Psalms 40:11

11. The tone and theme of the psalm suddenly change from thanksgiving and gladness to complaint, confession of sin, and prayer. That these two dissimilar parts make one whole, and belong to one occasion, is explained in the introduction to the psalm. But the complaint and confession are not to be restricted to David. They are a fore-shadowing of the sufferings of Christ, whose earthly advent was heralded with joy, but whose triumphant life closed in agony. If Psalms 40:6-8 are the profession of Christ upon his coming into the world, and Psalms 40:9-10 a declaration of his faithful life and labour, answering to “I have glorified thee on the earth,” John 17:4; then Psalms 40:11-13 are an allusive sketch of the agony of Gethsemane, and of the mystery of imputation, by which he was made not a personal sinner, but legally answerable for our offences, and treated as if he were a sinner, when “his own self bare our sins in his own body.”

Continually preserve me That is, day by day, without intermission. In moments of peril and intervals of quiet, we alike need the ever present help of God. The spiritual keeping is the predominant idea, as in Psalms 25:21; Proverbs 13:6; Isaiah 26:3