March 15, 2026

“For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me. Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; Make haste, O LORD, to help me.” — Psalm 40:12–13

In the book of Hebrews we learn that Jesus Himself is the speaker of this psalm (10:5–10). These words are His. He speaks them not as the eternal Son in His divine nature, but as the incarnate Son—the true and perfect man who came to save us. As our Savior, He takes our sins upon Himself and even calls them “my iniquities.”

This is striking when we consider the language of Psalm 40:12. The speaker says, “My iniquities have overtaken me,” that they are “more numerous than the hairs of my head,” and that “my heart has failed me.” Yet we know that Christ Himself was without sin. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Here we see the wonder of the gospel. The sinless Savior takes the place of sinners. He bears our guilt and carries our sin as His own.

Under that crushing weight He says, “my heart has failed me.” This does not mean that Christ doubted His Father. Rather, under the judgment due to our sins, He makes no appeal to His own righteousness. Instead, He entrusts Himself completely to God’s promise. He cries out in humble dependence: “Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; make haste, O LORD, to help me” (Psalm 40:13).

In His wisdom and mercy, the Lord deals with us in a similar way. Through His law He first brings us low. He exposes our sin and strips away our pride. He shows us what we truly are apart from His grace. Slowly we begin to see the truth: we have no righteousness of our own. We are weak, foolish, and sinful.

Yet this humbling work is not cruel—it is merciful. God brings us to the end of ourselves so that we will stop trusting in ourselves. When we confess that there is nothing in us worthy of His favor, we are ready to rest entirely in Him. Our life becomes hidden in God, trusting not in our worth but in His mercy alone.

And there, in that place of humble faith, we discover the answer to sin, death, and hell: the grace of God.

Scripture calls this God’s “strange” or “alien” work in Isaiah 28:21. The Lord wounds in order to heal. He humbles in order to lift up. He brings us to despair of ourselves so that we may learn to hope in His mercy.

“For the LORD will rise up…to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work!” (Isaiah 28:21).

Christ alone is our perfect Savior. He not only saves us; He also shows us how sinners are saved—by trusting God’s promise to show mercy to the humble, the broken, and the contrite. Our hope rests not in ourselves, but in His grace alone.