Psalm 40 · a question people ask
God commanded sacrifices. Why does the psalm say he didn't desire them?
The law does command them: "Command the children of Israel, and tell them" (Numbers 28:2), and "This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: male lambs a year old without defect, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering" (Numbers 28:3). The psalm sets two things side by side: "Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire" (Psalm 40:6), and "I delight to do your will, my God" (Psalm 40:8). Other passages also set sacrifice beside something else. Samuel asks, "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice?" (1 Samuel 15:22). Another psalm says, "For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it" (Psalm 51:16), and "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit" (Psalm 51:17). Hosea has, "For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6), with this psalm's verb for desire. When the Pharisees asked why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matthew 9:11), he said, "But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’" (Matthew 9:13). Hebrews reads the psalm's offerings as "those which are offered according to the law" (Hebrews 10:8), and says, "He takes away the first, that he may establish the second" (Hebrews 10:9). These notes set the verses side by side and add nothing to them.
The verses
““Command the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘See that you present my offering, my food for my offerings made by fire, as a pleasant aroma to me, in their due season.’ You shall tell them, ‘This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: male lambs a year old without defect, two day by day, for a continual burnt offering.”
“Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said, “Behold, I have come. It is written about me in the book in the scroll. I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.””
“Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
“For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. O God, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart.”