Psalm 40 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Greek and Latin Bibles number most Psalms one lower than Hebrew and English Bibles.
1 For the music director. A psalm of David. I waited for the Lord patiently, and he turned to me—he heard my cry for help.
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry.
2 He pulled me out of the pit of destruction, out from the mud and the slime. He set me on a rock, and gave me a safe place to stand.
2 He 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.
3 He gave me a new song to sing, a song of praise to our God. Many people will see and be in awe, and they will put their trust in him.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.
4 Happy are those who trust in the Lord, who do not look for help from the arrogant or from those who worship idols.
4 Blessed is the man who makes Yahweh his trust, and doesn’t respect the proud, nor such as turn away to lies.
5 Lord my God, you have done so many wonderful things for us, and you have so many plans for us. No one compares to you. I want to tell all that you've done—blessings too many to count.
5 Many, Yahweh, 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◆ You don't want sacrifices and offerings. Now you have helped me understand—you're not asking for burnt offerings or sin offerings.
6 Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
7 Then I said, “Look! Here I am! I've come to do what is written about me in the scroll of the Book.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll.
8 I am pleased to do your will, my God—your Law guides my mind.”
8 I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
9 I have announced the good news of salvation to the whole congregation. I don't keep quiet, Lord, as you know.
9 I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know.
10 I have not kept the truth of your goodness hidden inside me—I have spoken of your trustworthiness and your salvation. I have not concealed your unfailing love and your faithfulness from the whole congregation.
10 I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
11 Lord, please don't keep back your mercy from me. May your trustworthy love and faithfulness always be my protection.
11 Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12 For I'm experiencing so many problems—I can't even count them! My sins have piled up so high I can't see over them. They're more than the number of hairs on my head! I feel like giving up!
12 For 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.
13 Lord, please save me! Hurry, Lord, help me!
13 Be pleased, Yahweh, to deliver me. Hurry to help me, Yahweh.
14 Please defeat and humiliate the people who are trying to kill me; turn back in disgrace those who want to hurt me.
14 Let 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.
15 May they be shocked at their defeat, those who taunted me.
15 Let them be desolate by reason of their shame that tell me, “Aha! Aha!”
16 But may everyone who comes to you be happy and glad; may those who love your salvation always say, “The Lord is great!”
16 Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let such as love your salvation say continually, “Let Yahweh be exalted!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. Help me! Save me! My God, please don't wait!
17 But I am poor and needy. May the Lord think about me. You are my help and my deliverer. Don’t delay, my God.
Cross references (17)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Psalm 27:13–14; Psalm 37:7; James 5:7–11; Psalm 34:15; Psalm 116:2
- 2 Psalm 37:23; Psalm 119:133; Psalm 27:5; Psalm 61:2; Matthew 7:24–25
- 3 Psalm 33:3; Psalm 103:1–5; Psalm 34:1–6; Psalm 52:6; Psalm 144:9
- 4 Jeremiah 17:7–8; Psalm 84:11–12; Psalm 34:8; Psalm 125:5; Psalm 118:8–9
- 5 Jeremiah 29:11; Exodus 15:11; Psalm 139:17–18; Psalm 71:15; Psalm 92:5
- 6 Hebrews 10:5–12; Isaiah 1:11; 1 Samuel 15:22; Psalm 51:16; Hosea 6:6
- 7 Hebrews 10:7–9; Luke 24:44; John 5:39; Luke 24:27; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4
- 8 Romans 7:22; John 4:34; Jeremiah 15:16; Psalm 119:16; Psalm 119:24
- 9 Psalm 22:25; Mark 16:15–16; Psalm 71:15–18; Psalm 22:22; Hebrews 2:12
- 10 Romans 1:16–17; Acts 20:20–21; 1 Timothy 1:15; Romans 10:9–10; Luke 2:30–32
- 11 Psalm 23:6; Psalm 43:3; Psalm 57:3; Proverbs 20:28; Psalm 69:16
- 12 Psalm 38:4; Psalm 73:26; Psalm 69:4; Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 116:3
- 13 Psalm 38:22; Psalm 25:17–18; Psalm 70:1–5; Psalm 22:19; Psalm 71:12
- 14 Psalm 35:4; Psalm 35:26; John 18:6; Isaiah 45:24; Psalm 9:3
- 15 Psalm 35:25; Psalm 35:21; Psalm 69:24–25; Luke 19:43–44; Psalm 70:3–4
- 16 Psalm 35:27; Psalm 68:3; Psalm 119:123; Acts 19:17; Isaiah 65:13–14
- 17 Psalm 70:5; Hebrews 13:6; Isaiah 41:17; Psalm 34:6; 1 Peter 5:7
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
Why does my Bible say something different?
- Psalm 40:6 and Hebrews 10:5: “ears” or “a body”?
In the Hebrew text of Psalm 40 God has “dug” or “opened” the psalmist’s ears. In the Greek Septuagint (Psalm 39:7) God has “prepared a body” for him, and the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes that Greek wording of Christ coming into the world. The Orthodox Church reads the Greek. Scholars still debate how the Greek reading arose.
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Behold, a ready obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." David also says: "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast Thou perfected; burnt-offerings also for sin Thou hast not required." He thus teaches them that God desires obedience, which renders them secure, rather than sacrifices and holocausts, which avail them …
… but on account of that which is to be after death, I shall do well to commence my disputation with the truthful oracle of the holy psalm, "Blessed is the man whose hope is the Lord God, and who respecteth not vanities and lying follies." Nevertheless, in all vanities and lying follies the philosophers are to be listened to with …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… of God: I have trusted in the mercy of God." But let him not seek the empty honors of a famous name upon earth, for "Blessed is the man that maketh the name of the Lord his trust, and respecteth not vanities nor lying follies." After having presented the two cities, the one founded in the material good of this …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
… were slain as a shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognize the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking through prophesy, "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me." Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)