Psalms 40:16, commentary and pictures

Psalm 40 is especially prophetic of Christ, who stood on behalf of humanity, and therefore belongs to believers, speaking as Psalms 41-46 do to the experience of every soul. Verse 16 belongs to the later, personal part of the psalm, expressing the writer's own wish, and is distinct from the earlier verses concerning Christ and the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. The verse expresses the desire that all who seek God rejoice and be glad in him and that all who love his salvation continually declare his greatness by saying the Lord be magnified.

The continual praise of those who love God's salvation is part of devoted service that answers God's abiding presence with his people. In connection with this psalm, the Old Testament sacrifices could not take away sins, so it points to the need for a real atonement for transgression of God's law, which the death of Jesus provides. The psalm shows that when Christ presented himself as a sacrifice, God's law was in his heart, and his profession of loyalty to that law at the cross is incompatible with the claim that his death abolished it, which would make him deceptive.

Salvation is worthy of continual praise because Christ purchased it through his suffering and death. The rejoicing and magnifying of God is the grateful response with all the heart of those saved by grace through the death of Jesus and his precious blood. The verse directs God's servants and watchmen who do his will and bear the burden of the third message to be strong and of good courage, with the assurance that the Lord will give them eternal life when he gathers his redeemed to himself.