Daily Devotion 15 January 2026

For, by one sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. Hebrews 10: 14

READING: Psalm 40

This Psalm of David begins with praise for past mercies (vs 1-5), continues with a testimony of the King’s response to that mercy (vs 6-10), but then concludes with a passionate plea for help (vs 11-17). In this, it reverses the order of most Psalms, which begin with trouble and end with praise for deliverance. That would be the most satisfying order to us – we enjoy books and movies that have a happy ending!

Psalm 40 opens with David’s image of being stuck in the bottom of a soggy, slimy, muddy mess of a hole. All he could do was scream for help, and wait. And, then, God heard, and we hear verb after verb describing His saving activity: He bent down, He heard my cry, He lifted me up, He set my feet upon a rock, He gave me a firm place to stand, He put a new song in my mouth. What a marvellous description of salvation. God can deliver us from hell where we scream with despair and place us in heaven where we sing for joy.

But, after that, Psalm 40 ends with a plea to God to come and help, quickly. That sounds more like real life. We always think, if only I can get safely through this trouble, I’ll never want anything again, but before the day is over, there is more trouble again, and again.

Our ever-repeating cycle of desperation, deliverance, dedication, followed by disaster and desperation again, finds its final resolution in the once for all sacrifice of Christ. As Hebrews 10 says, even our best efforts to save ourselves will always fail. Even our most faithful attempts cannot save, “because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.” (v4). Only Christ can make us holy in the deepest sense; “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. Once and for all, by his obedience and death, Jesus delivers us from the “slimy pit”, whether it is our own fault or the fault of others.

People will always slip and fall. But Jesus never fails. He has done once and for all what we can never do. Thanks be to God.