Psalm 70 · a question people ask
"LORD, don’t delay" (70:5). Is it right to tell God to hurry?
The psalm does it at both ends: "Come quickly to help me, LORD" (70:1), and "Come to me quickly, God" (70:5) (tap quickly). Other prayers in Scripture ask the same. "LORD, I have called on you. Come to me quickly!" (Psalm 141:1), with the Hebrew words of Psalm 70:5's Come to me quickly. Daniel (Daniel 9:2-4) prays, "Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God" (Daniel 9:19), where Don’t defer has the Hebrew words of Psalm 70:5's don’t delay (tap delay). And Psalm 70 says who it is asking: "You are my help and my deliverer" (70:5). Scripture also speaks of waiting. Psalm 40, whose last verses Psalm 70 has again, opens, "I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry" (Psalm 40:1). And when the LORD answered Habakkuk (Habakkuk 2:2), he said of the vision, "Though it takes time, wait for it, because it will surely come. It won’t delay" (Habakkuk 2:3), where delay is again the verb of Psalm 70:5. These verses stand side by side in Scripture, and these notes don't choose how they fit together.
The verses
“For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, LORD.”
“But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer. LORD, don’t delay.”
“A Psalm by David. LORD, I have called on you. Come to me quickly! Listen to my voice when I call to you.”
“in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years about which the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah the prophet for the accomplishing of the desolations of Jerusalem, even seventy years. I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “Oh, Lord, the great and dreadful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments,”