Psalm 40 looks like two psalms of the individual spliced together. Verses 1–10 sound like a thanksgiving psalm and verses 11–17 like a prayer psalm. In support of this division we should note that verses 13–17 elsewhere form an independent prayer psalm, namely Psalm 70. Closer examination, however, reveals the integrity of the whole psalm. The thanksgiving of verses 1–10 lacks the report of distress characteristic of thanksgiving psalms (see the Introduction). The prayer of Psalm 70 also lacks any formal lament, which is found only in verse 12 of Psalm 40. In addition, the verses closing the so-called thanksgiving (vv. 9–10) actually appear to set the stage for the subsequent petitionary section. Psalm 70 may therefore be a selection drawn from Psalm 40. As Psalm 53 in Book II of the Psalt…