Hasten, O God, to save me;
come quickly, LORD, to help me.May those who want to take my life
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who desire my ruin
be turned back in disgrace.
May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
turn back because of their shame.
But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say,
“The LORD is great!”But as for me, I am poor and needy;
come quickly to me, O God.
You are my help and my deliverer;
LORD, do not delay. (Psalm 70 NIV)
“HELP!”
“Can anyone hear me?”
“Please, someone help.”
If we find ourselves on a daily walk and hear these words, our nervous system will fire up and alert us to see who is calling out, who is in danger, and what we can do to respond.
For some of us, that response to go is immediate. For some of us, we take a moment to consider the factors:
- Where is the voice coming from?
- What if I can’t physically help this person?
- What will my next step be?
Some of us can even be skeptical and wonder, “What’s the catch? Is this a scam? Am I going to acknowledge this cry for help only to be pulled into a situation that’s now put my life in danger?”
If someone is in a pit crying for help and asking for deliverance, I’d love to believe in the best version of myself, that I would run like the wind to go help that individual, even if it costs me falling into that pit, too. But it could get messy. It could get inconvenient for me.
Unlike us, who weigh the risks before stepping in, God responds differently. When we read the story of God, we see a compassionate Father, a comforting Spirit, and a rescuing Savior who immediately runs to a cry for help. We don’t see hesitation. We don’t see the list of pros and cons of how this will be inconvenient. We see a charge, a sprint forward to help and deliver.
This urgent plea penned by David can reach into the depths of our own souls to consider the moments when we have been the person in the pit, the one crying out for help. For some of us, we might have been stuck for a long time in that pit crying for help, wondering how many people passed us by. What a beautiful moment when Jesus’s compassionate hand reached for us, and we clung to it, never wanting to let go. Jesus delights in delivering us from the mess and the muck that holds us back and attempts to pull us down.
Great is the Lord. How compassionate, how wonderful, how beautiful that we have been delivered. How powerful, how purposeful that we now get to be the ones to join Jesus in the work of hearing the cries for help and extending a hand that’s truly the extension of Jesus’s hand, to reach out to those who are waiting for a rescue and deliverance.
April Wahl serves as the youth minister at Missio Church in Bismarck, North Dakota, and is a member of the NAB’s Women’s Connection Leadership Team.
