Psalms 8:1 and 16:2

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Psalm 70. It’s an excerpt taken from Psalm 40:1-12. We entered communion at Psalm 70:5:

Psalms 70:5 But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

The term of contradiction caught my attention: “But I am poor and needy.” Dr. Beckun’s Prayer Bible provides a helpful note on this Psalm, and the significance of the last verse is emphasized.

Along the still waters, I reflected: David is praying for deliverance, and he is impatient: “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD: (70:1). His urgency is emphasized.

From there, he proceeds to pray for those who desire to hurt him (70:2-3), and then for those who seek the Lord and love His salvation (70:4).

For his unreasonable and wicked accusers, who, in the evil imaginations of their hearts, imagine they see their own evil in him, and so say, “Aha, Aha” (70:3), David petitioned God to “let them be ashamed and confounded,” “turned backward,” and “put to confusion” in their mischief against him (70:2). They pursue me for my hurt, said David; “Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame” (70:3). Thus is the prayer of David for his wicked accusers.

David prayed that all who seek God’s face would rejoice and be glad, and that all who love His salvation would say continually, “Let God be magnified” (70:4). We would expect David would count himself among them who testified: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8).

David set himself outside both groups: “But I am poor and needy.” He prayed for the reward of shame to the wicked and joy to the righteous, but counted himself outside each case. “But” — I have not the burden of any just shame or reproach; I have not the rejoicing of those who enjoy the favor of Your countenance, or the joy of Your salvation. Upon what shall David rest his hope? God is merciful to the poor and needy (Psalm 10:4; 40:17; 72:12).

David, King of Israel, “poor and needy”? David did not mean he had insufficient funds notifications piling up, or bills he could not pay. He was trolled by haters and despisers and, wearied by their underhandedness, he was poor in spirit and needy of heart (Psalm 109:16, “Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart,” see also Matthew 5:3).

In the conclusion of David’s prayer, he returns to his urgency: “make haste” and “make no tarrying.”

In the valley, I heard another voice crying in the background of David’s complaint: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent” (Psalm 22:1-2). And “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He stursted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing h delighted in him” (Psalm 22:7-8).

The LORD heard my poor spirit and broken heart and said, “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21): “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. We went into the harvest, goodness and mercy following closely.

PS: I found His face and rejoiced.

Praying for revival! 🙏