Christian I wanted to tell others.  It's not always been easy, and it's not only about the words themselves - the imparting of information.  But a life lived in praise must surely be infectious.

As I look at the rest of Psalm 40, I realise that this is not a Psalm that was written in a situation of all being right with the world.  David goes on to say: For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see (verse 12) and: May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion (verse 14).  Life on the rock does not mean that the waves do not continue to crash around us, sometimes even soaking us, and looking terrifying.  But I have long taken inspiration from the tradition of the Psalms, where in times of trouble, the writers look back to the past mighty acts of God.  They often recount the events of the Old Testament - the Exodus from Egypt, the Passover and the parting of the Red Sea, or the God's continued sustaining of creation.  But in this one, David looks to his own story, and in doing so invites us to as well.

Many are the times I have felt in the midst of doubts or trials, but have returned to my own story, remembering how God answered my cry, lifted me out of the pit, set my feet on a rock, and put a new song in my mouth.  These past remembrances are balm to the troubled soul and grounding to the wandering one.

The summer I was 17 years old I read my Bible cover to cover for the first time.  I was captivated and completed the whole thing in 4 months.  Although I clearly read it at quite a pace, I still jotted down passages that sprang out to me in my still relatively new faith.  I still have that Bible, and the scraps of paper are still there, bookmarking each verse.  So I decided to go through, 18 years later, and visit each of them.  They are from the Good News Bible.