God’s Word for You
Psalm 40:9-10 This is our salvation
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, October 5, 2022
9 I preach righteousness in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
10 I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I do not hide your mercy and your truth
from the great congregation.
What is “the great congregation,” sometimes called, “the great assembly”? Medieval Jews thought that it was an ancient assembly of the last great teachers and prophets of the (Old Testament) Scriptures, including such men as Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. While such Scriptural luminaries could and should be revered as great, they don’t really take on the nature of a big congregation. There isn’t any compelling reason to think that our poet is talking about later men, when the context of the psalm calls for a gathering of all believers. This is what David means when he talks about his praise in “the great congregation” in Psalm 22:25, in Psalm 26:12, and other places. For this term, we really need to turn to Psalm 68:26 to unravel the meaning: “Praise God in the great congregation,” David says, “praise the Lord in the assembly (or Fountain) of Israel.” There the congregation and Israel, the true Israel of believers, is clearly the meaning. They are the ones united by faith in the one true Fountain of Israel, the Lord our Triune God. We apply that intent of David to this and see that this is a description of the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. Luther says in the Large Catechism: “Both expressions have the same meaning… It ought to be called ‘a Christian congregation or assembly,’ or best and most clearly of all, ‘a holy Christian people.’”
In our worship we must not be afraid to proclaim our faith, the whole truth of God’s message through the Scriptures, the “Bible written on a scroll.” David the poet says, “I have not restrained my lips. I do not hide your righteousness, I do not hide your mercy.”
Usually in the Bible, the word righteousness is the ideal we fail to achieve at every turn. Concerning our righteousness, the Lord judges us: “Every inclination of man’s heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21); “only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Where there is sin, God must punish, for “The Lord will by no means let the guilty go unpunished” (Nahum 1:3). But here in Psalm 40:10, “righteousness” is paired with “grace.” The word here must stand for the goodness and mercy of God by which he absolves the sins of everyone who believes in Christ. This is also the way David uses the word “righteousness” on a few occasions. One of these is in Psalm 143💯 “Hear me, O God, for the sake of your righteousness.” This can only be the gospel.
This is why it is vital, a matter of more than life or death but of immortal souls, “not to hide mercy and truth from the great congregation.” The people must be taught, from youngest to oldest, that grace means to receive a gift freely. Since we bring nothing to deserve God’s forgiveness, affection or love, then they can only be given freely by God as a gift. So we all set aside any smoldering suspicion that we deserve anything from the Almighty. We deserve nothing but wrath. But Christ came to suffer the penalty for our guilt, and he gives to us the righteousness of God. We grasp it by the mechanism of trust, which is faith, and which is also a gift of God. This is God’s faithfulness at work in us.
This is our salvation.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.