Opening the Ear

Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. Opening the ear. Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Psalm 46. That Psalm 40 is primarily a messianic psalm speaking mainly about the work of Christ is evident from its quotation as such in Hebrews 10, 5-10.

The psalm prophesies particularly of his incarnation. For he says, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me. burnt offerings and sin offerings had indeed been required from God's people under the law, but these were not an end in themselves. These sacrifices were meaningless unless they were offered out of a willing heart as obedient expressions of submission to their forgiving God. That was the implication of the opened ear, a symbolic expression indicating one's willingness, thenceforth, to hear only the voice of his Master and to submit to His will in all things.

If a freed bond servant shall plainly say, I love my master, I will not go out free, then his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever. This was the testimony of the coming Messiah as reported in our text. Then, notice application as recorded in Hebrews 10.5. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. but a body has outprepared me.

that is, the phrase Mine ears have thou opened, is translated by the Holy Spirit as a body hast thou prepared me. The perfect submission of the Son to the Father required that he become a man with a very special human body prepared by his Father. Then Psalm forty seven becomes Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews ten, nine through ten. But it could still be.

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We hope you'll start each day with days of praise.