What is the meaning of Psalm 40:8?

I delight

- Genuine joy marks obedience. The psalmist is not driven by fear or duty alone but by pleasure in following God.

- Cross references:

• Psalm 1:2—“But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.”

• Psalm 119:16—“I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”

• Romans 7:22—“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.”

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to do Your will

- “Will” speaks of God’s revealed desires—His commands, moral standards, and providential purposes.

- Obedience is active: delight moves from feeling to doing, echoing Jesus’ own words in John 4:34—“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.”

- Cross references:

• Hebrews 10:7 (citing this very psalm of the Messiah): “Then I said, ‘Here I am… I have come to do Your will, O God.’”

• Matthew 6:10—“Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

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O my God

- Personal relationship stands at the center. The psalmist addresses God intimately, not abstractly.

- This personal pronoun (‘my’) affirms covenant connection, reminding us of Psalm 23:1—“The LORD is my shepherd.”

- Cross references:

• Psalm 63:1—“O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You.”

• Galatians 2:20—“The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

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Your law is within my heart.

- God’s instruction is internalized, not merely memorized; it shapes motives and desires.

- This fulfills the promise of the new covenant where the law is written on the heart (Jeremiah 31:33).

- Cross references:

• Ezekiel 36:26-27—God gives a new heart and Spirit to walk in His statutes.

• Psalm 119:11—“I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”

• 2 Corinthians 3:3—the Spirit writes not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

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summary

Psalm 40:8 pictures wholehearted, joyful obedience rooted in an intimate covenant relationship. True delight in God leads us to actively pursue His will, because His Word has moved from the page to the very core of our being.