THE PSALMS – A JOURNEY IN WORSHIP AND FAITH - October 17, 2014 - Day 70 - Psalm 70

Psalm 911 is what I call this psalm. It is the sound of an emergency call to God.

Psalm 70:1
Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!

Like David prays here, I, too, have dialed the 911 prayer to God. One time God answered a prayer before I got the words out. But if you know God well, you know that usually in terms of our hurry up prayers, His timing is not ours.

Revelation 22:7
"And behold, I am coming quickly.”

That was 2000 some years ago.

2 Peter 3:8
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

According to Peter that makes it about 2 days ago on God’s calendar.

Maybe you feel desperate like David did and just cannot handle the attacks coming down on you.

Psalm 70:2-3
Let those be ashamed and humiliated Who seek my life; Let those be turned back and dishonored Who delight in my hurt. Let those be turned back because of their shame Who say, "Aha, aha!"

Dial up 911 prayer. Cry out to God. Make the call. Then praise Him in the midst of the emergency and in so doing the world will see where you place your faith.

Psalm 70:4
Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, "Let God be magnified."

He understands your cry. He hears your prayers. He knows your needs. He wants you to pray like the tax collector in Luke 18:13 who was “beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” Come to Him like a child in complete and utter desperation and helplessness.

Psalm 70:5
But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.

Then sit back and wait on Him. He may answer your prayer before it rolls off your lips. Or He may not. Remember Lazarus? He got really sick. Mary and Martha sent that 911 call to Jesus. Get here, they cried. They were really worried and knew Jesus could heal him. What did Jesus do? He didn’t fire up the chariot and turn on the siren and red lights. He said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it." Then He waited 2 days longer before He decided to show up. You think He just didn’t care that these women were broken up as they watched their brother die while Jesus took His good old time getting there? John 11:33-35 says differently, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus wept.”

Jesus wept. He weeps with you today. If you’ve cried out in prayer today or last week, or last year, or even twenty years ago and you think He just doesn’t care you are wrong.

John 11:14-15
Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

There is a reason why we face the things we face. So that we believe. So our faith in Him is refined through the fire. So that God is glorified. You may never understand this side of eternity.

Keep praying. Jacob wrestled with God and sometimes all we can do is hang on in that wrestling match. At some point, like Jacob, God will break us and then and then only will our lives change and become simply about bringing glory to God.

The story of Lazarus ends with resurrection.

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Do you believe this?