During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
Hasten, O God, to save me;
come quickly, Lord, to help me.May those who want to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
turn back because of their shame.
But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say,
“The Lord is great!”But as for me, I am poor and needy;
Psalm 70:1-5
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Lord, do not delay.
Devotional
One of the curious realities of this Psalm is that it is . . . well, shall we say, “self-plagiarized”? If you flip back in your Bible and read the last few verses of Psalm 40 (verses 13-17, to be precise) you will discover that Psalm 70 is in essentially the same form in Psalm 40.
What’s with that?
A couple of things:
- David is the author of both Psalms, so it is not as if he has found this language and appropriated it from somewhere else.
- We do not know what the precipitating factor is that prompted David to write these words—whether he was reflecting on his conflicts with Saul, or he was reflecting on the dysfunction of his own family, perhaps prompted by the attempted coup led by David’s son, Absalom. At the end of the day, we do not know what initiated these words.
In reflection on the “why repeat?” question, we’ll have to chalk this up to the list of questions we will ask God when we get to heaven. (Add this to the list of “Did Adam have a navel?” and “What was Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’?”) But think for a moment about the things that you repeat with any frequency.
There are four things that are lodged in my soul that I return to with significant frequency. When I am trying to sleep and I cannot, when I am confused about something in my life and I need to settle myself down, when I am anxious about something, these are the things that I repeat: the 23rd Psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the “Jesus prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”).
Maybe Psalm 70—and that part of Psalm 40—is something that David wrote once when he was in distress, and it settled in his soul in such a way that it became a prayer, a song that settled him down when he was in distress—and he decided, led by Holy Spirit, to repeat it for us today
For Reflection
- When has been a time that you echoed David’s “Hasten, God, to help me”?
- What are the things that are embedded in your soul that you turn to with regularity when your life seems to be out of order?
Prayer
Thank you, O God, for loving me and caring for me, particularly when I am in distress. Help me to always praise you and exalt you. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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Devotionals