Reading for Today–March 29
Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32
Luke 8:22-39
Psalm 70:1-5
Proverbs 12:4

“Please, God, rescue me!
Come quickly Lord, and help me.”

Psalm 70:1

As you read through the Psalms you frequently see the writer in some kind of trouble. The world in which he lives is not always filled with blue skies and rainbows and sunbeams from heaven. His world is fraught with danger and enemies and desperation.

A Canadian theologian named John Hall introduced me to the word triumphalism. By this he meant the tendency in some Christian circles to only preach the victory we have in Jesus–to emphasize the positive components of the Christian faith and ignore the negative.

The writers of the Psalms did not have that luxury. The marauders lived just over the hill, they did not have antibiotics, and disaster was only one drought away.

So they cried out to God. “Please, God, rescue me! Come quickly Lord, and help me.”