One of the disconnects between us and our God is to do with time. The Almighty dwells in eternity and oversees the full picture. We bumble along day by day, indeed often counting the days until our adversaries are displaced and put to ‘shame and confusion’ (v 2). I don’t suppose there has ever been a believer who has not called upon God to ‘hasten’: to move us quickly past our current woes and into the safe space, the place of contentment that we instinctively sense should be just up ahead. Why does God so often seem to prefer time scales beyond our understanding? Come on, Lord! What’s the delay?

Perhaps I would not dare to type that unless I had just read verse 5. The great thing about the psalmists is that they are never afraid to declare to God precisely how they feel. One reason for the boldness of the writers is that they are, in several respects, in the right place. Their very first words here are a cry to God. They readily acknowledge their own lowliness and God’s greatness. They clearly count themselves among those in verse 4, those on the Lord’s side. It is in this role, as God’s servant, that the psalmist feels able to ask for God’s support in putting down the adversaries described in verses 2 and 3.

Lord, you are my help and my deliverer. May I experience your saving help this day.

This short psalm, which also appears as the last five verses of Psalm 40, begins and ends by asking God to hurry up and answer the psalmist’s prayer. Nobody knows whether it first existed here and was later combined with a psalm that begins, ‘I waited patiently for the Lord’, or whether it was there in the first place and was deemed important enough to exist on its own. Whatever the case, it reminds us that while it is necessary to wait patiently for God to answer our prayers, it is sometimes appropriate to ask God to hurry up. Maybe it is doubly appropriate here, because this plea appears twice in Ps 40 (vs 13,17) and twice in Ps 70 (vs 1,5).¹

Apart from two lines in verse 5, this psalm only contains prayers. Those two lines are the basis for the prayers: ‘I am poor and needy … You are my help and my deliverer’. When we are conscious of our need and of God’s ability to meet that need, then we can pray in faith. In between the pleas for God to hurry up is the five times repeated expression ‘may those …’. The first three requests are for God to shame the psalmist’s enemies. The last two requests concern all who seek God and long for him to act: may God bring them joy and gladness, and may he open their mouths with the confession ‘The Lord is great!’ (v 4). 

Is this climax to these five petitions the ultimate outcome of our answered prayers? As we look at our need and God’s ability to meet that need, and as we experience God’s grace in doing so, we too should give thanks and praise to God, declaring his greatness.

God may answer our prayers with ‘Yes’, ‘No’, or ‘Wait’. Would this psalmist be satisfied with ‘No’ or ‘Wait’? Should we? Be encouraged and continue to pray.

¹ It also appears in Pss 22:19; 38:22; 71:12; 141:1