Ever felt like you're walking a tightrope of faith, teetering between moments of clarity and clouds of doubt? You're not alone. Join us in this soul-stirring talk as we journey through the raw, real-life emotions of faith, drawing inspiration from the timeless wisdom of Psalm 40.
01The Psalm That Keeps Changing Its Mind
Psalm 40 does something that most people can relate to but few are willing to admit. It starts with praise and ends with desperation. It opens with a declaration that God has lifted the writer out of the pit, set his feet on solid ground, and given him a new song to sing. And then, barely a few verses later, it circles back to trouble. Sins piling up. Courage lost. A plea for God to come quickly.
It is, by any measure, a mess. And that is exactly what makes it so honest.
02The Back and Forth That Feels Like Real Life
The speaker in this talk made an observation that cuts right to the heart of why the Psalms resonate so deeply: they are human. Wildly, uncomfortably human.
"I find all of these things so encouraging. Because I am like this. I am sure we are all like this. We have days where we are full of praise and admiration for God, for him coming through and saving us. And then the next day we are back to going back to him."
There is a particular kind of guilt that can attach itself to this pattern. The feeling that a truly faithful person would not swing between confidence and despair quite so rapidly. That someone who had genuinely experienced God's goodness would not be back at square one twenty-four hours later, begging for help again.
Psalm 40 dismantles that guilt entirely. David, the writer, was described as a man after God's own heart. And here he is, ricocheting between triumph and crisis within a single poem. If David did it, there is permission for everyone else to do it too.
"It is not something to beat ourselves up over. It simply is being human."
03Steadied as I Walked Along
Buried in the opening verses of Psalm 40 is a phrase that the speaker highlighted as one of the most tender in the entire psalm: "He steadied me as I walked along."
Not carried. Not teleported to safety. Steadied. As in, David was still walking. Still moving. Still on his own two feet. But there was a hand holding him steady as he went.
"It feels really parental. That action. You can sort of picture a parent teaching a small child to walk and holding their hand as the child is walking. And there is something really soft and lovely about that."
This is a different image of God from the warrior God that appears in many other psalms. No armies. No dramatic rescues. Just a steady hand, quietly keeping someone upright as they take one shaky step after another. For anyone who has ever felt that they should be further along in their faith, stronger, more together, that image offers a different kind of reassurance. The expectation is not perfection. It is simply putting one foot in front of the other, with help.
04The Most Humble Ending
The final verses of Psalm 40 contain a moment that the speaker found particularly moving. David has been asking God to fill other people with joy and gladness, to let everyone who seeks the Lord be filled with good things, to let them shout that the Lord is great. Big, expansive, generous prayers for others.
And then, for himself, David asks for something remarkably small.
"I am poor and needy. Let the Lord keep me in his thoughts."
Not joy. Not gladness. Not triumph or success or vindication. Just keep me in your thoughts.
"It is so emotional reading that, because it is a sign of real desperation. I do not even want to feel joy. I am not even asking for gladness. Just keep me in your thoughts."
There is something devastating about that level of honesty. It strips away every layer of religious performance and gets down to the raw nerve of what faith looks like when you have nothing left. It is not a confident declaration. It is a whisper. And somehow, it is one of the most profound statements of faith in the entire Bible.
05Too Many Wonders to Count
In the middle of all this back and forth, David makes a statement that connects to one of the speaker's favourite themes: remembering.
"O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them."
A similar sentiment appears at the end of John's Gospel: if everything Jesus did were written down, the books could not contain it all. The point is the same in both cases. God's goodness is not occasional. It is constant and overwhelming, far more than anyone could catalogue.
And yet people forget. Constantly.
"Someone told me recently that the second most common instruction in the Bible is to remember. And I have been really holding on to that."
The speaker described a personal practice of journalling, of keeping physical lists of the good things God has done. Not because the memory is bad, but because the forgetting is so quick.
"It is absolutely astonishing how quickly I forget them. And if I am having a day where I feel really low or have not got much hope coming to me naturally, I find it really helpful to go through and have written down physical lists of the good deeds God is doing in my life. Because there are so many. There are so many."
This is practical advice, not just spiritual encouragement. Writing things down. Keeping a record. Not trusting memory alone to sustain faith through the difficult days. Because the difficult days will come, and when they do, a written list of God's past faithfulness becomes something tangible to hold onto.
06Remembering That He Will Do It Again
The logic of remembering is straightforward. If God came through before, he can come through again. If he lifted you out of the pit last time, he can do it this time. The evidence is already there, written in your own handwriting, in your own journal, from your own experience.
"Remembering them reminds me that more will come. So when I feel like I am in a pit, or I feel like God is not there, it is a reminder to keep asking, keep remembering what God has done. Because he will do it again."
Psalm 40 is proof of concept. David goes from the pit to the mountain and back to the pit again, all within the same poem. But he keeps going back to God. He keeps asking. He does not let the return of trouble invalidate the previous rescue.
That refusal to give up, that stubborn insistence on returning to God even when the emotions are saying otherwise, might be the most important thing in the entire psalm.
07Something to Hold Onto
The Psalms were never meant to be tidy. They were meant to be true. And the truth about human experience is that it is rarely a straight line from despair to triumph. It loops. It doubles back. It revisits old fears even after old prayers have been answered.
Psalm 40 says that is normal. It says that going back to God when you are struggling does not mean the last rescue did not count. It means you know where to go.
What would change if you started writing down the good things God has done, so that on the hard days, you had something to read?
Topics in this talk
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hello I'm going to read through and Psalm 40 and give a little reflection on it I'm reading from the NLT so Psalm 40 is one of David Psalms and I waited patiently for the Lord to help me and he turned to me and heard My Cry he Lifted Me Out of the pit of despair out of the mud and the Maya he set my feet on Solid Ground and steadied me as I walked along 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 amazed they will put their trust in the Lord oh the joys of those who trust the Lord who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols oh Lord my God you have performed many wonders for us your plans are too numerous to list you have no equal if I try to recite all your wonderful Deeds I would never come to the end of them you take no delight and 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 as is written about me in scriptures I take joy in doing your will my God for your instructions are written on my heart I have told all your people about your Justice I have not been afraid to speak out as you as You O Lord well no I have not kept the good news of your Justice hidden in my heart I have I have talked about your faithfulness and saving power I have told everyone in the great assembly of your unfailing love and faithfulness Lord don't hold back your Tender Mercies from me let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me for troubles surround me too many to count my sins pile up so high I can't see my way out they outnumber the hairs on my head and I have lost all courage please Lord rescue me come quickly Lord and help me May those who try to destroy me be humiliated and put to shame May those who take Delight in my trouble be turned back in disgrace let them be horrified by their shame for they have said aha we've got him now but may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you May those who shout who love your salvation repeatedly shout the Lord is great as for me I am poor and needy let the Lord Keep Me In His Thoughts you are my helper and my savior oh my God do not delay um I really like this salmon and lots of the Psalms really um because of how human they feel they're so back and forth with um kind of great proclamations of Salvation and God's coming through and um everything being wonderful God's uh you know got all my enemies that have been chasing me and then you know sort of a couple of verses later it's it's back to um everything's awful the enemies are back um and this is just a quite a simple straightforward Psalm that uh captures that in in a few verses um because in the first half of it we've got um David's saying all you know how God's lifted him out the despair how he's been waiting really patiently and God's come through and he's out of the the mud and the Maya and he's been given a new song God's been by his side um and then the second half he's back to um guard you know come quickly um sin sins as as many as the hairs on my head or um whatever it is um and and he's lost all courage and he can't stay away I can't see my way out they outnumber the hairs on my head and I've lost all courage I just find all of all of these things so encouraging um because I'm like this I'm sure we're all like this we have days where we're full of praise and admiration for God for him coming through and uh saving us and then the next day we're back to kind of going back to him um and it's it's a reminder of how human all these um people in in the Bible are really there were a few things in particular that I really love about um this this chapter and there's a couple of moments that feel really really tender and the right at the start where David says steadied me as I walked along it feels really um parental that that action you can sort of i as I'm reading that I picture um a parent kind of teaching a small child to walk and like holding and holding their hand as as this this child is walking um and there's something really soft and lovely about that um especially in amongst lots of other songs that very kind of God being a warrior and can feel quite a little bit scary um whereas this there's just such gentleness to it and similarly at the end um I think it's such a humble a humble end to the psalm where David in in 16 and 17 and he turns the the um Good Will sort of away from himself and says um you know to everyone else to everyone else who searches for the Lord and be filled with joy and gladness and Shout that the Lord is great and all this all these big um kind of big feelings you know of Joy whereas David kind of reduces himself down and says I don't I don't even want to feel Joy and gladness just I'm poor and needy all I want is for the Lord to keep me in his thoughts which is just oh it's so um it feels so emotional like reading that because it's it's a sign of rule to me it's a real sign of desperation that you know I don't I don't even want to feel I'm not even asking for Joy I'm not even asking for gladness just just keep me in your thoughts oh that's beautiful it's so beautiful and then the final the final um one that I find really really tender in this is um similar to one of my favorite Bible verse which is at the end of John which is referencing how how many good things the Lord Has Done um where it says if I try to recite all um yes in verse five oh my oh Lord my God you have performed many wonders for us your plans are too numerous to list you have no equal if I tried to recite all your wonderful Deeds I would never come to the end of them and at the end of John I think it says um if I were to list all the things that Jesus did they wouldn't fit in all the books in the world or something something like that paraphrasing awfully probably should have written it down and it's again it's a um it's such a helpful thing to remember um that God consistently does wonderful things and someone told me recently and I've been trying to remember this um that the I'm gonna say the second I think it's the second um most common uh instruction in the Bible is to remember um and I've been really holding on to that uh because actually there is so much goodness that God does um and it is so easy to forget that God comes through even in this Psalm we go from asking for like salvation being you know for God to come through to the end we've had there's been something else has gone on we don't know what it is we're not told but clearly he's in another another pit but he's remembering that he needs to go back to God and ask again um for for help um and I find it really I Journal a lot and I find it really helpful I've got um a bunch of different uh journal entries where um I list the good things that have happened and good things that God has done and it is absolutely astonishing how quickly I forget them and if I'm having a day where I feel really low or um haven't got much hope and kind of coming to me naturally um I find it really really helpful to go through and have written down you know physical lists of um The Good Deeds God is doing in my life because there are so many there are so many and remembering them reminds me that more will come so when I feel like I'm in a pit um or I feel like God isn't there apologies as a something flying over if I feel God isn't there thing um I'm in France by the way yes it's a reminder to to keep asking keep remembering and what God's done but he'll do it again um and also again the the humanness of this that um David so frequently goes back and forth between feeling like everything is brilliant and everything is awful is like I said it's so encouraging because it just shows how normal it is it's not something to beat ourselves up over um it simply Being Human and that's those are my thoughts on Psalm 40. um thanks very much
