Psalm 70

Today's scripture is Psalm 70. Go here to read it in your preferred version.

Make haste, o God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord.
² Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.
³ Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.
⁴ Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
⁵ But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying.

God's actions:
He will deliver me and help me, and He will do it quickly.
  
Commands to me:
Rejoice and be glad in God, say continually that God will be magnified.

If God is for me, who can be against me? As long as I love God He will always be my helpmate. 

I haven't studied Psalm 40 on the blog yet, but these five verses are almost exactly the same as the last five verses of Psalm 40. I read in a commentary by Matthew Henry that some people think it is titled "A psalm to bring to remembrance" because it's a good outline to use when we are praying old prayers with new intentions. We may go through seasons where we are free from trouble, but when trouble comes we need to remember who is there for us and who our Comforter is. We may even pray the same prayer over and over at times.

Here we can see that David was in distress. He is begging God to quickly deliver him and help him. He says this in both the beginning of the prayer and the end of the prayer. People were seeking to destroy his mind, his reputation, his faith, and even his life. He was begging God to bring those people to shame and make them realize what they were doing and feel guilt for it, and then in effect turn away from what they were doing to him. David then goes on to pray for those who are not his enemies - he prays for them to have joy and that they'll continually be praising God. Those that seek God will certainly rejoice in Him and find blessings. David points out that he is poor and needy, as we all are at times. But it is these times that we cry out for help because we realize how needy we are. And this does draw us closer to God.

One name for God is Elohim. This means "God who is able." Another name is Jehovah which means "God who acts on behalf of His own people". If you are a Christian, you never have to worry that your God is unable to handle something. And you never have to wonder if God is going to be there for you. Sometimes we have to do some searching to find Him, but that's because of our failings as humans.

Comments, questions, thoughts about this scripture?