Saturday, October 10, 2026

Psalm 40:1–3 (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.

Reflection

You probably don’t like the word “waited.” It feels passive, like something you endure rather than something you do. But here is David, pulled out of a slimy pit, standing on solid rock, and he tells us how it happened: he waited. Not in resignation, but in hope. He cried out, and he trusted that God would eventually turn to him. That kind of waiting takes everything you’ve got.

Maybe you’re in the pit right now. Maybe it’s grief, or a relationship in ruins, or a sin pattern you can’t seem to break, or just the slow grind of a hard season that won’t let up. You cry out and it feels like heaven is silent. Here’s the good news: God’s timing is not God’s absence. He heard David’s cry, but he didn’t necessarily rescue him instantly. There was waiting involved. And in that waiting, something was being worked in David that only waiting could produce.

Here’s what anchors this psalm, and what anchors you this morning: the solid rock under David’s feet is a shadow of the Rock who would come. Jesus himself was plunged into the ultimate miry pit, the pit of our sin and God’s wrath, so that you could be set on solid ground forever. Your feet are secure not because your waiting was perfect, but because his suffering was complete.

So keep crying out. Keep waiting. He hears you, and he will give you a new song.

Lord, when I’m in the pit, remind me that you are near, even in the silence. Thank you for Christ, my solid Rock.

Sources & attribution

Devotional from Morning Selah.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.