O Lord, stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life ✠ in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jerry Seinfeld has a bit in which he talks about the difficulty of being a child: “Wait up!” That’s what kids say. They don’t say “wait,” they say “Wait up! Hey, wait up!” Because when you’re little, your life is up. The future is up. Everything you want is up. “Wait up! Hold up! Let me stay up!” Parents of course are just the opposite. Everything is down. “Just calm down. Slow down. Get down. Sit down. Quiet down. Put that down.” This sense of waiting for things to go up, to improve, is also one that the Psalmist knows. We heard, “Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me… come to me speedily, O God… O Lord, do not tarry.” It is a Psalm about living in the meantime when it seems as if God is delaying and keeping us down.
We
all know what it is to wait. We wait for test results, we wait for phone call
to be returned, we wait for a package to be delivered, we wait for our spouse
to get home from work. And sometimes the waiting is more intense – we call this
longing. We long for the war to end in Ukraine, for two years we have been
longing for this pandemic to end, we long for our children to find
reconciliation, we long for a return of civility in politics, we long for a
cure for cancer. Whether it is waiting or longing though, we are not in
control. We depend on things outside of our control to happen.
Jesus,
of course, knew the Psalms quite well. Throughout his ministry, he quoted them
often and refers to several during his Passion. Psalm 70 is one that he would
have known as well. In Holy Week, as he waits for his betrayal, arrest, and
crucifixion, this is a Psalm I’d imagine he had on his mind – “deliver me, make
haste to help me, come to me speedily, O God.” Though we all go through
suffering and even when we recognize suffering as the pathway to glory, as this
evening’s Collect puts it, we’d rather not linger in the suffering. If we have
to suffer, let’s go ahead and get it done. Sometimes, often, the trials last
longer than we would prefer. Psalm 70 shows us how to wait when it seems that
God tarries.
The
first thing to do is make a petition – to name before God the fact that we are
waiting and longing for something. We might intellectually know that God is
always with us, but there are times when we need to feel it more than we know
it. Prayer is a splendid way to put ourselves in a place where we can be met by
God. It might be meditative prayer at home, or coming to sit in a quiet church,
spending time in nature, or receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist – however
you want to do it, creating space to be still and know that God is with us is vitally
important as we wait. So often in Scripture, we see Jesus in prayer and it is
for this very reason. We do not wait alone, but it can often feel that way
because we are rushing from one thing to the next. This Psalm is an invitation
to share that unsettled waiting with God.
In
the Psalm, we then find the voicing of a complaint. The Psalmist complains
about enemies and adversaries. There is a difference between complaining and
blaming others. I’m not suggesting that the solution is as simple as telling
God all the people that are causing you strife. But it is important to be clear
and specific about the issue at hand. God is a God of reconciliation and if we
cannot name that we are estranged from someone, it’s awfully hard to be
reconciled with them. When we complain about our spouse, or children, or
siblings, or neighbors, or boss, or coworkers, or priest to God, we are naming
that things between us and them are not as God would have them to be. That
honesty then creates the space, sometimes even the desire, for reconciliation
to happen.
Having
put ourselves in God’s presence and made our complaint, we then put our hope
and trust in God to do something about it. We heard Psalm 70 say, “Let those
who love your salvation say forever, ‘Great is the Lord!’” When we wait, we are
essentially calling out for God to be God. We know that the resolution to our
situation isn’t something we can achieve with brute strength, dumb luck, or
paying off. It will take something beyond us – that’s why we’re waiting and
calling out to God. Sometimes the only resource we have is our plea; the only
option we have is prayer. And that’s a gracious plenty.
In
our need, we are poor and needy, lacking the resources to save ourselves. And
so we put out trust in God to be our helper and deliverer. Our plea is that God
will come quickly to help us. This is a prayer that Jesus certainly would have
prayed in Holy Week, and so when we beg God, “do not tarry,” we are in good
company. Indeed, sometimes it seem like God is delayed, like justice is being
denied, like deliverance has been deferred. To be clear, I have no answer for
this. I cannot claim to know the mind of God. I have not been charged with
defending God.
What
I can say though is that Jesus put his trust in his loving Father. After he had
been betrayed, beaten, and crucified, he still called out to God. He still
trusted and knew that God would deliver him. Perhaps God does not always move
as speedily as we might like, but I think it’s also true that we don’t move as
speedily as God would like us to when it comes to repentance, forgiveness,
justice, and generosity. But God waits for us with mercy. And in our time of
need, God likewise waits for us to receive the salvation that we have been
given.
Because
Jesus may have uttered this Psalm in Holy Week for God to come quickly, Jesus
has become this prayer for us. Deliverance has already been given to us and
anytime we call on Jesus he will indeed come quickly to our side – not always
to make the problem go away, but to be with us as we face it. And having Jesus
on our side changes everything. Whatever delays we might be facing in our cries
for help, the love of Jesus is more enduring and powerful than whatever it is
we are facing. When we cry out “O Lord, haste to help me” we can be confident
in knowing that deliverance is already ours in Jesus. Amen.
