Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 40:2

"He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay; And he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." — Psalms 40:2 (ASV)

Horrible pit. — The rendering in the margin, “pit of noise,” takes shaôn in its primary sense, as in Isaiah 17:12, Psalms 65:7, and the idea of a noise of rushing water suits this passage. Most commentators, however, take it here in the sense the cognate bears in Psalms 35:8, “destruction.” The Septuagint and Vulgate have “misery.”

Miry clay. — The word translated “clay” is from a root meaning to boil up, or ferment. (One of its derivatives means “wine.”) Hence “froth,” or “slime.” Septuagint, ilus; Vulgate, fœx. A verse of R. Browning’s perhaps expresses the poet’s image:—

“It frothed by,
A black eddy, spattered with flakes and fumes.”

Rock. — The common image of security (Psalms 18:2; Psalms 27:5), the occurrence of which makes it probable that the “pit” and “clay” are also not realities, but emblems of confusion and danger.