Introduction
Psalm 70 is another psalm of David and it’s another lamentation, because once again the psalmist is crying to the Lord for help because of the trouble he’s in. And I’ve said it before, but there are lots of lamentations in the psalter. And there are lots of lamentations in the psalter because our life here on earth is a troubled life and we all face many trials and troubles. We have all the normal trials and troubles which everyone faces because we live in a fallen world which is not the way it’s supposed to be. And so, life is hard and we encounter trouble at home and trouble at work and there’s loneliness and there’s sadness and there are things which worry us and there’s sickness and disease and there’s death and there’s the coronavirus crisis and all the restrictions we have to endure. So, we lament because of all of that.
And then, believers have to face many trials and troubles because of our faith in the Lord Jesus. So, we have our daily fight with sin and temptation which is hard and we need the Lord’s help for that. And then an unbelieving world will despise us for our faith and will put us under pressure to conform to their wicked ways. And it’s hard to stand firm in the faith when everyone around us is against us and is against what we believe. And so, this life is a troubled life; and believers often have to cry out to the Lord for help because of the trouble we’re in.
The fact that there are lots of lamentations in the psalter reflects the fact that our life is a troubled life. And Psalm 70 is another lamentation. Virtually all of this psalm appeared before in Psalm 40, where it was part of a larger psalm. But now it’s recorded for us as a separate psalm. And it can be divided into four parts: verse 1; then verses 2 and 3; then verse 4; and then verse 5. In verse 1 he calls to the Lord for help. In verses 2 and 3 he prays to the Lord about his enemies. In verse 4 he prays to the Lord about the Lord’s people. And then, in verse 5 he again calls to the Lord for help.
Verse 1
And so, he calls to the Lord for help in verse 1:
Hasten, O God, to save me.
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
He’s clearly in some sort of trouble, because he needs the Lord to save him and to help him. Like a drowning man, who calls out for help and for someone to save him, so the psalmist calls on the Lord to save him. And just as a drowning man’s cry is urgent, so the psalmist’s cry is urgent. It’s not: ‘Help me when you can. Help me when you can get around to it.’ No, it’s: ‘Help me now. Hasten to me. Come quickly.’ Often I’ve had to sit in the car outside someone’s house, waiting for one of the children to come out. You try to be patient, but after a while, you fire off a text message to them: ‘Hurry up!’ Well, the psalmist wants the Lord to hurry up and to come to his aid. And often we feel the same way when we’re faced with some problem or when we’re under pressure. We don’t know how long we can keep going, because of the strain we’re under. And so, we cry to the Lord with urgency and we ask him to come to our aid now.
And, of course, we should notice once again that David uses the Lord’s covenant name — LORD in capital letters — because he knows the Lord has bound himself with a promise to take care of his people. And so, though David did not deserve God’s help, he knows that the Lord has committed himself to his people. If there’s one person he can count on, it’s the Lord.
Verses 2 and 3
In verse 1 David calls on the Lord for help. In verses 2 and 3 he prays about his enemies. And he refers to them in three ways. They seek his life. They desire his ruin. They say to him, ‘Aha, Aha’. So, his enemies are not playing around, they’re seeking to take his life. They want to kill David. And they want to ruin him. More literally, they delight in his distress. Normally, when one person sees another person in distress, they’re moved to pity, aren’t they? They’re sympathetic. They want to do something to help. They want to relieve this other’s person’s distress if they can. We show sympathy and compassion towards others. But David’s enemies are not like that: they are glad when they see him in distress. They are happy to see him suffer. They want him to suffer. And they say to him, ‘Aha, aha’. In other words, they are taunting him and gloating over him.
So, those are his enemies: they’re seeking his life; they want to see him suffer; and they are gloating over him. And therefore David prays to the Lord about them. And he makes three petitions to the Lord: May they be put to shame and confusion. May they be turned back in disgrace. May they turn back because of their shame. He wants them to be covered in shame and disgrace, which is another way of saying he wants them to fail. When someone sets out to do something, but they fail at it miserably, they’re ashamed. They can’t look you in the eye, but they keep their head down, so they don’t have to look at anyone. They’re too ashamed, because they failed. And so, David is asking the Lord to frustrate their plans to destroy him. They set out to kill David, but don’t let them succeed.
Perhaps David was faced with enemy armies, who had come out to fight against him. And perhaps his enemies had boasted about what they would do to David. Well, don’t let them succeed, but defeat them and cover them with shame so that they’ll be embarrassed when they get home and have to tell their wives and children that they were unable to beat David. Don’t let them succeed.
Verse 4
And having prayed about his enemies in verses 2 and 3, he prays about God’s people in verse 4. He refers to them as those ‘who seek you’. That is, they seek the Lord. They seek him in prayer and worship and they seek to do his will. And he also refers to them as those ‘who love your salvation’. Those who love God’s salvation are those who pray for it and who watch for it and who rejoice when they see it.
And what is his petition for such people? He prays that they may rejoice and be glad in the Lord and may say, ‘Let God be exalted’. So, what would make such people rejoice and be glad? What would make them want to exalt the Lord in worship? Well, those who love God’s salvation will rejoice and be glad and they will exalt the Lord in worship when the Lord saves the psalmist. When they see God save David, then they will rejoice. So, David is saying: Save me so that my enemies will be covered in shame and the Lord’s people will be covered in joy and gladness.
Verse 5
And so, we come to the final verse. He confesses that he is poor and needy. The word translated ‘poor’ really means afflicted. It doesn’t mean he’s got little money; it means he’s got a lot of problems. And he’s needy because he needs help. He needs deliverance. And because he’s poor and needy, because he’s afflicted and in need of help, he cries to the Lord again to make haste and to come to him. He confesses that God is his help and his deliverer. And so, he cries to his help and deliverer not to delay, but to come to his aid quickly.
Application
In this brief psalm, David calls on the Lord to come quickly to help him. He prays that his enemies will not succeed, but will be covered in shame. He prays that God’s people will rejoice when they see how God has saved him. And he concludes the psalm by confessing his need and his faith in God.
This is a psalm of David and we know that David who was God’s Anointed King foreshadows God’s True Anointed King who is Jesus Christ the Lord. And he too was faced with enemies who sought his life and who wanted to kill him. He was faced with enemies who delighted in his distress; and when he hung on the cross, they passed by and they mocked him, wagging their heads at him and saying to him, according to Mark 15:29: ‘Aha!’ They mocked him, because they did not believe in him; and no doubt they rejoiced and were glad when eventually he breathed his last and died. It seemed to them at that moment that they had triumphed over him. And the Lord’s people, his disciples and all who loved God’s salvation, and were waiting for it, were distraught because it seemed at that moment that all their hopes had come to nothing.
And yet, three days later God came down and saved his Son from the power of death and the grave. He came to deliver him. And when the Lord’s disciples saw him alive, they rejoiced and were glad, because he had been raised triumphant over the grave and over his enemies who hated him.
And because the Lord Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins and to make a lasting peace for you with God, then you can rejoice, because you know that you can turn to God when you’re in trouble and you can count on him to help you. You can count on God, because Christ died to make peace for you with God. And so, you can call out to him in the name of the Lord Jesus and seek his help. Whatever is troubling you, whatever is worrying you, you can call to him and say:
Hasten, O God, to same me.
O LORD, come quickly to help me.
I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay.
And so, you can count on him to help you in this life, And then, even when you die, he will give you everlasting life in his presence, where you will be delivered from every trouble and trial. In Revelation 7, we have John’s vision of heaven right now. And John sees this great multitude, which no one can count. And they’re dressed in white robes to represent how they’ve been washed and cleansed in the blood the Lamb. And they’re worshipping the Lord. Who are all these people? One of the heavenly elders explained to John: ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation….’ When he mentions ‘the great tribulation’, he’s referring to this life with all its trials and troubles and tribulations. All the things we have to suffer because we live in a fallen world which is not the way it’s supposed to be. And all the things we have to suffer because we’re Christians. This life is full of trials and troubles and tribulation. And because of these things, we groan and we sigh and we weep. And we pray for deliverance. And God will deliver us from it all, because when we die, he will bring us out of this great tribulation and into his presence, where we will be sheltered by his presence and there will be nothing to harm us and we will drink from the living water and God will wipe the tears from our eyes.
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