Fixity and Progress
Psalm 40:2
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock, and established my goings.


What a strange contradiction — rest and movement, fixedness and pliability, stedfastness and variation. How can a man be made to run by his fixedness? How can his power of motion be increased by that which is supposed to rivet him to the spot? In all things of the spirit, is it not ever so? Is not the rapidity of my movement always in proportion to the rootedness of my conviction? The firmer is my rock, the more established are my goings. It is the resting soul which flies. I have no wings until I have a fixed heart. The dove that descends upon the Jordan must first light upon the Son of Man. Is it not written (Isaiah 40:31)? What is that but to say that the rock makes the outgoing? I never do such work as when I am at rest. It is the calm within makes the power without. The soul whose works have followed it is the spirit of the man who has rested from his labours.

(G. Matheson, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

WEB: He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand.




Brought Up from the Horrible Pit
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