15 Let those who say to me, Aha, aha! be surprised because of their shame.
Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath overtake them. Give their houses to destruction, and let there be no one in their tents.
Let those who say Aha, aha! be turned back as a reward of their shame. Let all those who are looking for you be glad and have joy in you; let the lovers of your salvation ever say, May God be great.
Put an evil man over him; and let one be placed at his right hand to say evil of him. When he is judged, let the decision go against him; and may his prayer become sin. Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority. Let his children have no father, and his wife be made a widow. Let his children be wanderers, looking to others for their food; let them be sent away from the company of their friends. Let his creditor take all his goods; and let others have the profit of his work. Let no man have pity on him, or give help to his children when he is dead. Let his seed be cut off; in the coming generation let their name go out of memory. Let the Lord keep in mind the wrongdoing of his fathers; and may the sin of his mother have no forgiveness. Let them be ever before the eyes of the Lord, so that the memory of them may be cut off from the earth. Because he had no mercy, but was cruel to the low and the poor, designing the death of the broken-hearted. As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him; and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him. He put on cursing like a robe, and it has come into his body like water, and into his bones like oil. Let it be to him as a robe which he puts on, let it be like a band which is round him at all times. Let this be the reward given to my haters from the Lord, and to those who say evil of my soul.
For the time will come when your attackers will put a wall round you, and come all round you and keep you in on every side, And will make you level with the earth, and your children with you; and there will not be one stone resting on another in you, because you did not see that it was your day of mercy.
It will be hard for women who are with child, and for her with a baby at the breast, in those days. For great trouble will come on the land, and wrath on this people. And they will be put to death with the sword, and will be taken as prisoners into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be crushed under the feet of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles are complete.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 40
Commentary on Psalms 40 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 40
It should seem David penned this psalm upon occasion of his deliverance, by the power and goodness of God, from some great and pressing trouble, by which he was in danger of being overwhelmed; probably it was some trouble of mind arising from a sense of sin and of God's displeasure against him for it; whatever it was, the same Spirit that indited his praises for that deliverance was in him, at the same time, a Spirit of prophecy, testifying of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow; or, ere he was aware, he was led to speak of his undertaking, and the discharge of his undertaking, in words that must be applied to Christ only; and therefore how far the praises that here go before that illustrious prophecy, and the prayers that follow, may safely and profitably be applied to him it will be worth while to consider. In this psalm,
If, in singing this psalm, we mix faith with the prophecy of Christ, and join in sincerity with the praises and prayers here offered up, we make melody wit our hearts to the Lord.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 40:1-5
In these verses we have,
Psa 40:6-10
The psalmist, being struck with amazement at the wonderful works that God had done for his people, is strangely carried out here to foretel that work of wonder which excels all the rest and is the foundation and fountain of all, that of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. God's thoughts, which were to us-ward concerning that work, were the most curious, the most copious, the most gracious, and therefore to be most admired. This paragraph is quoted by the apostle (Heb. 10:5, etc.) and applied to Christ and his undertaking for us. As in the institutions, so in the devotions, of the Old Testament saints were aware of; and, when the apostle would show us the Redeemer's voluntary undertaking of his work, he does not fetch his account out of the book of God's secret counsels, which belong not to us, but from the things revealed. Observe,
Psa 40:11-17
The psalmist, having meditated upon the work of redemption, and spoken of it in the person of the Messiah, now comes to make improvement of the doctrine of his mediation between us and God, and therefore speaks in his own person. Christ having done his Father's will, and finished his work, and given orders for the preaching of the gospel to every creature, we are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace.