Psalms 40:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Psalms 40:5
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Exodus 15:11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Psalms 139:17-18 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
Psalms 71:15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
Psalms 92:5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
Psalms 136:4 To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 40:1-5
In these verses we have,
I. The great distress and trouble that the psalmist had been in. He had been plunged into a horrible pit and into miry clay (Psa 40:2), out of which he could not work himself, and in which he found himself sinking yet further. He says nothing here either of the sickness of his body or the insults of his enemies, and therefore we have reason to think it was some inward disquiet and perplexity of spirit that was now his greatest grievance. Despondency of spirit under the sense of Gods withdrawings, and prevailing doubts and fears about the eternal state, are indeed a horrible pit and miry clay, and have been so to many a dear child of God.
II. His humble attendance upo…
be reckoned up in order--(compare Psa 5:3; Psa 33:14; Isa 44:7), too many to be set forth regularly. This is but one instance of many. The use of the plural accords with the union of Christ and His people. In suffering and triumph, they are one with Him.
John Gill on Psalms 40:5
Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done,.... This is the "new song", as Aben Ezra rightly observes, which is said in Psalm 40:3, to be put in the mouth of the Messiah; who sometimes speaks in the plural number, being the representative of his people, and sometimes in the singular; for it is the same person that speaks here who is continued speaking in Psalm 40:6, and following; and which are applied to Christ, Hebrews 10:5; the "works" here said to be done, and to be "many" and "wonderful", are not the creation of the world, the dividing of the sea, and feeding the people of Israel forty years in the wilderness, as Jarchi interprets them; but the incarnation of Chri…
Psalm 40:4-5
4. Blessed is the man who hath set Jehovah for his confidence, and hath not regarded the proud, and those who turn aside to lying. [82] 5. Many are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, O Jehovah! my God: and it is impossible to reckon up in order to thee, [83] thy counsels towards us. I will declare and speak of them; they are more than can be told.
4. Blessed is the man who hath set Jehovah for his confidence David here relates what ground for good hope his deliverance would give to all the faithful; inasmuch as, setting aside all the allurements of the world, they would thereby be encouraged to commit themselves with confidence to the protection of God; persuaded not on…
The Church Fathers
Hence through the Psalmist the Lord says: "I have declared and spoken, they have multiplied beyond number." For when the Lord calls, the faithful are multiplied beyond number, because sometimes even those come to faith who do not attain to the number of the elect. For here they are mingled with the faithful through confession, but because of their reprobate life they do not deserve to be numbered there in the lot of the faithful.
The wonders performed by your power, he is saying, defy counting and all description: there is no one who can do the like. While your creation is great and beautiful, what you arrange time after time in your providence surpasses human praise—in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the case of Moses, in the case of Joshua, in the case of Samuel, and earlier instances than those, having to do with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the royalty Joseph gained through slavery, not to mention all the other cases individually.
We will give him other sights in exchange for such sights as these. And what sights shall we present to the Christian, whom we would fain divert from those sights? I thank the Lord our God; He in the following verse of the Psalm hath shown us what sights we ought to present and offer to spectators who would fain have sights to see? Let us now suppose him to be weaned from the circus, the theatre, the amphitheatre; let him be looking after, let him by all means be looking after, some sight to see; we do not leave him without a spectacle. What then shall we give in exchange for those? Hear what follows. "Many, O Lord my God, are the wonderful works which Thou hast made" (ver. 5). He used to gaze at the "wonderful works" of man; let him now contemplate the wonderful works of God. "Many are the wonderful works" that God "has made." Why are they become vile in his eyes? He praises the charioteer guiding four horses; running all of them without fault and without stumbling. Perhaps the Lord has not made such "wonderful works" in things spiritual. Let him control lust, let him control cowardice, let him control injustice, let him control imprudence, I mean, the passions which falling into excess produce those vices; let him control these and bring them into subjection, and let him hold the reins, and not suffer himself to be carried away; let him guide them the way he himself would have them go; let him not be forced away whither he would not. He used to applaud the charioteer, he himself shall be applauded for his own charioteering; he used to call out that the charioteer should be invested with a dress of honour; he shall himself be clothed with immortality. These are the spectacles, these the sights that God exhibits to us. He cries out of heaven, "My eyes are upon you. Strive, and 'I will' assist you; triumph, and I will crown you." "And in Thy thought there is none that is like unto Thee." Now then look at the actor! For the man hath by dint of great pains learnt to walk upon a rope; and hanging there he holds thee hanging in suspense. Turn to Him who exhibits spectacles far more wonderful. This man hath learned to walk upon the rope; but hath he caused another to walk on the sea? Forget now thy theatre; behold our Peter; not a walker on the rope, but, so to speak, a walker on the sea. And do thou also walk on other waters (though not on those on which Peter…
He esteems him happy who puts his trust (מבטחו, with a latent Dagesh, as, according to Kimchi, also in Psa 71:5; Job 31:24; Jer 17:7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer 17:7 is an echo of this אשׁרי. Psa 52:9 (cf. Psa 91:9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not האישׁ, but הגּבר, which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself. רהבים from רהב (not from רהב) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything. שׂטי כזב, "turners aside of falsehood" (שׁוּט = שׂטה, cf. Psa 101:3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instea…
Ps 40 This psalm includes a thanksgiving song (40:1-10) followed by a lament (40:11-17). The thanksgiving song includes the reason for the thanksgiving (40:1-5), an affirmation of commitment (40:6-8), and a public testimony of God’s character (40:7-10). The lament concerns the psalmist’s troubles because of his sins (40:11-12) and is followed by two prayers for vindication (40:13-15, 17).
40:1-5 The psalmist thanks the Lord for his rescue and testifies that God can be trusted.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 40:5
Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Creation, providence, and redemption, teem with wonders as the sea with life. Our special attention is called by this passage to the marvels which cluster around the cross and flash from it. The accomplished redemption achieves many ends, and compasses a variety of designs; the outgoings of the atonement are not to be reckoned up, the influences of the cross reach further than the beams of the sun. Won…
