Text: Psalm 40:1-17
In this 2-week reading plan, we are assuming a posture of thanksgiving before the Lord by meditating on ten Psalms of Gratitude. Rather than provide a written response to each Psalm, we have offered a simple yet meaningful activity designed to help us recall God’s mercies to us and through time. So grab a journal, and let’s create our own songs of thanksgiving to God.
Psalm 40
Thanksgiving and a Cry for Help
For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He turned to me and heard my cry for help.
He brought me up from a desolate pit,
out of the muddy clay,
and set my feet on a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.
How happy is the man
who has put his trust in the Lord
and has not turned to the proud
or to those who run after lies!
Lord my God, You have done many things—
Your wonderful works and Your plans for us;
none can compare with You.
If I were to report and speak of them,
they are more than can be told.
You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
You open my ears to listen.
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
Then I said, “See, I have come;
it is written about me in the volume of the scroll.
I delight to do Your will, my God;
Your instruction lives within me.”
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
see, I do not keep my mouth closed—
as You know, Lord.
I did not hide Your righteousness in my heart;
I spoke about Your faithfulness and salvation;
I did not conceal Your constant love and truth
from the great assembly.
Lord, do not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your constant love and truth will always guard me.
For troubles without number have surrounded me;
my sins have overtaken me; I am unable to see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my courage leaves me.
Lord, be pleased to deliver me;
hurry to help me, Lord.
Let those who seek to take my life
be disgraced and confounded.
Let those who wish me harm
be driven back and humiliated.
Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
be horrified because of their shame.
Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
let those who love Your salvation continually say,
“The Lord is great!”
I am afflicted and needy;
the Lord thinks of me.
You are my helper and my deliverer;
my God, do not delay.
Dig Deeper:
The Lord rescues us! He turns our cries for help into hymns of praise. Use the prompts below to reflect honestly on life’s dark valleys, giving thanks to God that He thinks of you.
1. When have you been in a desolate pit?
2. How did the Lord set your feet on a rock?
3. Are you in a desolate pit right now?
4. What has the Lord promised to do?
Thank you Heidi and Rhonda J for the suggestions❤️ I don’t have the app so I get to the site via Google. I tried 1 of the suggestions and it worked. Thank you ladies! I am usually here everyday except when I travel. Praying for all the victims of the shootings and their families❤️
HEIDI – That is so tragic! I will be praying for all of them and for your family and others at the school. Thank you so much for letting us know these prayer needs!
KELLY (NEO) – Thanks so much!!!
Heidi–omgosh..wow, that is horribly sad and shocking for the kids and husband, and your small community. Praying for them and the rest of the family.
Oh, HEIDI that is so heartbreaking. Will be praying for that family
HEY FRIENDS – hoping someone still sees this, but i’ll try to post again tmr. The shootings we had yesterday resulted in the one fatal victim being a mom of 2 from our elementary school. It is an unbelievably close community and we are absolutely shocked to our core. Please, please be in prayer for her husband, siblings, and of course her 2 precious littles that no longer have a mom. I just can’t imagine… they spent the day on lockdown then were released saying “everyone is fine and safe now! :)” only to meet an absolute nightmare of a situation when they walked out of the doors of that school. My heart aches for them. As a school and community we will be give support when they are ready to receive it. I can keep people updated who wish to be. Thank you, She’s…
CEE GEE – just send Embrace Grace an email or give them a call. They all are supper friendly and that can help lead you to a group near you or equip you and your church to start one.
YAY RHONDA YAY!! I am so glad… God has used so many things with my husband and I over the years.. podcasts, books, “random” comments made by others even. He has an endless supply of resources and endless creativity in how He gets them into our hands :) The other thing that came to my mind (and it’s soooo old!!!) is a study + video series that Andy Stanley did Y.E.A.R.S! AGO!! I mean, when I watched it YEARS ago, it was OLD THEN!!! lol!!! :) Anyway, it is called iMarriage and at this point I’m 99% sure you can watch the videos free on YouTube – probably can search and find the PDF of the study too… It was just SO practical and made us see our relationship in a more practical, biblical perspective. Maybe it’ll be encouraging to you too :)
LINDA K- If you have any trouble with bookmarking it, another reader suggested searching on Google “She Reads Truth Psalms of Gratitude” and I tried it and it worked! It takes you directly to the site of the study. Just choose the day and you’re off :) :) One other idea is you can select the link at the top of the screen, copy, then paste it to an email to yourself. Then you have it saved that way as well. Hopefully something will work for you :)
Hi Linda K- been missing you!!
If you are on a laptop…first find the study in the SRT, then in the corner of your upper right hand, (on the same line as the link of the page you are on) you should see three little vertical dots..click on that, and go down to bookmarks, click, and it will ask you to save that page. (making a tab, in your most used sites you go to.) Hope that helps? Otherwise you have to scroll through all the studies on SRT every day. The hard part for me is going to remember the DAY we are on…although it does correlate to the date of the month luckily, but…do I ever know the day of the month? or what day I am in? lol??