Psalm 70

1 To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David: to bring to remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me; Jehovah, hasten to my help.
2 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion that seek after my soul; let them be turned backward and confounded that take pleasure in mine adversity;
3 Let them turn back because of their shame that say, Aha! Aha!
4 Let all those that seek thee be glad and rejoice in thee, and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified!
5 But I am afflicted and needy: make haste unto me, O God. Thou art my help and my deliverer: O Jehovah, make no delay.

This short psalm shows David in deep desperate trouble praying earnestly for immediate help and that his enemies will be turned back. He is reminding everyone that God is faithful to all who trust Him while pleading with God that the answer will come immediately. But there is no clue in the psalm what the problem was, however the fact that he lived to sing the psalm proves that God did answer and David was thankful. The only clue we have about the circumstances that brought this cry for help is the introduction title to the psalm where we find the word ‘remembrance’. But what is David remembering that he wants all who read the psalm to profit from?

We remember that David was the anointed king of Israel and we have learned that he was just as human as we are. Because he took his job as king seriously he studied and learned the mind of God, for God had given it to Abraham and Moses and the prophets. We need only read his Psalm 119 in which he mentions the law of God in almost every one of the 176 verses to see his respect for the laws of God. He knew that obedience to God would bring blessing and that disobedience would bring curses. And right now he was in an extremely desperate state. Why, he does not tell us.

So let us imagine that he is remembering the rebellion of Absalom, one of the most despicable betrayals that ever happened to David. And immediately we remember the statement that he made when he sent the army out to fight with Absalom, he said, “O Absalom my son, I wish that it had been me that died instead of you.” What was going on in his mind to say such a thing? Again since he does not tell us, let us imagine what might have triggered him saying, ‘if only’.

He knew that Moses taught the people what God expected of them after they came our of Eqypt and that Moses repeated it in the book of Deuteronomy when the wilderness wanderings were just about over, He had read that the people had promised to worship and obey God, and he knew the special instructions about what they should do to gain control of their promised land. The blessings and the curses were emphasized very strongly, Moses made very sure that they knew about both cause and effect. One of these instructions was that they should make no deals with any of the peoples that God saw were beyond hope, else there would be terrible punishment for this disobedience. David also had seen how Saul lost the kingdom because he disobeyed what God asked him to do.

Had David disobeyed? Alas, yes, he had. It started with wanting a princess as a wife, which of course would be a prideful thing and would give a poor shepherd boy some status, and no doubt there were people who urged him to take the honor of being the King’s son in law. But it was not the son of Saul’s daughter who was chasing David out of his kingdom, for she did not have a son by David, it was his son by another princess.

And was not this other princess the daughter of the king of Geshur, the king of one of those nations whom God had said should be exterminated? Yes, and in remembrance it was a terrible disobedience. And the sons of that disobedience were as bad as the people whom David calls upon God to curse. If only David had obeyed, but since he did not there were consequences, very bad ones. If only . . .

He might also have been thinking of his disobedience in stealing Uriah’s wife and having him murdered. That also would have be a very disturbing remembrance, another reason that he was not at all worthy of God’s blessing. If only . . . But David believed in spite of all these memories and God did hear him and God did answer him.

It likely was a while after the terrible experience before the psalm was composed and sung, after David was back on his throne, after deliverance had been granted by God, after the conspirators had been eliminated and the kingdom was safe from being under the control of God’s enemies. And who knows how much worse it would have been if Absalom had become king, but fortunately God heard and answered the prayer of the psalm. He always has an answer.

As we remember the things that we have failed to do and to be, the promised blessings and forfeitures, and how much we have been forgiven, may we believe in God’s goodness like David did. We need not remain at the ‘if only’, for we can be victorious like David was and sing praises to our God even using his very words in this psalm. Let God be magnified!

The Habit of Prayer

Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit

In this verse Paul exhorts Christians to pray always. Really? To pray the same prayers over and over again? What prayers could he be talking about? Habitual, customary prayers are not usually considered to be from the heart as prayer should be, but here are 4 habitual prayers that every believer needs to always pray every day of his life. The words need not always be the same, but the heart attitude must be consistent always lest the blessings slip away from us.

The most important and most often neglected prayer is grace before eating. We would quickly starve and die of poor health if the Creator held back His sun and His rain on the land. He is definitely worthy of our thanks for food. Are we thankful in prayer before eating each meal?

When we were young we learned to pray before going to sleep asking the Lord to keep us, nor do we need His watchcare over us any less when we are grown up. Do we thank God for the day and do we commit ourselves to Him for the night in prayer? We should always do this.

The songwriter wrote, “When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, ‘May Jesus Christ be praised’”. Each morning we should be thankful that He has refreshed us with sleep and brought us to a new day. Now that it is morning we always thank Him and ask Him to lead us.

Bible reading is another regular opportunity to always thank God that he has given us His Book and to ask Him to help us understand the written word, for we will not understand much of it unless the Holy Spirit helps us to understand it. “Help me, O Lord to understand what I am reading in the Bible” must be another one of those always prayers.

But you say that these are only personal and almost selfish prayers so that I can be healthy and enjoy a good life every day and they are not as important as other less selfish prayers! But no, if our attitudes and hearts are not right for these things and we do not pray about them, then neither will they be right when we pray about other people and other things. Listen to what Jesus said in the parable about the good Samaritan, that we must love others as we love ourselves. So if we never learn how to love ourselves we will never love others. God in His relation to me is more concerned about me than about anybody else. Yes, He is. He cares for you and for me first before what He cares about what we do for Him or for others.

So let us practice the daily habit of praying always using these 4 little prayers so that He can teach us the effectual fervent prayer that accomplishes much.

James 5:16 (c) The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.