Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
        O LORD, make haste to help me!
    Let them be put to shame and confusion
        who seek my life!
    Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor
        who delight in my hurt!
    Let them turn back because of their shame
        who say, “Aha, Aha!”
    May all who seek you
        rejoice and be glad in you!
    May those who love your salvation
        say evermore, “God is great!”
    But I am poor and needy;
        hasten to me, O God!
    You are my help and my deliverer;
        O LORD, do not delay!—Psalm 70

Introduction 

We begin this morning the first of 3 weekend sermons delivered by members of your North Campus pastoral team. Our focus this morning is on Worship; next weekend Pastor Gil will call us to pray as he exalts our great High Priest, Jesus Christ; and we will look to the Word of God in care and counsel as Pastor Jack Delk stewards that word in worship.

This morning, we will direct our attention to Psalm 70 as we rejoice in the greatness of God and savor together the sweetness of our salvation. What will be unique—and perhaps memorable—about this morning is that our sermon will be interspersed with opportunities for response to the word preached in song. It will look something like this: preach, sing; preach, sing; preach, sing, be done. 

Let’s pray and ask for God’s help.

Preaching and Singing Gladness in the Greatness of Our God 

Part 1: Gladness in the Greatness of Our God

God is indescribably great. In his Trinitarian perfections, God transcends all of our human categories, exceeding the limitations of our minds’ abilities to comprehend, far surpassing even the extraordinary flights of the most fanciful imaginations.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.” (Psalm 145:3 ESV)

It might be helpful to think of God’s unsearchable greatness in two broad categories: 1) Who he is and 2) What he has done.

For generations faithful, biblical systematic theologians have sought to classify the perfections of who God is into categories known as attributes: simple, summary descriptions, or “handles,” which seek to describe the infinite perfections of God’s character.

Some examples of the attributes of God describing who he is include:

• Aseity—God is self-existent and self-sufficient
• Eternity—God has always existed, having no beginning and no end
• Holiness—God is separated from sin
• Knowledge—God fully knows himself and all actual and possible things
• Love—God eternally gives himself to others
• Omnipotence—God is able to do all his holy will
• Wisdom—God always chooses the best goals and the best means to achieve those goals

This sampling of summary attributes describe the greatness of who God is.

God has also acted, in history, in ways that highlight again and again his greatness in what he has done.

• God has created all that is
• God sustains and upholds the universe and everything it contains
• God has created mankind, populating this planet with people, created in his own image
• God has ordained that through sin and the fall of the first man Adam and the first woman, Eve, more of his invisible attributes of mercy, love and wisdom would be revealed against the darkened backdrop of evil
• God has redeemed for himself a people, not on the basis of their merit but on the greatness of His mercy
• God has revealed himself to the world through the incarnation of the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ
• Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God, lived a sinless life, died a sinners death, rose again on the 3rd day never to die again.
• Jesus ascended to the heavenly places where he serves as mediator and high priest of a new covenant between God and man.
• He has promised to come again to judge the world and to rule and reign forever as King of kings and Lord of lords. 

This is who our God is, and this is what God has done. 

This is why the Apostle Paul bursts into rapturous praise at the end of Romans 11 in verses 33–36 as he labored to show the depths of God’s greatness:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. 

To him be glory forever. Amen.

Song: “Your Great Name We Praise”

Part 2: Gladness in the Greatness of Our God

“Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O LORD, make haste to help me!” So begins our text, this prayer of David, Psalm 70.

And, "hasten to me, O God! O LORD, do not delay!” is how this Psalm ends.

Clearly the Psalmist is in a state of distress.

Though the details of who and what and when and where and why the Psalmist is in such a place of distress have been obscured by the dusty mists of history one thing is clear: out of the anguish of his soul and the desperation of his circumstances, David passionately prays to God.

“Make Haste! Make haste! Hasten! O YAHWEH, do not delay!”

Why? The Psalmist here in Psalm 70 is clearly under attack. We read in verse 2 that David’s enemies “seek his life” and “desire his hurt.” In an effort to take him out, they pursue him relentlessly, and David is desperate. 

Not only are they after him, they shamefully mock him, crying out derisively, as we see in verse 3, “Aha, aha!” 

Here he is, the King of Israel, plagued by his enemies, fearing for his very life and in that moment what does he do? He reaches out to God in prayer. 

The first thing to notice here is that desperate prayer to God for deliverance and help are entirely appropriate. The Psalms are shot through with these sorts of frantic cries to God for help:

• Psalm 38:22 “Make haste to help me, O Lord.” 
• Psalm 59:1 “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God.”
• Psalm 109:26 “Help me, O LORD my God! Save me!”

Not only are desperate cries to God for help appropriate, we see in the New Testament that desperate cries for help are heard and answered by Jesus Himself! 

Consider this story from Matthew 15:

Behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But [Jesus] did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” And he answered, “It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matthew 15:22–28)

Oh, how we love this story. Desperation leads to prayer: “Have mercy on me, O Lord.” Prayer in the face of seeming rejection by the Son of God leads to a pesky persistence, for we read, "she came and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, help me.'” This pesky persistence leads to faith-filled perseverance: “Lord, even dogs of the kingdom get the crumbs of your grace!” Finally, faith-filled persevering prayer sees God’s hand move miraculously. The text tells us, “Her daughter was healed instantly.”

Why?

I believe that God is honored when through prayer, people cry out to him in desperation. As Pastor John has written in Desiring God, “Prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help that we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy.”

The Psalmist in our text knows himself to be nothing but needy. Consider verse 5 of Psalm 70: “I am poor and needy.” And his cry for help is to the One he knows to be his only “help and his deliverer.”

It is one thing to cry out in desperation, “Help!” It is another thing to cry out in desperation to the One who alone can help, who alone can deliver. This is the active place of faith in the prayer-filled life of the believer. Faith, in the moment of desperation, sets its eye on the object of help and deliverance, namely God Himself, and cries out, “Help!”

Consider a little child chased down the driveway by a ferocious, furry dog ready to attack. In the dizzying panic of the moment, this little child cries out, “Help me!”

As the panic rises in his little heart his eyes land upon his big, strong daddy running, reaching out to him in this moment of terror. While the dog snarls and snaps, the child fixes his eye on his dad’s arms and the club he holds in one hand, and he cries out “Daddy! Help me!”

In one fluid movement of strength and force, the father snatches the desperate child off of the drive and lands a well-aimed blow on the fearsome forehead of the demented dog, driving him away, yelping and howling. Both father and child relax in the safety of this well-timed help.

Like the little child, the Psalmist fixes his eye on the greatness of God. Confident in the promised presence and limitless power of his heavenly Father, David cries out for deliverance.

How about you? How about me?

I know the default setting on the thermostat of my heart is towards worry, anxiety, fretfulness, and fear. How I long to be more like King David who set his hope in the greatness of our God.

May this song, as we pause again to sing, give voice to the longings of all of our hearts.

Song: “The Greatness of Our God”

Part 3: Savoring the Sweetness of Our Salvation

Finally, look with me at Psalm 70, verse 4:

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”

God is great! God is great! That is the theme of our song and will be “evermore.”

And, there is a rejoicing and gladness in God and his greatness that spills over again and again in expressions of

• heartfelt love and affection,
• confident faith and trust,
• joyful adoration and wonder,
• silent awe and amazement, which, when considered in the context of the assembly of the saints, we call “worship.” 

Bethlehem’s Elder Affirmation of Faith summarizes it this way: “We believe that the ultimate purpose of the Church is to glorify God in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship.”

Does that sound like Psalm 70 verse 4? I think it does! “May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, ‘God is great!’”

If the ultimate purpose of the church is to glorify God in the everlasting and ever-increasing gladness of worship, what does it look like, what does it sound like, what should it feel like here on earth?

Many of you are new to Bethlehem, coming from a broad diversity of churches across the evangelical spectrum. Welcome! We are glad you are here.

As the pastor primarily responsible for our North Campus worship services, I want you to know that my thinking, my planning, and my leadership has been shaped by a number of elder-embraced values that keep encouraging us to savor together the sweetness of our salvation.

1. First, we as a church, seek to keep God—and his greatness—central in all we do in our corporate worship gatherings. “Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! (Psalm 105:2–4)

From songs and prayers to sermons and welcomes, we strive to maintain God-centeredness in all we do.

2. Second, if God through Christ is the end of our soul’s quest for joy, then we make it our aim to deepen our delight in him together. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

As a motorcycle guy, I have been known to watch a TV show called, “What’s in the Barn?” On the show, the main character, Dale, an avid motorcycle collector and museum curator, is constantly on the prowl for rare motorcycles. His travels take him to small towns in little known corners of the country to find what he is after.

On one episode, he comes across perhaps the rarest motorcycle he has ever encountered, a 1909 Pierce 2-seater in original condition. The joy he experiences in discovering this one of a kind—and very rusty bike and the value he places on it is “off the charts.” The discovery and subsequent purchase, for more than $100,000, of this rare “treasure” gives him a thrill like no other.  

That is what the parable of the treasure hidden in a field is pointing to; namely, a universal longing to be happy and the “at-all-costs value” we place on achieving that happiness.

People who see King Jesus at the center of the kingdom of heaven rejoice in finding him like a finding a rare motorcycle in an off-the-beaten-path town or like a treasure hidden in a field. They pursue their joy in that treasure with all their might.

But unlike motorcycles or treasures, the joy in Jesus that his children experience never dims, never fades, and will never “rust out.”

That is why we ardently sing, “joyful, joyful we adore Thee! God of glory, Lord of love . . . Well-spring of the joy of living, ocean-depth of happy rest.”

Corporate worship, especially corporate worship in congregational song, is a collective effort, a global effort, to encourage all hearts to rejoice in the infinite joy that is Jesus. “Come young and old from ev'ry land/ Men and women of the faith/ Come those with full or empty hands/ Find the riches of His grace. Over all the world His people sing/ Shore to shore we hear them call/ The truth that cries through ev'ry age/ Our God is all in all/ Rejoice rejoice let ev'ry tongue rejoice/ One heart one voice/ O Church of Christ rejoice.”

3. Third, we make it our aim to engage the affections of the heart in worship of God through engagement of the intellect. As our worship values statement puts it:

True worship aims at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, but does not manipulate those emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking. We will continue to fill our minds with biblical thinking about God, ourselves, others, and life while at the same time giving expression to our heart’s affections for God during worship. God is more glorified when known and enjoyed than either alone.

As a missionary kid, I remember when I was a preteen driving with my family on vacation to the coast of South Africa. Never having seen the ocean before, I did not really know what to expect. After my dad stopped the car and we all got out and stood along that sandy shoreline of the Indian Ocean, my mind was alive with wonder at the beauty, at the vastness, at the powerful surge of the surf, and my heart responded with awe and joy. Once my mind was filled with a true apprehension of the ocean, my heart and soul could respond accordingly.

So it is with God—we must fill our minds with biblical vistas of God’s greatness and glory so that our hearts will rightly respond to him. As our heads comprehend who God is and what God has done, our hearts respond rightly with worship. We find our joy in “loving the Lord our God with all of our hearts and all of our souls and all of our minds and all of our strength.” And that head-and-heart response culminates in the shared response of corporate song. “Then sings my soul, my Savior, God to Thee; How great Thou art! How great Thou art!”

And, like the Psalmist, in times of desperation and despair, the people of God through the ages have together sought the Lord, finding their souls’ rejoicing and gladness in him. Life is hard, fraught with pain and suffering: 

• Babies are still-born
• Mommies die of cancer
• Daddies suffer fatal heart attacks and are gone
• Mental illness afflicts the unsuspecting
• Pandemics sweep across continents, taking out the most vulnerable members of already fragile societies

Does this suffering come as a surprise to God? Not at all: Jesus promised, “in this world you will have many troubles; but do not fear, I have overcome the world.”

Like the Apostle Paul, we find our way in the world to be “sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”

Consider Job, who after losing everything he owned including his ten children, “arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.'” (Job 1:20–21)

Conclusion

The invitation is extended to all of you; don’t be bystanders in worship, rather join with us, a joyful band of happy followers who gladden our souls in the greatness of God; and who savor together the sweetness of salvation through the cross of Christ.

May those of us who love his salvation never tire of saying, “Great is the Lord, greatly to be praised!”