THE MAN THAT MAKES THE LORD HIS TRUST

This is one of the psalms that we are more familiar with, and which we often quote in prayer. This is because verses 1-3 aptly illustrate our deliverance from the pit of sin, and because verses 6-8 obviously refer to Christ, Heb. 10. 5-9.

There is a predictive and a historical character to many psalms, of which this is one. It is the historical aspect with which we are concerned here.

The psalm falls into two parts: (i) vv. 1-10, (ii) vv. 11-17. The first part recalls a past experience, “I waited”; “he inclined … and heard”; “He brought me up”; “set my feet”; “established my goings”, vv. 1, 2. The second part records a present experience. The three petitions, vv. 11, 13, 17, reflect a pressing need at the time.

Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. David proved this in the variety of experiences through which he passed. In this psalm, he refers to a dreadful experience which he metaphorically describes as a boggy pit from which the Lord rescued him. In his extremity, he “waited patiently for the Lord”, an attitude that displayed the trust of his soul.

Experiences of divine intervention leave deep impressions on those who have had them. This was so in David’s case. Firstly, his mouth was filled with a song of praise that magnified the Lord and testified to others to make the Lord their trust also, vv. 3-5. What a different effect his sin had on those around, 2 Sam. 12. 14. It was a new song based on a new experience of deliverance. Secondly, his heart is filled with a desire to obey out of his own will and not in the mere ritual of sacrifice and offering, vv. 6-8. David’s greater Son fulfilled these verses to perfection.

In the second part of the psalm, David makes his appeals on the ground of the deliverance recorded in the first part. His pleas are marked by confession, “mine iniquities have taken hold upon me”, v. 12; by urgency, “make haste to help me”, v. 13; by humility, “I am poor and needy”, v. 17.

“His love in time past, forbids me to think
He’ll leave me at last in trouble to sink.”

“Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us”, 2 Cor. 1. 10.