Make haste, oh God, to deliver me. Oh Lord, make haste to help me.
– Psalm 70:1
This is a great verse to follow up from Psalm 69:13.
Psalm 70:1 Is a Prayer for Hasty Deliverance
It talked about praying with trust in God’s timing. Then you turn to the very next Psalm, Psalm 70:1, and you see the psalmist, David here, saying, “God, please help me, now. Please help me quickly. Make haste, oh God, to deliver me.” Then he says it again, “Oh Lord, make haste to help me.”
So how do these verses go together? Well, apparently it is right to ask God to answer quickly. That’s Psalm 70:1. But even as we ask for God to move quickly like that, there’s a way to ask for Him to move in haste, with trust in His timing if He chooses not to. This is one of the great pictures that we see all throughout the Bible of God inviting us to come to Him honestly and pour out our hearts to Him, and when we want something to ask for it. We don’t need to be afraid to ask our Father for all kinds of good things. Don’t be timid before the God who’s invited you and me to ask Him for all kinds of good things, all kinds of ways His glory can be made known.
And at the same time that we honestly pour out our hearts in that way, like David’s doing here in Psalm 70:1, “God, I need your help now. Please help me soon. Please help me quickly,” to pray that, honestly before God and humbly, trusting that God may provide immediately, God may make haste, and we will praise him when He does.
Psalm 70:1 Is Also a Calling to Humbly Trust God’s Timing
And at the same time trusting that if God doesn’t provide quickly, answer hastily, that we will still trust Him because He’s good and loving and wise in ways that we are not. So pray honestly and humbly before God, honestly pouring out your heart, asking God to work in certain ways and even according to certain time. And the same time humbly trusting God’s timing and His love for us.
Oh God, we praise You for Psalm 70:1, and we’ve got all kinds of things that are going on in our lives right now that we’re praying You would answer now. God, I just want to turn this into my own time with You right now, but for the sake of others, You know so many things in my heart I’m just praying for relief from, praying for Your provision in. And God, I know I’m not alone. I know there’s so many people when we think, “If God could do this today, what would it be that you would want Him to do?” And all kinds of things start coming into our minds.
So God, make haste, we pray to deliver us, make haste to help us according to Your word in Psalm 70:1. And we pray that with trust in Your timing, with trust in Your wisdom, with trust in Your love for us, that Your deliverance will come, Your help will come. Just a matter of when and how. You and Your wisdom and Your love. Show Your deliverance and give us Your help. We should praise You for Your faithfulness to deliver and help us.
Praying for the Baloch People
And God, we pray, as we do on this podcast all the time, for unreached people in the world, oh God, make haste to help them. We pray for the Baloch people of Pakistan, of Turkmenistan, of Balochistan, all of these Sunni Muslims who are so hard to reach with the gospel, in mountainous regions and very difficult to reach places. God, we pray, make haste to deliver the Baloch, make haste to help the Baloch, make haste to help all those who are working among the Baloch, including brothers and sisters I know who come to my mind right now, who I love.
God bless all those who are working for the spread of the gospel among the Baloch. Bless the few believers among the Baloch Make haste to help them, make haste to deliver them, make haste to give them everything they need for the spread of the gospel among the Baloch people. We pray all of this according to Your word, trust in Your timing. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
