Day 145

Psalm 70: Read here – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2070&version=NASB

The title: ‘The Chief Musician’ is believed to refer to God Himself.  Psalm 70 is almost identical to Psalm 40:13-17.

David asked God to bring help with haste (3 times), knowing that if deliverance was too long delayed, it was of no help at all. Therefore, he asked with a sense of urgency. Many of our prayers would prevail more with God if they were offered with more urgency. In the second line, he repeats his request but changes the name to the Covenant name of God (Yahweh.) These prayers are imperfect because God is never tardy, but He still wants to hear them.

The kindest thing we can pray for people who do wrong is that their plans will fail, for it may be that in their frustration they will see the folly and true end of evil and be reached for God. David is praying within the principles of justice, as promised by God to those who oppress God’s people. They shall have their wages declared Paul (Rom6:23).

There is a sense of scornful mocking in v3. It was bad enough that David’s enemies wanted him dead; they also poured ridicule on him. ‘Aha, aha’ is a note of supreme contempt in the Hebrew.

For me, v4 is the highlight of the psalm. The NLT renders it; “But may all who search for you be filled with joy and gladness in you. May those who love your salvation
repeatedly shout, “God is great.” David called the people of God to be happy in Him. It would be impossible for David to do this unless he also found some measure of joy and gladness in God, despite his urgent problem. The doxology ‘let God be magnified,’ is infinitely more ennobling than the banana spined dingo bark of ‘aha, aha.’

David could combine his sense of great joy in God with a realistic appraisal of his present need. Secure in the truth that God cared for and thought about him, he again appealed to God to be his ‘help and deliverer,’ and he needed God to do this without delay. God would answer this complete dependence upon Him.