By campus Missionary Mary Rowley based on Psalm 70
As a child, I loved being outdoors. Every morning during the summer I would run out to the sandbox in our backyard or beg my mother until she took me to the playground down the street. I had so much fun – but being a kid, I found plenty of ways to get myself into trouble. Scraped knees and elbows were my constant companions. However, I knew that nothing would ever be too bad as long as my mother was there. She would come when I cried, carry me home, and make everything better.
This Psalm reminds me of those summer days. The Psalmist is clearly in some kind of trouble, but he doesn’t despair, just like I didn’t cry forever. Instead, he goes to the one person he knows will make everything better: God. He says, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!” He knows where to go for help, and he trusts that God will be there and will know what to do.
The Psalmist is giving us an excellent reminder of the qualities of God. Just like any good parent, he will always be there to save us, to help us, and to deliver us. He won’t abandon us, no matter what we do. And that’s lucky for us, because we manage to find trouble wherever we go. We are indeed poor and needy, as the Psalmist describes. But whenever we find ourselves in trouble, God will hasten to us, and we will have reason to say, “God is great!”