Psalm 40:13

EXPOSITION

Verse 13. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. How touching! How humble! How plaintive! The words thrill us as we think that after this sort our Lord and Master prayed. His petition is not so much that the cup should pass away undrained, but that he should be sustained while drinking it, and set free from its power at the first fitting moment. He seeks deliverance and help; and he entreats that the help may not be slow in coming; this is after the manner of our pleadings. Is it not? Note, reader, how our Lord was heard in that he feared, for there was after Gethsemane a calm endurance which made the fight as glorious as the victory.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 13. The remaining verses of this Psalm are almost exactly identical with Psalm 70.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 11-13. As an instance of clerical ingenuity, it may be well to mention that Canon Wordsworth has a sermon from these verses upon "the duty of making responses int public prayer."

Verse 13.

1. The language of believing prayer -- deliver me, help me; looking for deliverance and help to God only.
2. Of earnest prayer -- make haste to help me.
3. Of submissive prayer -- be pleased, O Lord, if according to thy good pleasure.
4. Of consistent prayer. Help me, which implies efforts for his own deliverance, putting his own shoulder to the wheel.