I recently read an autobiography by Avis Goodhart. The title is “Out Of The Dust: story of an unlikely missionary.” I thought about it again as I memorized Psalm 113:7. It says of God, “He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the need out of the ash heap.” 

In the Old Testament, dust and ash heap were symbols of the lowest shame and deepest poverty. If you will remember, when Job’s body was covered with boils, he sat on the ashes. Job 2:8 says, “And he took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.”

I love Psalm 40:2. Think of the miry clay like quicksand. It is impossible to extract oneself as you sink in quicksand. That is the way we were before we accepted Jesus. We were helpless and hopelessly lost. We could do nothing to extract ourselves from a life of sin.