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Psalms 40
1I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry.
2He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.
3He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall .
4Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
5Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
6 and offering you didn’t . You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
7Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
9I have proclaimed glad news of in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, LORD, you know.
10I have not hidden your within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your . I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
13Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, LORD.
14Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.
15Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
16Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your say continually, “Let the LORD be exalted!”
17But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
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Questions this passage answers
Who is God?
God is the one living Creator who made everything and depends on nothing, and Scripture answers this question mainly by telling us his character rather than by defining his substance. When God described himself to Moses he said he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. The New Testament adds that this God is finally known in Jesus Christ, who has made him known.
Who wrote the Bible?
The Bible was written by many human authors over a long period, and Scripture presents itself as God-breathed rather than as human opinion. Some books name their writer, some do not, and honest study says which is which. Paul calls every Scripture God-breathed, and Peter says no prophecy came by the will of man but that people spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, which is the Bible's own account of how both authors are involved at once.
Can the Bible be trusted?
Scripture claims to be true and invites examination rather than avoiding it. It says God's word is truth and that it stands when everything else fades, and the New Testament writers appeal to eyewitnesses, named places and public events rather than to private experience. Trust in Scripture is finally trust in the God who speaks in it, and the clearest reason a Christian gives for that trust is that Jesus treated these writings as God's own word.
How should I pray?
When the disciples asked this, Jesus answered with a pattern rather than a technique. Pray to your Father, in private, without performance and without needing many words, because he already knows what you need. The prayer he gave begins with God's name, kingdom and will, then asks for bread, forgiveness and protection. Scripture adds that we may bring everything, that the Spirit helps our weakness, and that we can ask with confidence when we ask according to God's will.