Psalm 40

Hebrews 10:5-9 quotes 40:6-8 and applies the passage to Christ, which makes this a messianic psalm. Some see the birth of Christ in verse 7, His sinless life in verse 8, and His sacrificial death in verse 6. However, it was first of all a psalm about David and his needs and how the Lord met them, but the historical setting is obscure. David may have written it during his difficult exile years or perhaps during the early years of his reign. It’s unusual for a psalm to have a prayer for mercy following praise and dedication. However, if verses 1-5 picture his deliverance during the dangerous exile years and verses 6-10 describe his dedication as the new king, then verses 11-17 could be a record of his prayer for personal forgiveness (v. 12; see 38:3-5; 39:8-9) and victory over his enemies following his coronation. It does seem that verse 16 is a royal prayer for God’s blessing on the nation. You find verses 13-17 repeated in modified form in Psalm 70. From whatever experiences led to the writing of this psalm, David learned some valuable lessons and gave us three important instructions to follow in the difficult times of life.