On Telling God to Hurry Up Text: Psalm 70
Introduction: Two Ways to Pray
There are fundamentally only two ways to approach God. The first is the way of the consumer, and the second is the way of the creature. The consumer approaches God as though He were a cosmic vending machine or, perhaps more accurately, a celestial customer service line. In this view, God is a functionary, a service provider, and if you can just figure out the right combination of buttons to push, or the right tone of voice to use, He is obligated to dispense the requested blessing. This is the god of the health and wealth preachers, a tame god, a god kept on a leash for our convenience.
The second way to approach God is as a creature before his Creator. This is the way of the Bible. In this approach, God is not a means to an end; He is the end. He is high and lifted up, the sovereign ruler of all things, and we are not. We come to Him not with demands based on our supposed rights, but with pleas based on His revealed character. We are beggars, and He is the King. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, having established that firm distinction, we come to a psalm like this one, Psalm 70, and we find what appears to be a problem for our tidy categories. Here is David, a man after God's own heart, and he is, to put it plainly, telling God to get a move on. Four times in this short psalm, he urges God to make haste. This sounds suspiciously like someone banging on the glass of the vending machine. Is this a lapse in David's piety? Is this an example of how not to pray? Or is it possible that our respectable, dignified, and often lukewarm piety has misunderstood something essential about what it means to be a creature in desperate need of his Creator?
This psalm teaches us that holy desperation is not a sign of weak faith, but of true faith. It is the prayer of a man who knows he is in a genuine crisis, and who also knows that only one Person in the universe can do anything about it. He is not treating God like a butler; he is treating Him like a deliverer, which is precisely what He is. This is not the prayer of presumption, but of utter dependence.
The Text
O God, hasten to deliver me; O Yahweh, hasten to my help! Let those be ashamed and humiliated Who seek my life; Let those be turned back and dishonored Who delight in evil against me. Let those turn back because of their shame Who say, "Aha, aha!" Let all those be joyful and glad in You All who seek You; And let them say continually, "Let God be magnified," Those who love Your salvation. But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my protector; O Yahweh, do not delay.
(Psalm 70 LSB)
Urgent Petitions (v. 1)
The psalm opens with a double-barreled blast of urgency.
"O God, hasten to deliver me; O Yahweh, hasten to my help!" (Psalm 70:1)
David is in trouble. We are not told the specific nature of the trouble, which is a mercy, because it makes this psalm applicable to every kind of trouble a believer might face. The wolves are at the door. The waters are rising. He needs help, and he needs it now. He addresses God first as Elohim, the mighty Creator, and then as Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. He is appealing both to God's power and to His promise.
This is not the prayer of a man who thinks God might have forgotten him. It is the prayer of a man who knows God is his only hope. When a child is in danger and cries out, "Daddy, hurry!" it is not a sign of disrespect. It is a sign of relationship. It is an expression of trust. David's urgency is a form of worship because it acknowledges that God, and God alone, is his deliverer. Our polite, carefully-worded, "if it be Thy will" prayers are often a mask for a lack of faith. We don't want to appear too demanding, because deep down we are not entirely sure He will answer anyway. David has no such reservations. He knows God is a helper of the helpless, and so he calls upon Him to do what He has promised to do.
Imprecatory Petitions (v. 2-3)
Having asked God to hurry, David then gives Him a very specific to-do list for when He arrives.
"Let those be ashamed and humiliated Who seek my life; Let those be turned back and dishonored Who delight in evil against me. Let those turn back because of their shame Who say, 'Aha, aha!'" (Psalm 70:2-3 LSB)
These are imprecatory prayers, which are prayers for God to visit calamity upon His enemies. This kind of praying makes modern, sentimental Christians very nervous. It sounds so un-Christlike, so harsh, so unlike "gentle Jesus, meek and mild." But we must remember two things. First, David is the king, God's anointed. An attack on David is an attack on God's kingdom and God's honor. These are not merely personal enemies; they are traitors and rebels against Yahweh Himself. David is praying for the vindication of God's righteousness.
Second, these prayers are all over the Bible. They are in the Psalms, they are in the prophets, and they are on the lips of the apostles. And if we are honest, they are in the heart of every person who has a shred of justice left in him. When you see evil prosper, when you see the wicked gloating and mocking the righteous, you ought to feel a holy indignation. That is the Spirit of God in you. The "Aha, aha!" is the sound of gleeful, arrogant mockery. It is the sound of Sanballat and Tobiah laughing at the rubble of Jerusalem. It is the sound of the chief priests jeering at the foot of the cross. David prays that this sound would be choked off by shame and confusion. He prays that their evil plans would boomerang back on their own heads. This is not a prayer for personal revenge; it is a prayer for public justice. It is a prayer that God would show Himself to be God.
Declarative Petitions (v. 4)
The psalm then pivots from the negative to the positive. The flip side of judgment for God's enemies is blessing for God's people.
"Let all those be joyful and glad in You All who seek You; And let them say continually, 'Let God be magnified,' Those who love Your salvation." (Psalm 70:4 LSB)
Notice the contrast. The wicked "delight in evil" (v. 2), but the righteous "love Your salvation." The wicked say, "Aha, aha!" but the righteous say, "Let God be magnified!" David's ultimate concern is not his own skin, but God's glory. He wants God's enemies to be silenced so that the praises of God's people can be heard. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and this verse is that principle set to music.
The great desire of the believer's heart is to see God's name lifted high. This is the ultimate goal of our prayers. We want deliverance, yes, but we want it so that God might be magnified in it. We want our enemies to be confounded, yes, but we want this so that all who see it will know that our God saves. This is what protects our urgent prayers from becoming selfish demands. The driving force is a jealousy for God's reputation. Let the righteous be glad, let them rejoice, and let their continual refrain be, "Let God be magnified!"
Dependent Petitions (v. 5)
The psalm concludes by returning to the opening theme, but with a crucial addition. David grounds his plea in his own condition.
"But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my protector; O Yahweh, do not delay." (Psalm 70:5 LSB)
This is the argument from acknowledged bankruptcy. David does not come to God on the basis of his merit. He does not say, "Hurry, Lord, because I have been so faithful." He says, "Hurry, Lord, because I am afflicted and needy." He is poor. He has nothing. He is at the end of his rope. And this, paradoxically, is the strongest possible position for a petitioner to be in.
God is drawn to need. He is the defender of the widow, the father to the fatherless, and the helper of the poor. Our weakness is a magnet for His strength. Our emptiness is an invitation for His fullness. When we come to Him with our hands full of our own righteousness and our own resources, we leave with our hands still full of our own junk. But when we come to Him empty-handed, confessing that we are afflicted and needy, He fills our hands with His grace. David's plea is based entirely on the character of God. "You are my help and my protector." He is not asking God to be something He is not. He is asking God to be who He is. And because God is his help, he can boldly say, "O Yahweh, do not delay."
The Gospel in a Hurry
This entire psalm is a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the truly afflicted and needy one. His enemies sought His life, surrounded Him, and mocked Him with their own version of "Aha, aha!" as He hung on the cross. He cried out to God in His distress, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
And God did hasten to help Him. He did not leave His soul in Hades, nor did He let His Holy One see corruption. On the third day, God hastened to deliver Him from the grave, and in doing so, He turned the tables on all His enemies. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Those who sought His life were ashamed and humiliated. The "Aha, aha!" of the mockers was silenced forever by the thunder of the empty tomb.
And because of Christ's deliverance, all who seek God can now be joyful and glad. Because He was afflicted and needy for us, we who love His salvation can now say continually, "Let God be magnified!" Our salvation was accomplished through an urgent prayer from the cross, answered by a swift and glorious resurrection.
Therefore, you who are in trouble today, you who feel afflicted and needy, you have every right to come to the throne of grace with this psalm on your lips. You are not banging on the door of a reluctant deity. You are appealing to the Father through the Son who has already secured your deliverance. Your need is your argument. Your weakness is your plea. And your Savior is your guarantee. Come to Him, knowing that He is your help and your protector. And plead with Him, on the basis of what Christ has done, "O Yahweh, do not delay."