March 11, 2017: Day 70 – Psalm 70

A short psalm in the midst of the very long  psalms which surround it.  It is a psalm which is divided into two parts.  The first part, vs.1-3, is a cry for deliverance because the enemies have surrounded the author and the end seems to be close at hand.  The transition in vs.4 until the end is so quick that it almost gives one whiplash.  There must have been a victory or something significant which happened in the life of the author to cause him to go from “deliver me” to “God is great”.  

The declaration that “I am poor” has to be looked at in a bit of a different light.  If the psalmist is King David, as the prologue would lend one to believe, then you would think that his poverty is slightly exaggerated.  Maybe he meant poor in a spiritual way so a cry for deliverance was more of a call for salvation of both his soul and life.  Remember in our Gospels Jesus teaches on the sermon on the mount two passages which are interpreted in vastly different ways.  We find in Luke 6:20 that Jesus says blessed are the poor, period.  He leaves it at that.  Matthew 5:3 adds the word spirit so it read: blessed are the poor in spirit.  

As I have mentioned before I know that Jesus has a special place in His heart for the poor since they are mentioned so frequently in Scripture as almost having special protection and special favor from God.  So I guess I take a bit of exception to King David calling himself poor.