How Gracious You Are!

“Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required” (Psalm 40:6).

Lord, thank You for transferring me from the rebellious house of the spiritually deaf (Deuteronomy 29:4; Jeremiah 6:10; Ezekiel 12:2; Romans 11:8) to the house where Your voice is spoken & heard (Ezekiel 40:4; 44:5; Matthew 11:15; Mark 4:9,23; 7:16; Luke 8:8; 14:35). I am unworthy – even in the house where Your voice echoes through the hall I too often hear the voices of the other house in my heart, my mind, and sometimes from my own lips. How gracious You are for giving Psalm 40 a life-giving fullness in the saving and sanctifying work of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:5-25)!

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart’” (40:7,8).

I am filled with gracious delight, and the Source is Your will that You speak to my heart. You speak and give me the ability to hear (40:6); I hear and respond with delight at Your Word (40:8). Thank You for this delight; if Your Word is eternal (Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:25), then this joy You have given in Your Word is also FOREVER. How gracious You are!

“I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not restrain my lips, O LORD, You know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation” (40:9,10).

The house where Your voice is heard, where You open the ears of the previously deaf, where Your Word fuels eternal happiness in the heart...this house is never empty, and it is GREAT. Because of You, we have heard (Romans 10:8-17). Because of You, we rejoice. Because of You, we are “filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with [our hearts] to the Lord.” Because of You, we are “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Because of You, we are “subject to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5:18-21). Keep speaking, God the Holy Spirit, to the Great Congregation that exists because of Your voice (Revelation 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22)! How gracious You are in Your great congregation!

May we spend our days here together with You and the never-ending days to come together with You speaking, hearing, singing, meditating upon, testifying to, and rejoicing in the Law written on our hearts in the New Covenant in Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 31:31-34//Hebrews 8:8-12; 10:16,17). How gracious You are to us in Jesus Christ!