U2 — "40" is a setting of Psalm 40

What the song does

U2’s 1983 album War — released on Island Records, produced by Steve Lillywhite — closes with a track simply titled “40.” The song was composed quickly at the end of recording sessions for the album; bassist Adam Clayton was not present for parts of the writing, and Bono has described the lyrics being assembled directly from a Psalter in the studio.

The number in the title refers directly to Psalm 40. Bono has discussed the source in interviews and concert introductions across the band’s career. The song’s adaptation of the psalm is not a hidden reference; it is the declared point of the track.

The lyrics are under copyright. This entry describes the adaptation; the psalm itself is public domain and is quoted.

Psalm 40 in context

The psalm has the heading For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Like many psalms, the superscription attributes it to David but does not specify the occasion. It belongs to a recognised psalm category — individual thanksgiving — in which a single speaker recounts having been heard by God and delivered from distress.

The opening section, which the song uses, runs:

“I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and will trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3, BSB)

The four images in the opening — the patient wait, the inclining of God’s ear, the lifting from the pit, the setting on rock — are the standard vocabulary of thanksgiving psalms. The closing image of the opening (“He put a new song in my mouth”) is the psalm’s own meta-reference: the act of singing is itself the response to deliverance.

What the song uses and what it leaves out

The song uses the thanksgiving opening (verses 1-3) and adapts the refrain “how long” — a question that appears repeatedly in the Psalter (Psalm 6:3, 13:1-2, 35:17, 79:5, 80:4, 90:13, 94:3) and in this psalm only implicitly. The “how long” refrain has lament-tradition weight.

The song omits the later sections of Psalm 40. Verses 4-10 are the psalmist’s pledge of continued declaration. Verses 11-17 turn unexpectedly into lament — the speaker who opened by celebrating deliverance now describes himself as poor and needy, surrounded by evils, and asks for further help.

“But I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.” (Psalm 40:17, BSB)

The psalm’s combination of opening thanksgiving and closing lament is unusual. Some commentators treat it as evidence of two originally separate psalms (verses 1-10 and 11-17, with verse 11 as the transition). Others read the combination as structurally significant — the psalmist’s experience of past deliverance is the ground on which he can speak the present lament.

The U2 song uses only the first half. The thanksgiving opening becomes a closing benediction for the album, not the prelude to renewed lament that the psalm itself becomes.

What the song’s reception did with the material

“40” became, for much of the 1980s, U2’s standard live closer. Audiences would continue singing the chorus after the band members left the stage one by one, with drummer Larry Mullen Jr the last to leave. This concert ritual — a crowd of tens of thousands continuing to sing without the band — became a recognisable U2 trademark.

The chorus the audiences continued to sing is the Psalter’s “how long” refrain. A 1980s rock-concert audience, mostly not aware they were singing a psalm, sang the lament-tradition refrain of the Hebrew Psalter back to itself.

For other entries on adaptations and reworkings of biblical material, see Amazing Grace — Newton’s 1772 hymn. For the wider category of salvation language in the Bible, see What does the Bible mean by “salvation”?.

To read Psalm 40 in other translations:

• Psalm 40 — NIV →
• Psalm 40 — ESV →
• Psalm 40 — NLT →