Psalm Devotional
Let God Be Magnified!
The five verses of Psalm 70 are essentially a repetition of Psalm 40:13-17, where this short, urgent petition concludes a longer psalm of praise. In Psalm 70 this urgent prayer stands on its own, beginning and ending with the plea for God to make haste with His help. The Lord’s deliverance seemed to tarry for the moment, but the lessons David learned in the interim prove to be worth the wait, and show that there is a good purpose in God’s delay.
In spite of his ordeal, David sees the joy of salvation that all God’s people share (v. 4). He pauses long enough from his prayer to stir all those who love the Lord to continually say, “Let God be magnified!” God’s glory and the joy of God’s people form the larger context of his thoughts, and these great realities could not be clouded by the trouble at hand. God’s delay, it would seem, was just long enough to widen David’s thoughts and make him take inventory of greater facts, but not long enough to cause him to despair. As is often the case with our prayers, what at first seems to be a delay turns out to be a development.
