October 18 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 40:1–5

Devotional

The poet of Psalm 40 has not forgotten his past. In humility all God’s children must remember who they have been in themselves. In this way God is glorified. This poet compares his past to someone who has descended into a pit of miry clay. This was his situation before God looked down upon him in mercy to lift him up. And all God’s children will have to agree with him, that this was also their condition.

All sinners were at one time in a pit of miry clay. To be in such circumstances is a hopeless situation. One is fenced in on all sides by walls of clay. The feet are sucked into this miry clay. At the bottom of this pit there is water, and the rising water causes one to sink deeper down into the mud and the clay. It becomes more and more impossible to climb out of such a pit. The man in a miry pit of clay is being buried alive.

That is our condition without grace. We have buried ourselves alive beneath our sins. We have fallen into a pit of horrors. We are sucked into the mud of our corrupt existence, and no matter what we try we cannot get out. You see, we can fall but we cannot get up again in our own strength. We are totally unable to reach the light. It is beyond our power to redeem ourselves. We are in the bottomless pit of corruption and it is sucking us down. This pit is too deep to be able to redeem ourselves. There is no way out for us unless we are drawn up with the cords of God’s lovingkindness. But God is not obliged to rescue us.

Unconverted sinner, you can never think enough of these matters. You must realize your lost condition outside of grace. Be active in considering these things. Ask God to give you more insight into your own unhappiness, because your condition is not better than what is recorded in this text. You are in a pit of miry clay. How can you still be at ease while you are in this pit? It is nothing but blindness that keeps you content there. Beg the Lord to grant you two additional eyes that you might see the reality of your lost condition, for you are sinking down in a pit.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.