MY BIG, FAT, WOBBLY FEET

My Help and My Deliverer

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 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.
3 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.

4 Blessed is the man who makes
    the LORD his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
    to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
    yet they are more than can be told.

6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
    but you have given me an open ear.^{1

40:6
Hebrew ears you have dug for me}
Burnt offering and sin offering
    you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart.”

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance^{2

40:9
Hebrew righteousness; also verse 10}
    in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O LORD.
10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.

11 As for you, O LORD, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
12 For evils have encompassed me
    beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
    and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
    my heart fails me.

13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me!
    O LORD, make haste to help me!
14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

16 But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!

Footnotes

[1] 40:6 Hebrew ears you have dug for me
[2] 40:9 Hebrew righteousness; also verse 10

This may be a shocker, but I can sometimes be all over the place. Growing up with six siblings, I’m not exactly your Type A, high-structured kind of girl. In fact, I can often be wishy-washy, easily swayed, and downright flaky.
I grew up knowing Christ and tried my best to make my wonderful parents proud, but somewhere between going to church three times a week and attending every Baptist Church Camp ever invented, I think I lost the concept of real, true intimacy with Christ and making Him my firm place to stand—not just sometimes, but all the time.
You see, I have these big, fat, wobbly feet. I wobbled through college living a fairly complacent life most days, easily swayed by others. I loved and trusted God, but I’m not sure you could always tell me apart from a nonbeliever. In other words, my big, fat feet wobbled because of a lack of a firm place to stand!
Looking back, it’s so evident that I could have easily and blindly gone down into a slimy, muddy pit leading to eventual destruction in my life. Through unique circumstances upon college graduation, God led me to the Kanakuk Institute, a one-year Masters program devoted to Bible-learning. Now more than ever, I can confidently say that in my year at the Institute, the Lord dug me out of the muddy pit I was headed for, set my wobbly feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand!
What I love about Psalm 40 is that it has allowed me to look back to see where I could have gone and to be blessed immensely by where God chose to take me instead. Psalm 40 is David’s praise to our holy, miraculous, unchangeable God. I pray that wherever you are today, even if you’re swimming in the slimy mud pit and your feet are so wobbly you can’t stand, you will wait patiently on the Lord and trust Him to lift you out—into a fulfilled and compassionate life that’s firmly set on Him.

1. Do you have wobbly feet, or are you standing firmly on the Lord?
2. What are you doing to get out of complacency into a life set firmly on Christ?
3. What’s a “slimy pit” area in your life that you are facing right now?
4. Had you not come to know the Lord deeply, what do you think your life would be like today?