Ps. 40.5 (the more hidden, the more revealed)

“Many / are your wonders / O Yhwh my god – that you have done – and your plans / for us – no one / can arrange them / for you! – I will declare / I will speak – “They are / too many / to count!” This second portion of the psalm begins with a word that has been used already: “many”. In verse 3, in response to Yhwh’s deliverance of the king, it was said “many will see and fear”. As we saw there, the emphasis was on this public display of power (hence, the important of seeing) by Yhwh for his anointed and its (public) effect on the king, the nation and the nation’s enemies. It was, in a word, a marvel and one of such overpowering deliverance that it would become an object of fear as Yhwh power was made manifest. Here, the focus shifts to the acts themselves (not as much their effect on ‘the many’). Just as ‘many would see’, now “many are your wonders”. The ‘magnitude’, here, refers to the myriad of events of Yhwh’s delivering power. We have been prepared for this by verse 1 and 2 where we saw the king “wait patient” and then Yhwh, with overflowing abundance, respond to and deliver him (“and he…”, “and he…”, “and he…”, “and he…”, “and he…”), each one marking a further progression and empowerment of the king. Now, as the king stands before the people, he alludes to the fact that Yhwh’s acts are always of such plenitude that man is overwhelmed by them such that they cannot arrange them. Indeed, “they are too many to count.” As in verse 1 and 2, there is clearly here the sense that man (and Israel) could never comprehend the totality of Yhwh’s actions on their behalf; indeed, they seem to trail off into the twilight beyond counting. And yet, this sense of inability to comprehend only heightens the kings need to proclaim. In a way, the further Yhwh’s actions trail off into infinitude the more urgently are they proclaimed through his anointed son (the more ‘hidden’ they become in magnitude the more ‘publicly’ are they proclaimed and revealed). This is an important insight: much in theology focuses on man’s inability to comprehend Yhwh’s actions because of the fact that they originate in Yhwh; here, by contrast, it is the awareness of the sheer magnitude of Yhwh’s ‘marvels’ that lends itself to this sense of overpowering astonishment. One could say that one of them focuses on the vertical aspect while the other on the horizontal (Israel and the king sense themselves surrounded by Yhwh’s marvels). Furthermore, this same sense of magnitude at the wonders of Yhwh are also regarded as his “plans for us”. All of these marvels are not actions taken simply on behalf of Israel. Rather, Israel and her king sense themselves as caught within an overpowering current, sweeping them forward. They can, of course, catch a sense of where they are heading; however, as we have been emphasizing, the sheer magnitude of Yhwh’s plans convinces them they cannot comprehend where they are heading. Finally, we must point out that this sense of being overwhelmed is one of joyful abandon. These words are liturgical words (in other words, praises to Yhwh). We hear in these verses the anointed of Yhwh and Israel acknowledging his position as mediator between Israel and Yhwh while, at the very same time, affirming that he is surrounded and enveloped within a “plan” by Yhwh that is greater than he could ever discern (it is like some massive puzzle and (t)he(y) discern that there is a ‘plan’ but canot entirely make out the picture). And this ‘greatness’ is, as verses 1-2 display, one of redemption leading to liturgy.