What does it mean that the Lord "set my feet upon a rock" (Psalm 40:2)?

He does not dwell at all on the anguish of His sufferings, though He mentions the fact that He had been in a horrible pit (v. 2), from which God Himself had released Him. The horrible pit was a place from which naturally one could not extricate himself. This required the intervention of God, who raised the Lord Jesus from among the dead and set His feet upon a rock, establishing His steps, the rock is a contrast to the miry clay, and speaks of Divine stability. "Who is a rock, except our God" (Ps. 18:31). And just as clearly, "that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10:4). Being God, He is certainly the Rock. But in this psalm, He is considered rather as the perfectly obedient Man whom God rewards for His obedience.

The Fortieth and Forty-first Psalms are Messianic. Our Redeemer and Israel 's Redeemer is blessedly revealed in them both and with the testimony to Him the first book of the Psalms closes. Psalm 40 begins with what may be termed "Christ's resurrection song." He came and went as the sin-bearer into the horrible pit (Hebrew: the pit of destruction) and the miry clay, and the power of God brought Him out, raised Him from the dead, set His feet upon a rock and established His goings (His ascension). A new song is put into His mouth, "even praise unto our God." It is the song of redemption which He sings first and all who believe on Him join in that song. That is why we read "our God." The many who shall see it are those who trust in Him who was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And who can tell out the wonderful works He has done in redemption; "they are more than can be numbered."

“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:2-3)

Up from the quagmire of sin to the mountain-peak where no clouds dim the glories of the ascended Christ; up from the pit of shame to the “Rock that is higher that I” — such is the uplift of grace.

In this psalm then we see Christ, according to the eternal counsels of God, come to do God's will in human nature, taking His place in the midst of the great congregation of Israel, suffering most deeply in consequence, getting into the horrible pit, but His trust is firm in Jehovah. He waited patiently for Him, and He is brought up, and a new song put into His mouth. The first three verses state the great fact: Jehovah heard and delivered out of the horrible pit. It is a lesson for all the remnant. How blessed is the man who trusts Jehovah, and does not look at the appearance of persons to turn aside after vanity! Then we get the course of events. Wonderful have been Jehovah's counsels. Christ comes to do His will as a man, delights to do it, declares Jehovah's righteousness before all. This brings Him into the greatest distress. Evils come upon Him unnumbered, and, besides that, His iniquities (those of His people) come upon Him; but patience has its perfect work, and He is perfect and complete in all the will of God; and, as the psalm shows at the beginning, He is delivered, as we well know. But, as already said, the psalm recites His faithfulness especially. Hence we see Him up to the close of the trial still under it. What He asks for is that the ungodly, being found His enemies, may be set aside; but that the poor of the flock may be able to praise, rejoice, and be glad in Jehovah.

(vv. 1-4) The opening verses present the great theme of the psalm. Christ, having waited patiently for the Lord to deliver Him from the horrible pit of suffering into which He had entered for the will of God and the blessing of His people, is heard, delivered, established on firm ground, and a new song put into His mouth.

(a) The first section gives us, according to what we have seen to be so commonly the manner in the Psalms, the deliverance out of the sorrows which the rest of the psalm then takes up and describes. Jehovah's faithfulness and sufficiency are here the theme: manifested in answer to the patient endurance of One who has been in the very "pit of destruction," but to be delivered out of it necessarily by this very faithfulness. He leaves his case wholly in Jehovah's hands. All is to be determined by Him, and thus effectually and forever.

The opening verses give us the Lord's anticipation of His resurrection or deliverance; He afterwards rehearses His self-dedication, His ministry, His sorrows, and His cry. He tells us that He patiently waited for resurrection. He might, we know, have asserted His divine power; but He waited till He was raised "by the blood of the everlasting covenant." (Heb. 13) Thus was He, as He says in this Psalm, the poor and needy one — the one who depended on God for everything — the one who waited patiently in exercise of faith.

In Ps. 40 we have the Lord Jesus especially before us in His life of public testimony for God; in His sacrificial death, and in His resurrection too, as brought up out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay; having first waited patiently for Jehovah, till He inclined to Him, and heard His cry. He waited patiently, but did not wait in vain. His people may have to wait, but it cannot be in vain, for He has been heard and delivered; so will they, for by His death He has made atonement for their sins. One sees the importance of a Psalm in this place in the book, which introduces so distinctly the thought of the atonement, since on that ground alone could any one of Adam's fallen race look for resurrection from the dead or preservation in life — i.e. life for evermore. But since He who has borne our sins is risen, saints who die will certainly be raised.

Then, too, this book opens up to us prophetically, as we have seen, the heart, feelings, and ways of the Lord Jesus Christ when in humiliation — subjects of deep and abiding interest to all His people, and not of interest only, but of much profit likewise. Does God leave His people without ever interposing on their behalf? Impossible. Yet the deliverance for Christians may only come through death and resurrection. How instructive, then, and consoling are the words in Ps. 40! — "I waited patiently for Jehovah; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Jehovah." The Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears to Him that was able to save Him from [or out of] death, and was heard for His godly fear (Heb. 5:7). The apostle thus narrates the fact; David provides us with the encouragement saints can draw from that deliverance. Heard He was and answered, but only in resurrection. So He waited patiently, the Psalm declares. How many a martyr has been called to wait patiently, dying under the obloquy of a hostile crowd, to be vindicated on high in the future, whatever may have been men's thoughts of him when on earth. Nor is it martyrs only whom that Psalm would instruct. Many another saint may be called to wait patiently for God to carry out His purposes in His own time and way. And some Christians, at least, have surely proved the ministry of the Spirit to their hearts in special times of need. A few words of a Psalm — it may have been a verse, or only part of one — have been recalled to remembrance, and have encouraged, or guided, them. What should we have lacked had the Psalms never been composed! What will the godly remnant, in their coming day of awful trial, be able to say they would lack, had the book of Psalms never been compiled.

Then we have the introduction of One who changes all in Psalm 40. "I waited patiently," etc. Here is the reason why the remnant should trust Jehovah. HE has been delivered from the horrible pit and the miry clay (shewing resurrection). There are some special psalms connected with Christ round which others seem clustered; this is one of them. Here is Christ's actual connection with the people on earth, not only in their sorrows, but bearing their sins, so that all who looked to Him might be blessed with Him. "I, poor and needy, the Lord thinketh upon me." "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee."