Psalms 70:1 “To the chief musician, A Psalm of David, “Make haste O God to deliver me, make haste O Lord to help me.”
“And he (Dirk Pitt) refused medical treatment and any food until he was sure the children were all taken care of and the dogs were fed.” Clive Cussler – “Cyclops”
A Psalm of David? What David are we talking about? Is this our David, the one who faced a giant with three stones? Is this the David who was a leader of men, a great warrior and king? Is this the same David crying out for help and immediate help at that? This can’t be my David. My David was a champion, a hero, not some weak panic stricken coward crying out for help.
I grew in a generation where heroes were real heroes. Take Clive Cussler’s hero, Dirk Pitt, in his NUMA novels. You have in the novel “Cyclops” where Dirk Pitt single handedly hijacks a ship filled with enough explosives to blow up the entire city of Havana, Cuba. He manages to detonate the explosives at sea in time to save Havana except for its surrounding port. There were casualties but not many and it was enough to convince Cuban authorities that this was only a plot to draw America into a war. Sadly Dirk Pitt is blown up with the ship and his friends on shore mourn his loss while celebrating his heroics. But wait, no, can it be? Off in the distance they see a tall man badly injured carrying three injured children singing “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” while a group of dogs jump around him barking. Now that is a hero, not only does he survive his suicide mission, with great wounds, but he manages to save some children and dogs in the process. But wait not only that, when he is surrounded by people offering to give him medical assistance and food he refuses it all until the children are properly cared for — and the dogs are fed. Now that is a real hero. You would never see Dirk Pitt cry out for deliverance or help, no sir. He would go down fighting.
Someone once said that true courage is not being fearless, but is being afraid, yet still moving forward and not quitting. When I was growing our Hollywood heroes were never afraid, never injured except maybe having a bum knee until the next episode or getting shot in the shoulder. If our heroes do call upon God they are seen like George Washington properly dressed, quietly kneeling by his horse in frigid weather saying a nice word of prayer. Put David in that scene and he is laying spread eagle, sobbing out; “Oh God, Oh God.’ By the way witnesses to George Washington’s little prayer times in the snow report that it was not all that serene. George Washington had his “Oh God” moments as well.
Indeed the Hebrew word for to make haste is chush with a paragogic Hei. In other words to put this verse into its emotional context you would have to render this verse as, “A Psalm of David; “Heeelp!!!!” Now that is some Psalms, it is not the quiet, poetic, gentle poem you would expect. Yet, David is being honest with his feelings. He might as well, God knows them anyway.
But David is not just worried about his own gizzard. This cry is for deliverance and help. In the Hebrew the word for deliverance is nasal and the word for help is azar. Nasal has the idea of separation or to take away. It can also carry the idea of deliverance. We need to note that this is in a Hiphal form. This would suggest that he is not necessarily asking for just a deliverance, but a deliverance that is God directed. Sometimes when we need deliverance, at least for me, I don’t care where it comes, so long as it comes. Yet David is saying that he wants only a deliverance from God or none at all. Also he is calling on Elohim for this deliverance where he calls on Jehovah for the help. Now unless you subscribe to the JEDP theory of higher criticism (which I don’t) then we need to find another reason why David called on God by the title of Elohim rather than Jehovah.
I find from reading Jewish literature that when the word Elohim is used it is used to express a God of judgment. When the word Jehovah is used, it is used to express a God who is expresses the feminine nature, the nurturing aspect of God. This may explain why David uses nasal (deliverance) in a hiphal form. He is saying if I am in this mess because of my own stupid blunders and you are correcting me or chastising me, then don’t bother delivering me, let me receive your chastisement, but if this affliction is not of you then get me out of here and do it quick.
He then takes it one step further by saying something to the effect of, “But it still hurts, kiss it and make it better.” In other words he is saying to that that whether his affliction is of God or not, it is still painful just “help me.” The word help is ‘azar but this word has a particular twist in its Semitic origins. It origins are rooted in the role of a priest who is to lead one to God. So this help, which is from the same root that we get a helpmeet from and is meant to lead us to God.
David’s prayer in Psalms 70:1 isn’t just for his own physical wellbeing. It is that he does not miss the opportunity to find God in his present circumstances. Now that is a true hero. He is scared to death to face the coming threat, but he will stand tall and face it if this is from God, he will endure whatever discipline, chastisement or correction God dishes out. But if there is no correction from God in this threat, then he is looking to Elohim the masculine, the protecting and providing nature of God to get me him out of there. That is not the talk of a coward, that is the talk of good sense. If such a person as Dirk Pitt existed, he would need to be locked up as he is not only a threat to himself but others with such reckless disregard for his own safety. David probably used more common sense than any modern pulp hero. He was afraid, but he was willing to face the object of his fears as long as God was in it.
Ultimately, it was Jehovah that loving nurturing aspect of God that came and kissed it to make it better, whether the disaster his own doing or not. Too often we turn David into some sort of comic book, pulp hero when the Bible really depicts him as a real person, a real person with fears, questions and doubts. He was a man who faced real life adventures and they scared him to death. David was your average Joe like you and I who kept his senses about him and when face with dire circumstances he sought to God in each circumstance.
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