Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

David equates despair with being in a pit. Jeremiah experienced this hopelessness: “ So the offi- cials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard…there was no water in the cistern but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it.” (Jeremiah 38:6) Joseph’s brothers put him into a pit: “ Let’s just throw him alive into this pit here. That way he will die without our having to touch him.”(Gen. 37:22) The pit of despair is meant to kill everything about our spiritual life.

“ He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the Lord.” (3)

Just as the ‘pit’ represents being in ‘despair’; singing a ‘song’ represents being on the ‘solid ground’ of faith. Praise and worship lifts us out of hopelessness and helps us reestablish our trust in the Lord. David and Jeremiah’s songs from the pit are still being sung to this day. It is a new song we are to sing, nowhere in the Bible are we instructed to sing an old song. We must have new songs today so there will be old songs tomorrow. Jesus gave us the wisdom to balance the old and new when he said: “ Every teacher (and worshiper)… who has become a disciple in the King- dom of Heaven is like a person who brings out of the storehouse (worship list) the new teachings (songs) as well as the old.” (Mt. 13:52) “ Oh the joys of those who trust the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud, or in those who wor- ship idols. O Lord my God, you have done many miracles for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.”(4,5) Whenever we are in distress it is important that we remember the faithfulness of God’s miracles in the past as well as look forward to the plans he has for our future. Our problems diminish as we begin to recite his wonderful deeds recorded in the bible. Miraculous things often happen to those who wor- ship the Lord! “ You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand- you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come. And this has been writ- ten about me in your scroll; I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your law is written on my heart.” (6- 8) This psalm is pivotal; it explains the replacing of the old covenant of animal sacrifice with the new covenant established by the shedding of Christ’s blood. The writer of Hebrews begins to quote Psalm 40 and attributes the verses directly to Jesus: “ That is why Christ, when he came into the world, said, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But you have given me a body so that I may obey you.’”(Heb. 10:5) The body of Christ was to be the sacrifice for sin rather than the animal sacrifice and grain offerings. Jesus goes on speaking prophetically in the psalm: “’ No, you were not pleased with an- imals burned on the altar or with other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God-just as it is written about me in the Scriptures.’ (Heb. 10:6,7) Now the writer to the Hebrews comments on these verses: “ Christ said, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them’ (though they were required by the law of Moses). (Heb. 10:8) Again the writer of Hebrews tells us it is Jesus speaking in this psalm. He continues: “ Then he added, ‘Look, I have come to do your will.’ He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second.”(Heb. 10:9) This psalm essentially says that Moses’ covenant of animal sacrifice for sins is over and the new era of Christ’s one-time sacrifice for sin has begun. “ And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.”(Heb. 10:10) II. THE MESSIAH’S SACRIFICE - 6-8

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