The psalmist told us that God "put a new song in my mouth —praise to our God" (Ps. 40:3). The song did not come easily to him. "He . . . brought me up out of a horrible pit," he testified, "out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps" (v.2).

We don't know what this "pit" was. Perhaps it was a devastating calamity, or the result of a willful, ungodly choice. In either case, it was horrible. The place was unspeakably lonely, as silent as death, and he could find no solid place to put his feet. He couldn't climb out of "the miry clay" by himself. It took God to rescue him.

A Chinese scholar who converted to Christ told this parable: "A man fell into a dark, dirty pit, and he tried to climb out but he couldn't. Confucius came along. He saw the man in the pit and said, 'Poor fellow. If he had listened to me, he never would have fallen in.' And he left. Buddha came along and saw the man in the pit and said, 'Poor fellow. If he can climb up here, I'll help him.' And he too left. Then Christ came and said, 'Poor fellow!' And He jumped into the pit and helped him out."

God rescued the psalmist from the "pit." And He gave him a new song to sing, which we too can sing if we've experienced God's deliverance from trouble.  — Haddon W. Robinson