Psalm 70

Psalm chapter 70. I don't know if you've ever come to the Lord and felt the urgency of having Him answer quickly when you've come to Him in prayer. I think it's a fairly common thing, but that's what this Psalm is all about. It's a very short prayer. It's written by David and it's very similar to Psalm chapter 40. There are several verses in it that are almost verbatim, but we're going to read through this Psalm. It goes like this: chapter 70, verse 1:

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we get into this and some of the other Psalms tonight, help us to learn more about what it means to come to You in prayer to pour out our hearts and to come to You Lord as One who can make a difference, because we trust in You, and because we believe that You are faithful above all things. Heavenly Father, use our time tonight to really speak to our hearts and fill us with understanding. And help us, Lord, to see that it's okay to tell You how we really feel, what's really going on in our hearts, and how much we need You. Be with us, we pray, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. You probably noticed that there are 4 times in this very short Psalm, just 5 verses, yet 4 times that David cries out for the Lord to move quickly in response to his need. And I think we can probably all relate. There are times that time is of the essence, and we need a quick and ready answer to whatever is going on, whatever issues are pressing in. We need the Lord to respond. And in a time like that, God knows the urgency of our needs. But even still, I appreciate the Psalm being here anyway because I might otherwise feel guilty about being pushy or something. And I appreciate the fact that this Psalm allows the Psalmist to express that urgency without any condemnation or disapproval expressed. There's no rebuke. There's nothing going on here that would dissuade you and I from coming to God sometimes and just saying, Lord, I need You, and I need You now. And the wonderful part is that when you and I feel anxious and pressed for time as far as what we're praying about, God is still able to fill us with a sweet and lasting peace that comes from His presence. Because, I don't know about you, but when I'm pressed for time about something, it's very common for anxious thoughts to well up and for that anxiousness to take over and become your prominent demeanor. I mean, this is just what's making you feel the way you feel because I'm being pressed for time, and I don't really know how things are going to work. I had a feeling like that when we were up at the Barham Ranch this last weekend. I was teaching at that men's retreat, and for those of you that have been up there, many of our people have, because the ladies did their retreat there last year, and we've taken the youth up there and so forth. But it's removed, it's like 25 to 30 minutes off any kind of main road, and then it's another piece to get over to Pendleton, it's out that direction. And we woke up, we got there Friday, and we woke up Saturday morning, and my front left car tire, pickup tire, was as flat as a pancake. And I was sitting there going through in my mind what I was going to do. I got up in the morning, and I walked out, and it was a lovely day. There were some guys already out there putting together a big cooker thing for grilling meat. It's a men's retreat after all; you've got to grill meat, a lot of it. But anyway, I'm just walking around out there, and one of the guys goes, by the way, your pickup tire's flat. Oh man, I'm thinking in my mind how my day is going to go. I'm thinking to myself, okay, I've got a session to do this morning and then I've got a session to do later in the evening, and I'm playing this out in my mind because I didn't have all my notes. I had an outline of everything I wanted to do at the retreat, but I was still fleshing out my notes, and I knew I had time between sessions. Yes, okay, I'm a last-minute person that way. But anyway, suddenly I'm thinking, okay, now I'm going to have to like air this thing up. And then dash into Pendleton, and I'm envisioning myself sitting at a Les Schwab in Pendleton waiting to get my tire fixed and then making my way back and working while I can on my laptop while I'm sitting in a busy place that smells like rubber. And it just didn't sound like fun, and I was starting to feel that anxiousness like, Lord, we need to do something now. And I was—and I hadn't even gotten to the place of praying, to be completely honest. And then one of the guys who basically runs the camp, he comes over and looks at my tire, and I know this guy really well. His name is Mike, and he goes, oh, I have a patch kit right here at the ranch; we can get this thing taken care of for you. And immediately I'm just like, just powering down, because I'm realizing that my anxious thoughts, which were about to take over, the Lord just handled it, and He took care of me. And not only did we get the tire patched, but the hole — I don't know what I even hit — but the hole was right there at the top of the tire where they could easily get at it. We didn't even have to pull the tire off the pickup. It was like everything just worked out, and I didn't have to go anywhere. Thank you, Lord. Anyway, when you and I are feeling that way, when we're feeling pressed, when we're feeling like I need the Lord now, we have the confidence of knowing that the Lord knows our needs, and He can take care of those things. And the one thing I love to think about is the fact that God’s never rushed. I'm rushed, and I'm prevailing upon Him to hustle, but He’s never rushed. You and I, because we live within the confines of time, we assume God does too, and so we're trying to convince Him that there's not much time here. Well, you know what? He's got all the time in the universe and more. He's got infinite time because He lives outside of time. God dwells outside of time. People, time is something God created. He is not limited by His creation. And that's such an important reminder for you and me, particularly when we're feeling pressed for time and need that immediate answer: Lord, you know. That can just settle our hearts so quickly when we're feeling that rush and that anxiety: Lord, You know, You know. In fact, You knew this was coming. You knew this was going to happen. You knew this situation was going to go the way that it did. And Lord, I believe that You have an answer prepared. And You're going to work these things according to the purpose of Your will. And then that's at that point when we can just say, Lord, I need you to fill me with your peace because my circumstances being what they are, it's just not happening. I love how the psalmist starts off this Psalm by saying, hurry God, and then he ends in verse 5 by saying, "I am poor and needy…" We talk about people sometimes who are needy, and we do it in a fairly negative sort of light. We'll say, well, she's needy or he's needy, and we sometimes avoid people that are like that because, if you're not careful, they'll suck the life out of you. And yet David comes and just admits right off the get-go here, Lord, I'm needy and I'm poor, so I need you to hurry and here's why. I love how he ends this: "...You are my help…" You are not where I go to get help from time to time. You are my help, you’re it. He says, "...(you are) my deliverer (you're it)..." There's no one else. There's no one else for me to depend on. There's no one else for me to call to. I have to tell you something. I think the Lord loves that. I think the Lord loves it when His children come to Him and say, You're all I've got. And when we finally come to the place of realizing that He is all we have, we come to the place of realizing we have everything we need, right? Because, like Paul said in it's when I'm weak that I become strong. That's when I'm really strong, when I recognize my personal weakness, come to Him and know that my strength is in Him.