Contemplation with Luther on Psalm 70:4-5

Psalm 70:4-5 (ESV)

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!

My burden in preaching the Gospel of Jesus to His Church is one which, I hope and think, recognizes that there are different facets of this marvelous gospel which need to be applied differently at different times in the history of redemption. At least in the circles in which I find myself ministering, I find that people are often consumed with a false guilt; often the result of well intended and yet ever destructive fundamentalism. On the other hand, I have found that in wanting to communicate the biblical doctrine of “total depravity”, the idea that there is no aspect of human existence that has not been polluted by sin,[1] I have found that parishioners often will get stuck there. In other words, it is true that Christ comes to us when we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2); however, may it never be that the deadness of the “old man”, as Paul terms our pre-salvation state, eclipses the fact that Christ has made everything new (2 Cor 5:17)!

We have forgotten that God has bound himself to us in Christ by way of covenant. We have overlooked the dignity that this communicates to us as Christians who are in covenant with God. It speaks to our destiny, for He has saved us – not just to say that we are saved – but to deliver us into His likeness, which is found in Christ alone. Nevertheless, Christians who are attuned to the realities of this world also know the bitterness of stumbling in the midst of our procession with Christ to the end of days. Commenting on John 6:56, Luther writes:

Outwardly Christians stumble and fall from time to time. Only weakness and shame appear on the surface, revealing that the Christians are sinners who do that which displeases the world. Then they are regarded as fools, as Cinderellas, as footmats for the world, as damned, impotent, and worthless people. But this does not matter. In their weakness, sin, folly, and frailty there abides inwardly and secretly a force and power unrecognizable by the world and hidden from its view, but one which, for all that, carries off the victory; for Christ resides in them and manifests Himself to them. I have seen many of these who, externally, tottered along very feebly; but when it came to the test and they faced the court, Christ bestirred Himself in them, and they became so staunch that the devil had to flee.^[2]

It is precisely in this poverty that we find the wealth of Christ, our deliverer, who does in fact bestir himself in His people. It is this God to whom we make the petition, the plea, “I am poor and needy; hasten to me!... Do not delay!” The marvel is that he does hasten to us in perfect time. Luther expresses his own reflections on the figures of speech (tropology is the study of such figures) used in Psalm 70:4 when he writes that such figures speak:

First, against the vices and sins of the past, lest they lead you to despair. Second, against the reviling of the lust of the flesh and its works. Third, against the attractions of the world and the promptings of the devil, lest they prevail over you, but that you may persevere in hope and faith, in grace and union with Christ.

Say: “Lord God, be pleased to deliver me.” For this prayer is the shield, spear, thunderbolt, and defense against every attack of fear, presumption, lukewarmness, security, etc., which are especially dominant today, as was said above. 

Then, so that you might be able to prevail over them, and this quickly, to destroy such evil impulses, add: “Lord, make haste to help me.” For haste is necessary to drive them away, especially in our age of defects, security, and lukewarmness.

Then continue: “Let them be confounded and ashamed,” that is, that their every reproach be revealed to me to be false and foolish, namely, of past sins for despair, of the world for sins of the flesh, etc., so that in this way I might see that these confound the spirit if they are followed. Then let the proud ideas about my own holiness, the impulses of being alone, as though I were making much progress, be turned backward, so that I may see that they are nothing and blow me up from nothing and falsely suggest to me that I have made progress, and thereby wish evil for me, so that, the more they make me seem to be better than others, the worse I fall.^[3]

May God have mercy on us, that we would not be lukewarm in our relentless pursuit of Christ. That pursuit is driven by the cylinder of faith and repentance, churning up and down, two sides of the same coin. For when we stumble in faith we repent and when we find victory in faith we cry out for meekness and humility. Lord have mercy. Deliver us. Do not delay.

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[1] N.B. This is not to be confused with the misunderstood version of this teaching that would say that people are as bad as they might possibly be. Such “utter depravity” is not the “total depravity” of Calvin.

^[2]Martin Luther, vol. 23, Luther's Works, Vol. 23 : Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 6-8, ( ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan et al.;, Luther's Works Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1959), 23:146.

^[3]Martin Luther, vol. 10, Luther's Works, Vol. 10 : First Lectures on the Psalms I: Psalms 1-75, ( ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan et al.;, Luther's Works Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, c1974), 10:391.