January 11
Reading: Psalm 70
To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O LORD, make haste to help me!
2 Let them be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!
3 Let them turn back because of their shame
who say, “Aha, Aha!”
4 May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation say evermore,
“God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay!
David, in Psalm 70, practically repeats Psalm 40:13-17. In Psalm 70 David uses these words during the memorial offering, a portion of the grain offering in Leviticus 2:2, 9, 16; 5:12; 6:15, and Numbers 5:26. A small portion of grain with oil was offered as a burnt offering to God while the supplicant remembered what God has done and has promised He will do.
This is not a bargain with God: I give You this and You do what I need. No. This is worship to the Lord while the worshipper remembers who God is and what He does. In this case we remember that God is our deliverer, and He answers prayer.
In every verse of this psalm we find a request to God. This psalm is pure prayer, supplication, asking God for help. After the opening prayer for deliverance (vs. 1), there are two verses asking God to deal with those who want to hurt us (vss. 2-3), then two verses asking for God’s blessing for those who seek Him. This is a rough world, filled with spiritual battle. Often the one request necessitates the other.
From the earliest days of Christianity, when God’s people were suffering and sometimes persecuted under the Romans, Psalm 40:1 was used often as a prayer for the opening of worship. We desperately need God to deliver us every day, sometimes from foes, sometimes from Satan, sometimes from sin and temptation.
Like many psalms of David in his suffering, this one echoes the suffering of Jesus on the Cross. There people wagged their heads at Him and said “Aha!” as they rejoiced in His suffering. (Mark 15:29) When we pray this way we are identifying with our Lord.