Ps. 40.17 (a fitting conclusion)

“Yet / I am poor and need – think on me / O Yhwh – You / are my help / and my rescue – do not delay / O my god.” The ending of this psalm is rather brilliant. The psalm began with the king recounting how, in the past, he was “waiting patiently” and “crying out to Yhwh”. Yhwh then heard his prayer and, rather prodigiously, delivered him from. As we saw, the point of recounting the past was in order to ignite the present in Yhwh’s again-deliverance. Here, at the end, we find that “in the end is the beginning”. The king has, once again, placed himself in humble patience and prayer before Yhwh in order to, once again, start the cycle of deliverance. By calling himself “poor and needy” he has, as we will see in the next psalm, identified himself with those who have almost a purchase on Yhwh as special objects of his affection and concern. One final note: the contrast between the jubilation of verse 16 and 17 can seem jarring. However, it serves an important point. As we have seen, it must be the king that makes himself the perfect object of Yhwh’s devotion. For it is through him that victory will be mediated. The transition therefore, is one that acknowledges this unique role of the king in being a ‘son’ to the Father-Yhwh by submitting himself in son-like servility to his father (here, importantly, “my god”). Just as the king has displayed his ‘credentials’ throughout (from his patience, to his readiness to “come to Yhwh”, to his perfect emptying of Yhwh’s praises in the great congregation), so now is he furthering those and showing himself to be one of the “poor and needy”. We see here how the king is a type of “servant of all”.