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Psalms 70:1-5 “But I Am Poor and Needy…”

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“But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me”

The opening verse of our short five-verse Psalm is really the prayer that manifests as a result of God bringing us to our wits’ end as we cry out “make haste to help me, O LORD” that we see reiterated below.

Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

God has always been a present help in trouble and is working with each of us through our trials as we learn to trust that He will always be faithful toward us in every trial and temptation that He allows to manifest.

Psa 46:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psa 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

2Ti 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Seeing that this particular Psalm is centered around prayer and deliverance, I would like to look a bit at the operation of prayer and how it is a maturing process that takes us from asking amiss to praying fervent continual prayers that are borne out of suffering.

1Pe 3:14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

2Ti 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Jas 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Little by little our Lord gives us increase as He mercifully shows us our hard hearts and our need for a Saviour 24/7 rathar than only ‘when things are tough’.

Mat 26:44 And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

The parable of the foolish virgins is tied into this event (of Matthew 26:44 mentioned above) that sees the disciples who, when Christ came to pray the third time, “found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy”.

Mat 26:43 And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.

We all slumber and sleep and learn that it is by the grace and faith of Christ that we are wakened through the needful trials that are given to us so we can trust less and less in our flesh and only in the living God who gives us the power through the holy spirit to bring every thought and care into subjection unto him.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

We rejoice and say thanks be to God that he does waken us few “today” to the reality of the hope of glory, showing us the pattern in his word that teaches us to deny ungodliness in this age as we cry out for the faith needed to overcome all that Satan is allowed to throw at us.

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Tit 1:12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

It is Christ who creates that desire to even make the fervent prayer of faith in the first place so that we can take that shield of faith and overcome in this age by having done all so that we can stand.

Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

These ‘few’ verses of Psalms 70 are written for our sakes upon whom the end of the ages have come (2Co 4:15) and to show us a pattern of how God deals with us when we do feel “ashamed and confounded” from time to time, as we learn how inadequate we are without the abundant grace which God does show us with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

1Ti 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
1Ti 1:14 And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

God’s mercy is shown to a people who are blessed to be the first fruits who come to understand our indebtedness to our Creator as we learn to count the cost of how valuable the sacrifice of Christ’s life and His body is, that which is being given for the sins of the world.

Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?

Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1Pe 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

If we are blessed to grow to fill up Christ’s suffering within ourselves as his body, and if we are blessed to understand how it is that those stripes and wounds apply to our own spiritual diseases, then we will in fact be healed by them and be enabled to be used of God to bring spiritual healing to the rest of humanity.

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

Col 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

Matthew 18 is at the heart and core of the ministry of reconciliation that we are a part of. God can and will impress upon the elect the immeasurable debt that we have toward him for the sacrifice of Christ; and with this mercy and truth bound about our heart continually, we can go forth to bring healing to the nations who are yet walking in the former course of the world in which we once all walked.

2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Pro 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Now when we ask God to “Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD”, we need to consider the operation of faith that is at hand and how that faith and dragging of God to Christ is God’s mercy that is making a way for us where there seemed to be none.

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: helkuo – drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Isa 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Here are just a few verses (among many that could be uttered) from the new covenant that are centered around prayer and its operation of faith in the body of Christ; that speak to the verses that we will be looking, which I pray will encourage us all!

Mat 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Mat 5:23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Luk 12:57 Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

*****

For the longest time, we live in the shadow of a type of true deliverance which comes and goes in the flesh realm, which is subject to vanity, a vanity which is a shadow of the time yet to come when we will be subject unto the hope of being given all we need in the Lord.

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

God promises to supply our every physical and spiritual need as we labour to enter into that rest which is found in Christ our Sabbath. Life is abundant there is no doubt, but the truly abundant life is only in Christ.

Php 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

3Jn 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Psa 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

In this first verse, David is really saying (in type and shadow) what we hope the holy spirit will do for us today as the body of Christ: that is to “bring to remembrance”.

Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

“Making haste” reminds us that this is a work done within “a vapour” that the Lord is doing in this peculiar people who are blessed to experience in this short mist of a life an experience of evil that is humbling our flesh and bringing us to cry out “O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD”

Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

It is in this failing flesh that we come to learn of our Great God who is there to “make haste to help me” and he is especially “a very present help in trouble” for his people.

Luk 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Psa 46:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Inwardly we experience being “ashamed and confounded” as God teaches us of his Sovereignty by allowing us to fall seven times (complete) in the wilderness. He’s the one who causes our enemies within to be “turned backward” and “put to confusion”.

Pro 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Psa 71:1 In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Psa 25:2 O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

This confusion may manifest in outward sin, but as we grow in understanding of who God is, we realize that we can’t take credit for even our sins that are a part of the ‘one event unto all men’ that God is working for the good, to humble us and to bring us to see our need to be delivered from those that “desire my hurt”; especially from our own carnal nature that must be miraculously changed in order to have true liberty.

Ecc 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Joh 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Sin is embarrassing, and yet God lets it reside in our members sometimes for a long time until it is brought into the light of day by the mercy of God who uses that sin as a sword (“Aha, aha”) that is destroying our flesh.

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Psa 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

We know more and more intimately that God is seeking an occasion against all flesh, starting with the physical first, which is natural, and then moving toward the spiritual lessons that those physical events represent in our life (i.e. Israel at war with the nations around them).

1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

For God’s elect today, this is the day of the Lord and the day that we judge matters within the body of Christ (the Israel of God of Gal 6:16) and let the dead bury the dead who are operating in the law and are therefore in the natural shadow that points to the reality of Christ.

Gal 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

1Co 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

You can also think of how a tare works, as it represents sin in our members that reside only long enough to do what it is meant to do, and then when when God deems it time, the weed is pulled out of us without detriment to the body of Christ.

Mat 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

We are called to look well to ourselves (2Jn 1:7-9 in its positive application), and when God brings to our attention that something has to be addressed before we go to the altar of His grace, we must go and ask forgiveness of whomever we have offended lest that weed turn into a root of bitterness.

2Jn 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2Jn 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
2Jn 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

Mat 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Heb 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Eph 4:31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

To say “Aha, aha” does not sound like someone who is on a mission to be reconciled with his brother or who understands that we are all guilty of all. It is not the brother who goes to that brother alone to gain his brother – this rather is a talebearer.

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jas 2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Mat 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

Pro 11:13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.

So we thank God today that he has blessed us to see that we don’t see and are constantly in need of his mercy and forgiveness which we ought to be showing to one another as we discussed in the parable of Matthew 18:33. It is that mercy that we show to one another that gives us vision and helps us see collectively through a glass darkly. We are being blessed to look through that glass as the body of Christ who will narrowly escape and become a sea of glass that the world will look through to come to understand God.

Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Knowing what we know, ‘what manner of people ought we to be’ is the question Peter was inspired to ask. We ought to be sober and vigilant. We ought to be confident, We ought to be (all by the grace of God) believing that what God has promised will be accomplished. In other words ‘let the redeemed of the Lord say so’, and “Let God be magnified” and God willing we will do this if it is written in our books.

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Heb 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Things are being ‘dissolved’ in our heavens, and that’s a good thing because that is what it is going to take for “those that seek thee [to] rejoice and be glad in thee”. Those who “love thy salvation” will cry out and “say [so] continually” because of a confidence given that what God is doing in them is for the good of all men who we know will, in time, be saved by being given the power of the holy spirit to drink the cup. That cup is the same cup that brings us all to give an accounting that we are beasts in need of a Deliverer.

Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Mat 20:23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

This Psalm ends off the same way that it started where David cries out again “make haste unto me”. David knows that God can deliver him physically, but what has not happened yet is his spiritual deliverance.

That precious deliverance is reserved for a few at first [first fruits] whose deliverance is typified over and over in the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation:

Exo 22:29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

Lev 23:17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

Deu 26:2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.

Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

We pray “O LORD, make no tarrying”, and this fervent continual prayer comes back again on the heel of being given to see our need for a physician, said by David in these words “But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me”.

Mar 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

Through the trials and tribulations, through the persecutions and separation and judgment that is on us “today”, we are blessed to be persuaded of the things of which we once could not be convinced: “thy salvation” where the Lord is magnified – more and more continually.

Luk 16:31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Act 26:28 Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

1Co 14:24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
1Co 14:25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth

1Ch 16:11 Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.

Heb 13:15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

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