It's quite a petition to ask God to hurry up. There are moments in life where our need is pressing and urgent. The clock is ticking. I'm mindful of all the devastation from hurricane Helene and the emergency response in the immediate aftermath. I watched a clip of a TV reporter who was live broadcasting from a flooded road. A woman had driven into the waters, which had risen over her car doors. She cried out for help and the reporter called 911. As he resumed his report the woman continued to cry for help. He called back to her, reassuring her that help was on the way. But her distress continued. Finally, the reporter couldn't in good conscience wait any longer. He stopped reporting and waded into the chest deep waters to rescue the woman from the car. Sometimes, help has to hurry.
Many Psalms, like Psalm 70, have this sort of urgency. "Lord, make haste to help me!" The CSB translation: "Lord, hurry to help me!"
As I've shared before, in the Orthodox monastic tradition many of the Psalms were interpreted psychospiritually. That this, the attacks and the need for help concern temptations. We ask that God "hurry to help us" in the midst of an acute, spiritual struggle, when we are being assailed by unwanted and troubling desires and impulses. A lovely example of this comes from Every Moment Holy, Volume 1, a prayer for battling a destructive desire:
Jesus, here I am again,
desiring a thing
that were I to indulge in it
would war against my own heart,
and the hearts of those I love.
O Christ, rather let my life be thine!
Take my desires. Let them be subsumed
in still greater desire for you,
until there remains no room for these lesser cravings.
In this moment I might choose
to indulge a fleeting hunger,
or I might choose to love you more.
Faced with this temptation,
I would rather choose you, Jesus—
but I am weak. So be my strength.
I am shadowed. Be my light.
I am selfish. Unmake me now,
and refashion my desires
according to the better designs of your love.
Given the choice of shame or glory,
let me choose glory.
Given the choice of this moment or eternity,
let me choose in this moment what is eternal.
Given the choice of this easy pleasure,
or the harder road of the cross,
give me grace to choose to follow you,
knowing that there is nowhere
apart from your presence
where I might find the peace I long for,
no lasting satisfaction
apart from your reclamation of my heart.
Let me build, then, my King,
a beautiful thing by long obedience,
by the steady progression of small choices
that laid end to end will become like
the stones of a pleasing path
stretching to eternity
and unto your welcoming arms
and unto the sound of your voice
pronouncing the judgment:
Well done.
