“Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.”
David's urgent plea for God to be pleased to deliver him expresses both desperation and the established faith pattern of calling upon God's character and willingness to save. The abbreviated plea focuses the petition rather than elaborating, suggesting that verbose supplication proves unnecessary before God who knows all hearts and needs. The threefold affirmation of God's nature (Lord, deliverer, help) invokes established theological resources and reminds God (and the psalmist) of God's demonstrated commitment to rescue. The urgency of the plea—make haste—acknowledges the critical nature of the situation while trusting that God's speed of response matches divine purposes. This verse demonstrates that even those who have praised God's past salvation must repeatedly petition for new intervention, establishing prayer as the ongoing posture of covenant faith.
Church Fathers on Psalms 40:13
1. Of all those things which our Lord Jesus Christ has foretold, we know part to have been already accomplished, part we hope will be accomplished hereafter. All of them, however, will be fulfilled, because He is “the Truth” who speaks them, and requires of us to be as “faithful,” as He Himself speaks them faithfully.... 2. Let us say then what this Psalm says. “I waited patiently for the Lord” Psalm 39:1. I waited patiently for the promise of no mere mortal who can both…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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