Hurry, God
Five verses of raw urgency. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Sometimes prayer has no time for eloquence.
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1Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Hurry, O LORD, to help me!
2May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.
3May those who say, “Aha, aha!” retreat because of their shame.
4May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation always say, “Let God be magnified!”
5But I am poor and needy; hurry to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.
A brief, urgent plea for deliverance, Psalm 70 is nearly identical to the closing verses of Psalm 40 (vv. 13–17), functioning as an independent emergency prayer. Its compressed form—five verses of concentrated petition—makes it one of the Psalter's most focused lament prayers. The contrast between the shame of enemies and the joy of those who seek God creates the psalm's structural axis.
The superscription's 'for a memorial offering' (lehazkir) suggests liturgical use, possibly accompanying the azkarah grain offering. Its brevity and intensity suggest a prayer designed for immediate crisis situations requiring swift divine intervention.
The psalm's theology centers on divine urgency—the repeated 'hasten' (chushah) and 'do not delay' frame the entire prayer. The plea for haste does not represent impatience but existential extremity. The identification of God as 'my help and my deliverer' concentrates covenant theology into a single confession.
Psalm 70 legitimizes brief, desperate prayer. Not all prayer requires elaborate structure; sometimes faith is compressed into a cry. The psalm models how to pray when there is no time for anything but essentials.
Tap any verse for its meaning, any word for its Hebrew or Greek root, and follow every cross-reference without losing your place.
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Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.