1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
O LORD, make haste to help me!
2 Let them be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life!
Let them be turned back and brought to dishonour
who delight in my hurt!
3 Let them turn back because of their shame
who say, “Aha, Aha!”
4 May all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you!
May those who love your salvation
say evermore, “God is great!”
5 But I am poor and needy;
hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay!
Comment: David sure was in a hurry! But his prayer clearly isn’t a flippant one. I sense immediately a sense of desperation! One gets the impression that he thought that he was about to be severely injured or even killed! Did those who were after him ‘turn back’ immediately? Was it an answer granted instantaneously by God? Was the “Aha, Aha’ one of impending victory by David’s attackers or was it in fact their last cry as they fled? An actor could make ‘Aha, Aha’ with different intonations mean very different things! Is verse 4 a cry of exultation that all who trust in God might have the experience that he has just witnessed – a great even miraculous saving act of God? “God is great!” is followed quickly by an acknowledgement of David’s own need. But there is that very encouraging cry of Hope, which is more than a wishy-washy ‘I hooope.’ Rather than a triumphant cry of impending victory! The last phrase ‘O LORD, do not delay!‘ may well suggest that I was too quick to see the prayer having been answered after v 3. But it is still a great psalm in the trust shown in an Awesome, Saving God and the pervading Hope that it expresses!
God speaking in Proverbs 8: 17 – “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.”
Prayer: Please help me to have the Hope and Expectation of Victory that this Psalm expresses, as I trust and turn continually to You, my Father God.
As I read it! 