Latest / Reformed Thinking / Make Haste, O God: A Cry for Immediate Help (Psalm 70) | Charles Spurgeon

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Make Haste, O God: A Cry for Immediate Help (Psalm 70) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  So this is the show where we we take a really dedicated look at
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  a specific stack of sources and the whole point is to help you,
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  the learner, to gain knowledge fast, but you know, with some
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  real depth. We are two Protestant Christians
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  and we just love digging into the heritage of well Reformed
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  theology and the Westminster Confession.
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  It's really good to be back, and today our guide is, well, he's a
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  special one. We're looking at the Psalms, of
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  course, but we're doing it through the lens of the Prince
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  of Preachers. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
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  Himself and his massive commentary, The Treasury of
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  David. Oh, I love the Treasury of
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  David. It is a beast of a collection
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  though. I mean, it's not exactly
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  something you throw in your bag for, you know, light reading at
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  the beach. It certainly is not.
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  It's a dense multi volume set. But what makes it so unique, and
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  what we're going to leverage today, is that Spurgeon isn't
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  just a commentator, he's more like a curator.
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  Curator. I like that.
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  Yeah, he pulls in voices from all over church history.
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  You've got Augustine from the 4th century, the Puritans from
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  the 17th. Medieval monks, the Reformers.
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  All of them. He gathers them all under one
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  roof to explain the text. It's really something.
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  It is. So for today, we've got a stack
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  of excerpts from the treasury, and we're focusing specifically
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  on Psalm 70. Now, looking at this text, our
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  mission today is pretty specific.
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  We want to understand first why David seems to be repeating
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  himself, because I mean, for anyone who knows their Bible,
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  this text is going to look very familiar.
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  Very familiar. 2nd, we want to look at the theology of urgency
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  and prayer. And finally, and I think this is
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  where the Reform view really shines, the Christological
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  connection. How does this point as to Jesus?
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  It's a short Psalm. What is it 5 verses?
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  Yes, five, yeah. But as we're about to see, it is
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  so heavy with meaning. We've got notes here from
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  Augustine, James Frame, Thomas Wilcox, and a few others, so we
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  have plenty to work with. OK, let's jump right in.
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  Psalm 70. The first thing that really
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  jumps out at you, if you've been reading through the Psalter in
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  order, is this sense of Deja vu. You get to Psalm 70 and you
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  think, wait a minute, I've I've read this before you.
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  Absolutely have. It's nearly identical to the end
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  of Psalm 40. Verses 13 through 17.
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  Right. Exactly verses 13 to 17 of Psalm
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  40. So the obvious question is, you
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  know, did David just copy paste his own work?
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  Was he, I don't know, running out of ideas and facing a
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  deadline from his publisher? That is the cynical view for
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  sure, but Spurgeon takes a very practical look at this.
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  He acknowledges it right away in the title section.
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  He calls it a copy with variations.
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  His view is that David likely wrote the full length song 41st
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  that was the original composition, but then for a
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  specific occasion he made this excerpt himself.
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  So it's an intentional edit, not a lazy copy.
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  Precisely, Spurgeon says. He altered it to suit the
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  occasion. Think of it this way.
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  Psalm 40 is a longer, broader song.
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  It covers a lot of ground, praise, lament, history.
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  But sometimes you don't have time for the whole song.
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  Right. Sometimes the crisis is
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  immediate. You need the emergency broadcast
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  version, and that's Psalm 70. That makes so much sense.
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  It's the difference between writing a long, detailed letter
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  and just sending a quick text message.
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  A very urgent text message, and the placement here is
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  fascinating. Spurgeon points out that in the
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  Psalter, in the Book of Psalms as a collection, this Psalm sits
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  right between Psalm 69 and Psalm 71.
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  He calls it a fit pendant to Psalm 69 and a suitable preface
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  to Psalm 71. So.
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  It's like a bridge connecting to larger landmass.
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  Yes, and he calls these 36970 and 71, a precious triad of
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  Psalm, a triad of song, and they're all what he calls
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  supplicatory expostulation. OK, that is a mouthful
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  supplicatory expostulation. Let's impact that term.
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  Well, supplicatory is simple. It means pleading, asking for
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  help, but with humility. Expostulation is it's a bit more
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  intense. It involves reasoning,
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  protesting, almost arguing your case with real emotion.
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  So it's not a passive request. Not at all.
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  It's an active wrestling kind of prayer.
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  So Psalm 70 isn't just a scrap leftover from Psalm 40.
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  It's placed here intentionally to connect the thoughts of the
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  songs around it. Psalm 69 is like you're drowning
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  in deep waters. Psalm 71 is the reflection of an
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  older believer looking back. And Psalm 70 is the urgent link
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  between the two, the cry in the middle.
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  That's it exactly. I like that it gives the
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  repetition a real purpose. It validates the idea that we
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  can, you know, use the same words again and again when the
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  feeling matches. Now, what about the title?
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  It says to the chief musician, a Psalm of David, to bring to
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  remembrance that phrase to bring to remembrance.
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  That really stuck out to me in the notes.
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  It's hugely significant. Spurgeon calls this the poor
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  man's memorial. The poor man's memorial.
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  What does he mean by that? Well, think about the
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  sacrificial system in the Old Testament.
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  If you wanted to approach God, you usually brought something
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  right? You brought a bull, a lamb, some
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  grain, incense. You brought a memorial offering
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  to get God's attention. Ritually speaking.
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  OK, sure. But what if you're on a run?
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  What if you're bankrupt? What if you're hiding in a cave
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  from Saul? You have nothing to bring, no
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  grain, no bulls. You have no incense to burn.
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  So what do you offer? You offer your memory.
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  You offer your plea, Virgin says this prayer is the memorial.
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  David is saying, Lord, I don't have a goat to slaughter here,
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  but I'm asking you Remember Me? Wow, that levels the ground,
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  doesn't it? The king and the beggar have the
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  exact same access through this memorial of prayer.
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  It's a beautiful thought. It reminds us that God doesn't
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  need our material resources to hear us.
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  But there's a flip side to this, a reciprocal duty that Spurgeon
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  highlights. And what's that?
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  This is very characteristic of Reformed thought On duty, he
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  says. Even if the Lord seems to forget
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  us, we must not forget Him. So the title is an instruction
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  to us too. Exactly.
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  It's a command. We are asking God to remember
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  us, but at the same time we must actively remember Him.
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  That is a hard discipline. I mean, when you're in the
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  middle of a crisis, the great fear is that God has forgotten
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  you. It feels like silence.
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  And the temptation is to forget him in return to just, you know,
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  clock out spiritually. That's the natural human
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  reaction. God isn't showing up, so I'm
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  checking out, but this title to bring to remembrance.
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  It acts as a command to the soul.
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  In the middle of the crisis. You must actively call to mind
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  who God is. You're preaching to yourself as
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  much as you're praying to God. You mentioned a Christological
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  layer earlier that Spurgeon doesn't just see David here.
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  He always sees more than David. He notes that David's Lord may
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  be heard here also. So when we read David's cries of
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  abandonment or his pleas for help, we're often hearing the
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  voice of Christ in his humiliation.
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  So bring to remembrance could be the thief on the cross saying,
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  Lord Remember Me, but it could also be the son crying out to
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  the Father. That sets the stage perfectly.
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  So we have this excerpt, this urgent plea.
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  Let's look at the text itself, verse one.
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  Yeah, may haste, O God, to deliver me, make haste to help
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  me, O Lord. Yeah, OK.
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  Right away, looking at the note, this is where the differences
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  from Psalm 40 start to really show up.
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  In Psalm 40, it starts with be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me.
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  It's polite, it's respectful. It sounds like something you'd
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  say in a Royal Court, but here in Psalm 70, it's just make
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  haste. It's so abrupt, Spurgeon notes,
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  that the Hebrew indicates an abrupt and broken cry.
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  There's no be pleased here. There's no preamble.
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  The house is on fire. You don't ask the fireman.
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  If it pleases you, would you mind extinguishing the flames?
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  No, you scream. Help.
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  Exactly. And that's the theology of
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  urgency we talked about, Spurgeon says.
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  And this is a great comfort. It has not forbidden us in hours
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  of dire distress to ask for speed on God's part.
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  Sometimes we feel like we have to dress up our prayers, make
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  them sound all theological and composed.
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  But the Bible gives us permission to just cry out for
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  speed. Make haste.
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  It's almost a command. I mean, it takes a lot of
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  boldness to speak to the creator of the universe that way.
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  It does, but it's the boldness of a child in danger calling for
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  a parent. A child doesn't draft a formal
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  request. They demand help because they
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  know the relationship can bear the weight of their need.
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  There's another change here too, isn't there?
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  The names of God. Yes, this is a detail for the
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  observant reader. In Psalm 40 the text uses
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  Jehovah the Lord in all caps, but here in Psalm 70 verse one
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  it's Elohim God. Does Spurgeon explain why the
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  switch happened? He's very honest here.
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  He just says why this is done. We know not.
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  He mentions that the critics, the biblical scholars, have all
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  sorts of guesses. Some think it indicates a
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  different author, a different time period.
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  But Spurgeon doesn't get bogged down in that academic debate.
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  He pivots right to the spiritual application.
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  He says as we have the words of the song twice in the letter,
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  let them be doubly with us in spirit.
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  Basically, who cares why the name changed?
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  The fact that we have this sentiment recorded twice means
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  we need to pay double attention to it.
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  That is such a spurgeon thing to say.
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  Stop arguing about the editing and start praying.
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  That's why we love him. He brings it right back to our
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  daily need. He says.
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  Our frailty and our many dangers render this a perpetual
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  necessity. We need to cry this day by day.
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  It's not a one time prayer. Whether we call him Jehovah or
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  Elohim, the point is that we call him quickly.
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  So we have this urgent cry. Now, in verses 2 and 3, David
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  turns his attention to the bad guys, the enemies.
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  Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my
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  soul. And here again we see that
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  editing at work. In Psalm 40 there are more
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  words. It says let them be ashamed and
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  confounded together, and that seek after my soul to destroy
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  it. But here in Psalm 70, those
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  extra words together and to destroy it, they're gone.
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  Spurgeon's insight on this is just brilliant.
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  He says. A man in haste uses no more
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  words than are actually necessary, right?
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  When you're rushing, you drop the adjectives, you drop the
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  adverbs. You get right to the point.
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  The brevity highlights the intensity.
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  It's functional, not poetic. So what exactly is David asking
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  for here? He wants them ashamed and
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  confounded. What does that look like in
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  practice? We have a note here from Thomas
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  Wilcox, a Puritan writer. He defines this confounding as a
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  confusion in their own understandings among themselves.
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  So they start making mistakes, they turn on each other, their
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  plans fall apart. Yes, they think they're banding
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  together for glory to take down this righteous man, but David
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  prays that their alliance implodes, that their plans
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  become nonsense. It reminds me of the story of
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  Gideon where the enemy army ends up fighting itself in the chaos.
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  Spurgeon adds that this is God's strategy of retaliation.
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  He says when men labor to turn others back from the right Rd.,
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  it is God's retaliation to drive them back from the point they're
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  aiming at. It's like spiritual judo.
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  They push forward with all their might, and God uses their own
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  momentum to throw them backward. That is a great analogy.
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  The text says let them be turned backward, but in Psalm 40 the
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  word used was desolate. Let them be desolate.
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  Here it's turned back. Turned back sounds softer,
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  doesn't. It it does.
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  I mean, it's David getting nicer in his old age or something.
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  Spurgeon wonders that he asks, had growing years matured and
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  mellowed the psalmist spirit? Maybe an older warrior just
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  wants the enemy to go away, rather than needing to see them
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  totally destroyed. But he also points out that,
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  practically speaking, the result is the same.
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  To be turned back, to have your malicious plans frustrated and
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  disappointed, is, in his words, the nearest akin to desolation
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  that can well be conceived. Right.
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  If your whole purpose in life is to hurt someone and you are
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  constantly turned back and blocked, that is a form of
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  desolation. He calls it disappointed malice.
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  Imagine spending your life trying to destroy someone and
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  every single time you strike you miss.
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  That's a hell of its own making. And now we get to the specific
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  weapon these enemies are using. Verse three.
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  Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say
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  aha aha. Aha, aha.
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  Sounds kind of childish when you say it out loud, it sounds like
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  a cartoon villain. It does, but we need to strip
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  away that cartoon image and hear the reality of it.
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  Spurgeon describes these as meaningless noises, more like
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  animal cries than human words. Like a pack of hyenas.
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  Exactly. It implies A dehumanization.
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  They aren't debating David, they aren't making a logical argument
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  against his theology. They're just barking, Spurgeon
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  says. It matters nothing so long as
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  they are event for scorn and sting the victim.
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  It's the sound of mockery, the sound of someone delighting in
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  your failure. And David prays that this shame
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  would be their reward. Yes, they loved scoffing.
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  They love that sound of aha. So Spurgeon says they'll be paid
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  in their own coin. They become a byword.
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  They become the joke of history. Now James frame another one of
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  the commentators in our stack. He takes this verse and draws a
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  direct, powerful line to Jesus. This is that Christological
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  connection we promised. And this is so powerful.
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  Frame connects this aha aha directly to the passion of
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  Christ. Think about the people
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  surrounding Jesus during his trial and execution.
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  Frame describes them as haughty and cruel, insensitive to any
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  kind of decorum. Who specifically is he
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  identifying here? He breaks it down into three
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  groups. First, the rude rabble that came
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  with Judas in the garden. The mob with the clubs and
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  torches. They capture the Messiah, and
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  there's this chaotic, triumphant energy.
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  Aha, got him. Then the aristocratic mob at the
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  ecclesiastical trial. The priest subscribes.
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  The leaders. These are the men who should
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  have known better. But Frame notes their dignity
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  just dissolved into mockery. They spit on him.
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  They blindfold him. Prophecy.
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  Who hit you? That's the aha of the religious
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  elite. It is, and finally, the
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  rancorous multitude at the cross, the passers by wagging
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  their heads. He saved others himself.
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  He cannot save. Frame imagines the Savior
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  hanging there. He says Jesus, who possessed
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  prescience, He knew what was coming, could hear the distant
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  mutter of these taunts before they even happened, and then he
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  had to endure them in real time. Frame has a line here that just
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  It floored me, he says. He who deserved the hallelujahs
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  of an intelligent universe had to endure the malicious taunting
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  of aha aha. The contrast is staggering,
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  isn't it? Hallelujahs versus aha, the
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  highest, most rational praise versus the lowest, most
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  animalistic scorn. It really puts our own struggles
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  into perspective. If the King of Glory endured
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  that, we should not be surprised when we face a little mockery.
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  It frames our endurance not as a tragedy, but as a fellowship
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  with Christ. We're sharing in his sufferings.
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  Precisely. That is a sobering thought.
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  But the Psalm, it doesn't stay in that darkness.
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  Verse 4 pivots. It's almost like the sun breaks
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  through the clouds. Let all those that seek thee
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  rejoice and be glad in thee. Spurgeon makes a great point
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  about balance here. He says anger against enemies
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  must not make us forget our friends.
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  That is wise counsel. It's so easy easy to get fixated
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  on the people attacking you that you forget the community of
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  believers who are with you. You get tunnel vision on the
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  conflict. And Spurgeon's maxim here is
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  beautiful. He says better to preserve a
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  single citizen of Zion than kill 1000 enemies.
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  Wow. Prioritize the safety of the
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  sheep over the hunting of the wolves.
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  Exactly. Don't spend so much energy
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  fighting the bad guys that you neglect to encourage the good
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  guys. And notice the two groups
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  mentioned in this verse. Those that seek thee and such as
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  love thy salvation. Is there a distinction there?
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  A Spurgeon thinks so. Yeah.
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  He sees those that seek is the beginners.
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  Maybe they're starting in darkness.
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  They haven't found full assurance yet.
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  They're just groping for the light.
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  But the verse says to let them rejoice.
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  Yes, the promise is that even the seeking brings joy.
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  You don't have to wait until you have it all figured out to
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  rejoice. The very act of turning toward
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  God brings light. And the second group, such as
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  Love thy salvation. These are the advanced race, as
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  he puts it. They are wedded to divine grace.
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  They know what they have and they love it.
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  James Frame goes deep on this idea of loving salvation.
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  I mean, it sounds nice, but what does it actually mean to love
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  salvation? Sounds a bit abstract.
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  Frame gives us 4 concrete reasons why these believers love
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  salvation. First, for its own sake.
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  Just the sheer beauty and relief of being saved from ruin.
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  That makes. Sense Second, for the sake of
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  Him who procured it. You love the gift because you
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  love the giver and the cost He paid obedience unto death.
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  That makes it personal. 3rd for the sake of the Holy Spirit who
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  moved them to even seek it in the first place.
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  They recognize they wouldn't even want salvation if God
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  hadn't changed their hearts and 4th for the sake of their own
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  souls, because without it they'd be miserable outcasts.
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  Frame compares this to other things men love.
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  Money Pleasure business. Right.
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  Men are lovers by nature. We all love something.
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  We're desire factories. But the friends of Jesus elevate
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  salvation above all those transient things.
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  They cherish the rescue. And because they love it, they
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  have a specific thing they say. A slogan, almost the verse says
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  let such as love thy salvation, say continually let God be
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  magnified. And this brings us to Augustine,
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  the Bishop of Hippo. He has a magnificent exposition
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  on this phrase in the notes. I loved this part of the source
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  material, Agustin asks the question, when do we say let God
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  be magnified and. His answer is basically always.
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  But he breaks it down so logically he creates a timeline
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  of the Christian life. He does.
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  He asks when you were straying and were recalled.
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  What do you say? Be the Lord magnified.
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  You don't say, wow, I really found my way back.
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  You say God brought me back. When you confessed and were
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  pardoned. Be the Lord magnified.
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  You don't magnify your confession, you magnify His
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  forgiveness. Even when you're advancing and
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  justified when you're actually doing good works.
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  Especially then be the Lord magnified.
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  This is so crucial. Augustine warns against taking
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  credit for our sanctification. Even when we're doing well.
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  It's because of his grace. And even at the very end, right
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  when you persevere to the end. Yes, it's a theology of total
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  credit, Augustine says. If in Him is whatsoever I am be
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  He magnified, not I. Not I.
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  That's the hard part. We want a little bit of the
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  magnification, just a sliver of the spotlight.
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  Augustine is ruthless with that pride.
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  He compares this doxology, Let God be magnified to the aha of
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  the enemy. He says.
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  Saying let God be magnified is manly and ennobling, while the
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  aha is just a dog's bark. So we have the enemies barking
• 18:13
  like dogs and the Saints singing the doxology.
• 18:16
  That's the picture. And notice the connection to
• 18:18
  light, Augustine says. Thou shalt illumine my candle,
• 18:21
  he admits in me is nothing. He calls himself darkness that
• 18:25
  needs to be lit. It's a posture of absolute
• 18:27
  humility. He knows he's not the son.
• 18:28
  He's just a Campbell waiting for a match.
• 18:30
  Speaking of humility, that leads us right into verse 5, the
• 18:32
  condition of the believer. But I am poor and needy.
• 18:36
  This is the great paradox of the Christian life, Spurgeon says.
• 18:39
  Evidently, our poverty is our wealth, even as our weakness is
• 18:42
  our strength. It's a favorite argument of
• 18:44
  David, isn't it? Yeah, he uses it in Psalm 69,
• 18:46
  too. I mean, the world prays.
• 18:49
  Lord help me because I'm rich and influential.
• 18:51
  David prays. Lord help me because I am broke.
• 18:54
  It seems so counterintuitive. Usually if you want someone to
• 18:57
  help you, you try to prove you're worth it.
• 18:59
  Help me, I'm important. Help me, I have resources, David
• 19:02
  says. Help me, I have nothing.
• 19:04
  Why does that work with God? Because God isn't an investor
• 19:07
  looking for a return. He's a savior looking for a
• 19:10
  patient. He's a filler of empty vessels.
• 19:14
  If you're full of yourself, there's no room for Him.
• 19:16
  Augustine breaks down this neediness in a way that really
• 19:20
  resonates. It's not just about financial
• 19:22
  poverty. No, it's spiritual, Agustin
• 19:24
  says. He's like an orphan or a widow,
• 19:26
  destitute. But then he gets theological.
• 19:28
  He says he's needy despite being forgiven.
• 19:30
  And why? Because of the law in my members
• 19:33
  fighting against the law of my mind.
• 19:35
  He's quoting Romans 7 there. The internal struggle.
• 19:38
  Right. Even though he's saved, he still
• 19:39
  fights sin, so he is needy. And then he quotes Matthew 5.
• 19:44
  Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
• 19:47
  He says, still I hunger, still I thirst.
• 19:51
  As long as we are on this earth, we are needy because we haven't
• 19:53
  reached full perfection yet. We're satisfied in Christ, yet
• 19:56
  still hungry for more of Him. We also have a note from John
• 19:59
  Barlow from 1618, and he categorizes the sources of this
• 20:04
  poverty. It's a bit of a grim list, but
• 20:06
  it's a realistic diagnosis of the human condition.
• 20:08
  Barlow was a classic Puritan. He loves a good list.
• 20:11
  He says we're poor and needy because of four things.
• 20:13
  First, chastisements from God the Father.
• 20:16
  Discipline. Sometimes God strips us to
• 20:19
  humble us. Second, temptations from Satan
• 20:21
  and I love his phrasing here. He called Satan that Fallon and
• 20:25
  felfine that. Fallon Felfine.
• 20:27
  They just don't write like that anymore.
• 20:28
  They certainly not. But the point is we are under
• 20:31
  attack. We're poor because we are
• 20:33
  constantly besieged. Third, persecutions from wicked
• 20:36
  men, the AHA crowd we've been talking about.
• 20:39
  And 4th and this connects right back to Augustine inward
• 20:42
  corruptions and original pollutions.
• 20:44
  That sounds like total depravity.
• 20:46
  It's exactly that, the concept that sin effects every part of
• 20:48
  us. And Barlow notes that this 4th 1
• 20:51
  inward corruption is the only one that applies to us but not
• 20:53
  to Christ. Right, because Christ was
• 20:56
  sinless, but the other three, chastisement, Satan,
• 21:00
  persecution, he felt all of those.
• 21:02
  Indeed, And that brings us right back to the Christological
• 21:05
  reading of poor and needy. Verse 5 isn't just David, it's
• 21:09
  Jesus, Spurgeon reminds us. He became poor so we might be
• 21:13
  rich. And the word poor can be
• 21:14
  translated as afflicted. Yes, a man of sorrows and
• 21:18
  acquainted with grief. When we read I am poor and
• 21:20
  needy, we are seeing the incarnation, the King of kings,
• 21:24
  stripping himself of glory to become needy for our sake.
• 21:27
  He took on the poverty of humanity.
• 21:28
  That changes how you read the prayer.
• 21:30
  It's not just a complaint, it's an identification with Christ.
• 21:33
  So we have the plea now. We have the final request in
• 21:36
  verse 5. Make haste unto me, O God, Thou
• 21:39
  art my help and my deliverer. There's a fine distinction here,
• 21:42
  pointed out by Dionysius the Carthusia.
• 21:45
  He was a 15th century theologian, the ecstatic Dr. He
• 21:49
  distinguishes between helper and deliverer.
• 21:52
  What's the difference? Well, he says God is our helper
• 21:54
  in all good works, helping us do what's right, giving us the
• 21:57
  strength to obey. But He is our deliverer from all
• 22:00
  evil works, rescuing us from sin, from enemies, from the
• 22:04
  trap. That covers all the bases,
• 22:06
  proactive help and reactive deliverance.
• 22:08
  Precisely. And here again David switches
• 22:10
  the name of God back to Jehovah. O Lord, O Lord, make no
• 22:14
  tarrying, Spurgeon says. This justifies us using various
• 22:17
  names of God. We don't have to stick to just
• 22:20
  one. Each has its own beauty.
• 22:21
  We need the Creator, Elohim, and we need the covenant Keeper,
• 22:24
  Jehovah. And we circle right back to the
• 22:26
  speed make no tarrying. It connects perfectly to the
• 22:29
  beginning. Make haste.
• 22:31
  But Spurgeon points out a subtle difference from Psalm 40.
• 22:34
  Again, Psalm 40 ends with the phrase Yet the Lord thinketh
• 22:37
  upon me. It ends with a meditation on
• 22:40
  God's thoughts. It's contemplative.
• 22:42
  But Psalm 70 ends with make no tarrying.
• 22:44
  It ends with the cry, Spurgeon says, because the keynote of
• 22:48
  Psalm 70 is make haste. It dictates the glows.
• 22:51
  It doesn't resolve into quiet meditation.
• 22:54
  It stays in the urgent zone. It leaves the phone line open.
• 22:57
  But does God answer that urgent cry?
• 22:59
  Does he actually make haste? James Fram gives us what I think
• 23:03
  is the most powerful illustration in this entire deep
• 23:05
  dive. The Thief on the Cross.
• 23:07
  This is such a brilliant connection.
• 23:09
  Tell us how frame uses the thieves to explain make no
• 23:12
  tearing. We'll think about the timeline
• 23:14
  of that thief. Frame breaks it down in the
• 23:16
  morning. What's his status?
• 23:18
  In the morning he is condemned at an earthly bar.
• 23:21
  He's sentenced to death. He's dragged out of the city.
• 23:24
  He's nailed to a tree. He's in the worst physical and
• 23:27
  legal agony possible. He's surrounded by aha, aha of
• 23:30
  the crowd. He's actually part of the AHA at
• 23:32
  first, joining in the mockery according to the Gospels.
• 23:35
  He is as far from God as a man can be.
• 23:38
  But then something happens. He turns, he looks at the man on
• 23:42
  the central cross and he says, Lord, Remember Me?
• 23:46
  There's that keyword again. Bring to remembrance.
• 23:49
  And what is the answer today? Today shalt thou be with me in
• 23:54
  paradise. Frame paints this beautiful
• 23:57
  picture. The morning saw him LED out
• 23:59
  through the gate of Jerusalem, surrounded by a Raybould crowd
• 24:02
  hooting at him, but before the evening shadow of the hill of
• 24:05
  Calvary he was walking on streets of gold.
• 24:07
  From the Ahav, the mob to the anthems of angels.
• 24:10
  Yes, salvation, justification, sanctification in a sense, and
• 24:15
  glorification all happening within a single solar day.
• 24:19
  That is God making. No tarrying.
• 24:22
  That gives me chills. It really drives home the point
• 24:24
  that when we pray, make haste. God might not answer in 5
• 24:27
  minutes, but His ultimate deliverance is incredibly swift
• 24:30
  in the grand scheme of eternity. And effective, it's a complete
• 24:33
  turn around. The thief goes from the bottom
• 24:35
  of the pit to the height of heaven.
• 24:37
  Now, Spurgeon couldn't just write a commentary on this.
• 24:39
  The man was a poet at heart. He was so moved by this theme of
• 24:42
  make haste that he actually wrote a hymn to go with this
• 24:45
  song. He did.
• 24:46
  It's included in his notes in the Treasury, and it captures
• 24:49
  the spirit of the song perfectly.
• 24:50
  The lyrics are quite raw, he writes.
• 24:52
  Make haste, O God, make haste to save, for time is short and
• 24:56
  death is nigh. He doesn't shy away from
• 24:58
  mortality. Make haste ere yet I am in my
• 25:01
  grave. And with philosophy forever lie.
• 25:05
  That's the urgency. It is a matter of life and
• 25:07
  death. He realized that if God doesn't
• 25:09
  show up, we are done for. And he mentions the enemy too.
• 25:13
  Satan mocks my prayers and tears.
• 25:15
  That's a line that resonates with so many of us.
• 25:18
  It's not just human enemies saying aha, it's the accuser.
• 25:22
  Look at you praying. You think God hears you after
• 25:25
  what you did? Satan mocking our very
• 25:27
  repentance. But the hymn ends with that
• 25:30
  pivot to joy we talked about then.
• 25:32
  With the souls who seek thy face, I will magnify thy
• 25:35
  matchless grace. It always comes back to
• 25:37
  magnifying grace. Always.
• 25:39
  That's the Reformed heartbeat, the urgency.
• 25:41
  The plea leads to the magnitude of the praise.
• 25:43
  So let's try to land this plane. We've covered a lot in this deep
• 25:46
  dive. We've seen that repetition and
• 25:48
  prayer is not vain. It's a memorial for the poor man
• 25:51
  who has nothing else to offer. We've seen that we are allowed
• 25:54
  to be urgent. We don't have to be polite when
• 25:56
  the house is burning. We can shout fire and God
• 25:59
  listens. And we've seen the enemies with
• 26:01
  their animal noises, and we've found comfort in knowing that
• 26:04
  Christ endured that same sworn. We're not alone in the mockery.
• 26:09
  And we've seen our proper posture, poor and needy, not
• 26:12
  self-sufficient, not proud, but empty vessels waiting to be
• 26:16
  filled. And always saying let God be
• 26:18
  magnified. That's the key.
• 26:20
  Whether we're in the pit or on the mountain, the direction of
• 26:23
  our praise is always upward. It is.
• 26:25
  I want to leave our listeners with a final thought to chew on
• 26:28
  a provocative idea. We talked about the enemies
• 26:30
  being turned back, and Spurgeon said that God drives them back
• 26:33
  from their aim. I think a lot of us when we face
• 26:36
  opposition, whether it's a person at work or a cultural
• 26:39
  pressure or even a spiritual attack, our instinct is to fight
• 26:43
  face to face, to push forward against them, to win the
• 26:47
  argument, to crush the opposition.
• 26:49
  We want to drive them away by our own force.
• 26:52
  We want to be the hero of the conflict.
• 26:54
  Exactly. But this Psalm suggests a
• 26:57
  different strategy, praying for God to turn them back.
• 27:00
  It's a subtle difference. It's not me defeating them, it's
• 27:03
  God redirecting them, frustrating their aim so they
• 27:05
  miss the target. It's the difference between a
• 27:07
  head on collision and a divine deflection.
• 27:10
  That requires faith. It requires trusting that God
• 27:13
  can handle the opposition better than our arguments can.
• 27:16
  It's the difference between human retaliation and divine
• 27:19
  redirection. Are we willing to let God be the
• 27:22
  defense? Divine redirection.
• 27:24
  I like that. Something to think about next
• 27:26
  time you hear the aha aha in your life, don't bark back.
• 27:30
  Pray for the turn. Indeed, let God handle the
• 27:33
  turning, you handle the magnifying.
• 27:35
  Thanks for diving deep with us today.
• 27:37
  This has been a workout for the soul.
• 27:38
  It's been a real pleasure. Until next time, keep reading,
• 27:41
  keep praying, and let God be magnified.