Psalm 40:7-8

The Beloved

William Holman Hunt, 1898

Christ looks upward toward the sky, with one hand against His chest and the other holding a pale scroll-like object. — William Holman Hunt, The Beloved, 1898. Royal Collection (RCIN 406027); oil on canvas, 62 × 50.7 cm

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 40:7-8 · Berean Standard Bible

About the painting

Christ’s upturned face survives from The Shadow of Death, but the carpenter’s room does not. In The Beloved, Hunt turns a request for a copy into a different composition, with sky around the figure and a hand resting on His chest.

What does The Beloved show?

The close view concentrates on Christ’s face, reddish hair, and hands. A pale scroll-like object is held against the body while the other hand lies open on the chest. The original carpenter’s outstretched arms would not fit this smaller format unchanged, so the new arrangement alters the meaning of the gesture as well as its scale.

The painting grew from Queen Victoria’s request for a copy of Christ’s head from The Shadow of Death; it is now in the Royal Collection. The frame’s wording, as transcribed by George Landow, links the figure with readiness to do God’s will. This makes the painting more than a portrait detail detached from a larger narrative: its new setting and hands give the act of assent its own focus.

Featured in: William Holman Hunt’s Bible Paintings: A Goat, a Gun and The Light of the World

What does Psalm 40:7-8 mean?

Psalm 40 moves from deliverance and thanksgiving toward the speaker’s willingness to do God’s will, with God’s law within the heart. Verses 7–8 place obedience beyond an adequate supply of offerings. The words concern a person’s whole response to God.

Hebrews 10 takes up the psalm in its explanation of Christ coming into the world to do God’s will. That Christian reading supports the pairing with Hunt’s Christ, while the psalm retains its own original voice. The painting’s lifted gaze and hand at the chest invite attention to willingness without claiming to depict a particular moment described in either passage.

Psalm 40:7–8, read alongside its use in Hebrews 10, gives language to the willingness Hunt concentrates in Christ’s face and hands.