How to Pray in Times of Trouble -- 4 Lessons from Psalm 70

Lesson 1 -- Respond to Trouble by Praying for Yourself                       *This post is the first in a series of four lessons from Psalm 70 on praying in times of trouble 

Psalm 70:1
"Hasten, O God, to save me;
            come quickly, Lord, to help me.”

The very first thing we see David pray for IS HIMSELF

He’s crying out in prayer to be saved, he’s crying out for help—This is what we see in Verse 1

The tone of his prayer is one of urgency that reflects his situation

Now we don’t know exactly the situation that is taking place here, why his life is being sought, but David’s requests in prayer help us understand he is in a desperate situation, he’s in trouble.

Look at the language that he’s using:

Hasten O God to save me- which means “be quick to do something” Hurry—I need to be saved in a hurry.

Come Quickly, to help me- I need help

The whole psalm is characterized by this sense of urgency

David uses the same type of language down in verse 5 of Psalm 70.

Then in vs. 5- “Come Quickly” to me O God.

“O LORD, Do Not Delay”

So in just 5 verses, David pleads 4 different times “Hasten”, “Come Quickly”, “Come Quickly”, “Do Not Delay”  Four times he pleads to be rescued and delivered.

What we’ve got here is a sort of “SOS” call. A distress signal that David is sending up to God in prayer

One of the first lessons we learn is that it’s okay to pray for yourself.

If you look through the Psalms, you’re going to see that a large portion of the Psalms is spent praising God. In addition you’ll also see large portions of thanksgiving as well as confessing sin against God.

But in this Psalm, David gets straight to the point of praying for himself and his present situation!!!

He prays for himself even before he prays for others

Sometimes our perspective in prayer is: maybe we shouldn’t ask, or maybe we shouldn’t ask for too much.

This Psalm reminds me a lot of a parable that Jesus told in Luke 18-

 The parable of the persistent widow, seeking justice from an unjust judge, she was seeking justice against an adversary—very similar to what is happening in Psalm 70 with David

Vs. 5- because this widow keeps bothering me

We see the Point of the parable in verses6-8:-
If this unjust judge will answer her persistence, how much more will God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.

This is an invitation to bother God, to ask Him, and to be persistent in prayer.

It’s not only okay to pray for ourselves...
we should respond to trouble by praying for ourselves.

God delights in our Asking—He wants us to ask Him.  It is wrong to not come to Him in prayer

God delights in our bringing our trouble to Him- that’s not an annoyance, that’s not petty in His eyes, it’s not a burden to God, that’s not being selfish.

It brings God Glory when we bring our troubles before Him.

The very act of turning to Him in trouble brings Him praise.

It is God’s creative design when it comes to you and I for us to ask Him for things.

Creation is designed in this way.

It brings God a great deal of joy.

Some of you with the blessing of old age are starting to experience physical hardships.

Some of you are dealing with sickness and disease that’s troubling you and bothering you.

Some of you are grieving the loss of a loved one.

Some of you find yourself in trouble spiritually and entangled in sin.

Some of you are in trouble in your marriage and experiencing difficulties in relationships.

Experiencing the trouble of anxiety, loneliness, depression, doubt

The invitation for you is to cry out to your God for help!!!

God delights in you crying out to Him.

God finds praise in your asking of Him.

To those who are in Christ, your invitation is to cry out in such a way that pleads for a speedy answer.

Have faith that He hears the cries of his children and will come to the rescue.