Psalms 40:12
For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me. For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
The verse describes a man hemmed in by evils without number that are bound up with his own wrongs, so many they cannot be counted, weighing him down until he cannot lift his eyes and his courage gives way. It is the prayer of every convicted soul, owning overwhelming guilt with self-loathing and crying out for the Lord to be pleased to rescue him and hurry to his help. The psalm is above all prophetic of the Lord, opening a view into Christ's inner struggle and suffering, and this cry belongs to him as the one who stood in the place of every soul. Those who felt the wording about iniquities hard to fit to him held that a passage given to Christ may still carry details that seem to belong to another person and setting. Yet even to be sunk in evils and iniquities until looking up is impossible and the heart fails is ground for confidence, for it is proof that God in Christ on the cross is present to deliver, so that weakness and sin met by faith become a pledge of redemption and not of despair.
Words and Setting
David's troubles in the verse are connected with his sins, while the opening of the psalm describes God delivering him from trouble and setting him on secure ground. The verse portrays a man overwhelmed by countless troubles and by his own iniquities, which surround and overtake him, are beyond counting and more numerous than the hairs of his head, and weigh on him so heavily that he cannot look up or lift his eyes. Under that weight his heart fails.
The verse belongs to the section beginning at verse 11. That section speaks of the psalmist himself. It reflects circumstances different from those in the preceding verses. Its image of being compassed about by innumerable evils can depict being surrounded by enemies too numerous to count.
Prophecy of Christ
The psalm is especially prophetic of the Lord, and this verse in it is cheering and helpful. It gives a view of Christ's inner experience in his struggles with the enemy, revealing the suffering that lay behind the outward events of his life. As part of that prophetic psalm, the verse also belongs to Christ, who stood in behalf of every soul. Its language about being overwhelmed by evils and iniquities, unable to look up, with a failing heart, appears difficult to apply to Christ, even though verses 6-10 are applied to him, illustrating that a passage applied to Christ can also contain details that appear to fit another person or setting.
The reference to iniquities and their burden shows that the sacrifices and offerings of the old covenant could not remove sin but were only a type of the real atonement needed for transgression of God's law. They point to the need for Christ's death to take away the transgressor's guilt. In its context the verse supports that God's law was in Christ's heart when he offered himself as a sacrifice on the cross, proving that he did not abolish the law through his death.
Conviction and Deliverance
The verse speaks to the experience of every soul, and as part of a psalm especially prophetic of Christ it also belongs to Christ, who stood in behalf of every soul. It is a prayer of conviction and confession that describes the emotions filling the soul of the penitent for sin, pierced by arrows of conviction until he loathes himself because of sin. Innumerable evils compass him about, his iniquities take hold of him so that he is not able to look up, they are more than the hairs of his head, and his heart fails him. That overwhelming sense of guilt leads him to pray for the Lord to be pleased to deliver him and to make haste to help him.
Iniquities can take hold of a person and leave him overwhelmed, and this is an example of people bound by sin. The spirits in prison are sinners held in sin in just this way. Even the depths of sin can be a source of confidence, for evils and iniquities overwhelming a person until he cannot look up and his heart fails still leave him alive in them. That aliveness is proof that God, in Christ on the cross, is present to deliver, so that when met with faith in the Lord, weakness and sinfulness are not grounds for despair but a pledge of redemption.
The number and weight of sins can hold a person down so that he cannot look up, with his heart failing as he faces them set before him. Such was the terror in Luther's illness at seeing his sins, and remembering that Jesus' blood cleanses from all sin brings relief until the accuser's record disappears. The image of being compassed about by innumerable evils can also depict being surrounded by enemies too numerous to count. Applied by a persecuted believer, it becomes a prayer asking the Lord to fight for her and entrusting her care to him, while seeking no revenge but asking God to forgive her enemies and open their blind hearts to the truth.