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Argument
Christ gives thanks that he has God the Father present with him; he offers obedience to Him as a sacrifice set before Him. Yet meanwhile he asks that he now be delivered from hostile adversaries. The Psalm is prophetic (cf. Hebrews 10:5–6), and is more fittingly applied to one afflicted or in distress.
Ps 40:2. Expectans expectavi — “Waiting, I waited.” With vehement desire I waited for the Lord and looked for Him eagerly. This repetition is for auxesis (intensification). “And He inclined His ear,” that is, He listened to me; he immediately explains this by epexegesis.
Ps 40:3. De lacu — “From the pit.” From external dangers and calamities; a pit has noise and tumult, like a pit into which waters fall with a rushing sound and crashing roar. De luto faecis — “From the mire of dregs,” from filth or mud out of which men are not accustomed to rescue themselves. Others understand it of a foul and sordid place.
Super petram — “Upon a rock,” a crag where I might be safe and tranquil; He placed me in a firm and secure place. Direxit, firmavit, stabilivit — He directed, strengthened, established my steps, lest I should slip.
Ps 40:4. Et immisit in os — “And He put into my mouth.” He gave me new matter for praising Him, proclaiming His grace and kindness. “A new [song],” either because of a new subject, or a new art and work; others take it as something singular and choice for our God, and for Himself by enallage: a song which I shall sing to Him, our God—to Him who is our God.
Videbunt multi — “Many shall see.” An aposiopesis: these things—all this deliverance, or this worship of mine—for the ellipsis leaves room for thought. “Many shall see and shall fear Him.” They shall see my deliverance. He foretells that, when the glorification and exaltation of Christ are seen, many will profess worship and fear.
Ps 40:5. Beatus vir — “Blessed is the man,” that is, saying “Blessed,” and “whose name is ….” The Seventy read שֵׁם (shem, “name”), not שָׁם (sham, “there”); it makes no difference whether you interpret it as “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the name of the Lord,” or, with the Masoretes, “who has set his hope in the Lord.” For the “name of the Lord” is the Lord Himself, and conversely, on account of the simplicity of the divine nature. The Hebrew usage allows this. “And he has not turned to vanities to follow them,” that is, to the proud and those who turn aside to falsehoods and lies—who fix their hope in the Lord and do not cleave to the proud and lying speakers, despisers of God. The Hebrew words may also be taken substantively: to prides and deviations, that is, errors of falsehood—falsehoods and lies—so that false vanities and insanities are understood metonymically from their effect, because they deceive and beguile those who desire them, failing to deliver what they promise. These are often restricted to idolatries, which the world itself cast aside after Christ.
Ps 40:6. Cogitationibus — “By thoughts.” Learnedly. Otherwise this hemistich, together with the whole following verse, runs literally thus: “Your thoughts toward us, or concerning us, cannot be estimated.” “But if I announce and speak, they are strengthened beyond recounting.”
Multiplicati sunt — “They are multiplied,” namely, men: they are multiplied infinitely and beyond number to receive the Gospel which I announced and proclaimed. He amplifies the fullness of the Gentiles who embraced the evangelical doctrine as soon as it was proclaimed, as a singular token of divine grace. Or “your thoughts” by zeugma, with a change of gender; for there is no necessity to render ἐπληθύνθησαν (“they were multiplied”) as masculine, since it admits every gender and may be rendered feminine: “Your thoughts were multiplied,” or neuter: “Your wonders were multiplied,” again by zeugma. For a change of genders frequently occurs in this language by reference to an equivalent substantive. Then the expression becomes hypothetical: “If I announced and spoke of those thoughts of yours, they were multiplied beyond number; they are far more than I could narrate, recount, or number.” The same reasoning applies to “your wonders,” for they too surpass every ability to narrate.
Ps 40:7. Sacrificium et oblationem — “Sacrifice and offering.” Concerning the abrogation of the sacrifices of the Old Testament, the Apostle interprets by dividing “sacrifice and offering,” distinguishing species of sacrificial worship, as Paul establishes a High Priest to offer gifts and sacrifices. By the former term he understands offerings of things that share in life and were slaughtered; by the latter, the rest—things lacking life. These are called מְנָחוֹת (menāḥōth, “grain offerings”), flour offerings prepared, προσφοράς (prosphorai, “offerings”), though sometimes the term is confused, so that προσφορά is said both of bloody and unbloody sacrifices. The remaining ceremonies were either sacraments, or appendages of sacraments and sacrifices, or acts of divine worship. All these God did not will, that is, He did not accept or approve them in themselves or by reason of the things, but only insofar as they were done out of obedience toward Him and faith in the coming Mediator, until the time of correction (cf. Lyra).
“Aures” — “ears,” that is, “a body,” by synecdoche, following Paul: “You prepared a body for me” (Hebrews 10:5). The Rabbis did not sufficiently perceive the metaphor. “You opened my ears,” that is, you revealed to me the ear for your will; you uncovered it, removed the veil and covering from the ear so that it might hear more acutely. You made me hear you and willingly obey your will; you rendered me teachable and obedient to hear. The Chaldee has: “You furnished me with ears to hear your commands.” This fits us well, since the matter concerns incorporation: it is at once metaphor and synecdoche, to explain the difficulty of the tropes. The Apostle most aptly set it down: “You prepared a body for me.” For it is a metaphor drawn from potters who work and shape the clay by hand from which they wish to fashion a vessel as the wheel turns. God is called potter, shaper, and former, with allusion to Genesis, when He formed man from the earth. Then it is a synecdoche, a part for the whole: ears for the body; and he especially mentions ears because obedience is the matter in hand.
“And a sin offering.” The Mosaic one; for it differed from the holocaust, since it was not wholly burned, but the blood and fat belonged to the altar, the remainder to the priest. It was made to redeem penalties of certain sins, whereas the holocaust was wholly burned (except the skin) and was made to appease God and obtain favor in general. The other kinds of sacrifices he understood in the previous verse under “sacrifices and offerings”: namely, by “sacrifices,” those that were properly bloody—two other kinds of victims mentioned in Leviticus: the guilt offering, to redeem penalties for sins of omission, in which the blood and fat belonged to the altar and the rest to the priests; and the peace offering, for peace and well-being on account of some singular benefit obtained or to be obtained, in which the blood, kidneys, and fat belonged to God or the altar, the breast and shoulder to the priest, and the remaining flesh and skin to the offerer, whether it was a נֶדֶר (neder, “vow”) or נְדָבָה (nedābāh, “freewill”), for the peace offering was of two kinds.
By “offerings,” the unbloody sacrifices, which were also twofold. First, מִנְחָה (minḥāh), for any thing, as an honorary gift from the produce of the land: a handful of fine flour poured over with oil and covered with frankincense; unleavened breads; unleavened cakes poured with oil or baked in an oven, or fried in a pan, or toasted on a griddle; ears of grain from the first and still-green harvest, lightly parched with fire, crushed in the manner of grain, and covered with frankincense. The latter was תּוֹדָה (tōdāh), confession and sacrifice of praise for peace and for all iniquities, from incense and leaven, that is, leavened cakes—for leaven was a symbol of sin, incense of grace and benefaction. Otherwise he does not speak of simple offerings, such as firstfruits and sheaves of grain, since such things were figurative, but he demands only those symbolic of the disposition of the soul. You did not judge the sacrifices of the old law suitable as the price of our redemption and the expiation of sins. “Behold, I come in the flesh,” with the abrogation of the Mosaic Law.
Ps 40:8-9 . In capite libri — “In the head of the book.” In the whole of Scripture it is written. For the expiation of human sins, the sum of the Scriptures—the summary of Moses and the Prophets—is Christ, the head and sum, as in Paul. “In the roll of the book”: the expression is taken from the fact that the ancients had books in the manner of bark-rolls, as even now the Jews have theirs in their synagogues. Nor are there lacking those who think that the Seventy used מְגִלָּה (megillāh, “scroll”) with the meaning of גֻּלְגֹּלֶת (gulgōleth, “skull,” “head”), because both are from the same root. The order is disturbed: “I willed, my God, in the midst of my heart, to do your will and your law.” The will of God, says Euthymius, was the death of His Son according to the flesh, to expiate the sins of human nature, of which the Son Himself said, “I have come down not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, the Father.” The will may also be understood generally of the whole mystery of the Lord’s coming and of all His obedience unto the death of the cross.
Ps 40:10. Annunciavi iustitiam — “I announced righteousness.” I proclaimed your righteousness, both that by which you are righteous and that by which you justify the ungodly through faith—of which the Apostle speaks at length and copiously in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians—in a great assembly of Jews, speaking openly and publicly in the midst of the people. There is also a third kind of the righteousness of God, namely His precepts, of which this place may also be understood; for Christ also set these before the world and handed them on to be observed.
Ps 40:10 cont. Ps 40:11. Iustitiam — the doctrine of righteousness, that is, the Gospel, through which those who believe are justified. Veritatem tuam — your truth: your true promises, faithful and sure; likewise salutem tuam — your salvation, or even your Savior himself, whom you employ as the means of saving men. Ps 40:11~ In concilio multo, a congregatione, ab Ecclesia longe copiosissima — in a great council, from an assembly, from an exceedingly numerous Church. Thus he calls the Jewish people, whom he was accustomed to call also the “great Church.” For in both cases the expression is קָהָל רַב (qāhāl rav, “a great or numerous assembly”), because with great concourse they were flocking to Christ’s preaching, stirred by the fame of his eloquence, power, and miracles, or even by the renown of his name. Others understand it of the whole world which embraced the doctrine of Christ, but this does not fit the place well, although it alludes to that future reality, from which the great Church was to be gathered by the Apostles.
Ps 40:12. Veritas tua — the fidelity of your promises, your true promises. They “have received, have helped, have preserved” — properly speaking. There are two things upon which one may safely rely: the mercy or grace of God, and His promises.
Ps 40:13. Et non potui — “and I was not able [to see them],” which I cannot discern because of their multitude. For the sins of the human race were and are innumerable, which Christ made his own, because he undertook to expiate them. “For he bore our sins in his body” (cf. above). Iniquitates meae — “my iniquities,” which I made my own; for that one man bore the iniquities of all.
Dereliquit me — “it has left me,” that is, strength failed in me; the power and vigor of my heart languished and wasted away.
Is 40:14. He prays for a return to life. Respice — “look upon [me].” πρόσχες (proskhes) — “give heed, attend,” with the same energetic urgency. Hence Jerome, writing to Sunia, approves the Greek rendering.
Ps 40:15. Revereantur — let them be struck with shame, let them be confounded in their counsels, as in verse 27 which follows. Ut auferant — that they may take away, plunder, destroy.
Ps 40:16. Confusionem, ignominiam — confusion and disgrace upon those who insult me: “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” “Ha! you who destroy the temple of God!” This sense alone they followed; for literally it means: “Let them be desolated immediately upon the footprint of confusion,” that is, as soon as they have afflicted me with disgrace. Others understand it as “for the reward of their confusion,” that is, let them bear as their recompense the shame with which they overwhelmed me. Euge — הֶאָח (he’āḥ), an interjection of one insulting and mocking. Super te — against you, over you, in your favor and protection.
Ps 40:17. Salutare tuum — your salvation: your Christ, or your salvation in Christ crucified.
Ps 40:18. Mendicus, miser, et calamitosus — poor, wretched, and afflicted.
Ne tardaveris — “do not delay” to come to my help, or the like; an aposiopesis, leaving the plea suspended for greater intensity.
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