Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation!
Psalm 38:22(3h)

OFTEN THE ONLY PRAYER we have is "Help, LORD!" I use this one on a daily basis, that is, whenever I am confronted with the truth of my condition.

The word translated "hasten" comes from the Hebrew word "chush," which means to hurry, to act quickly, or to come quickly. The Psalms often plead urgently, "hasten to help me" (chushah l'ezrati).

An old Jewish prayer says, "O LORD, I know that you will help us;
but will you help us before you will help us?"

Although God sometime tarries, He declares, "I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it" (Isa. 60:22). But still the anxious heart sighs, "Is it time, LORD?  Will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?" But as Jesus said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority" (Acts 1:6-7). We are left waiting for ultimate God's answer: His glorious coming to fulfill our salvation.

Living in the "already-not-yet" state of redemption is a soul-building venture that helps us to acquire the precious middah (quality) of patience: "In your patience possess ye your souls" (Luke 21:19).

In Modern Hebrew the word teshuvah, often translated "repentance," also means "an answer." It is the mind's turning to a sheilah, a question, attending to it with honesty in the pursuit of truth.

Often trials in our lives function as God's question to us, and we are asked to answer with the teshuvah of settled faith.

The last words recorded of Jesus are: "Surely I come quickly" (Rev. 22:20). This is immediately followed by the last prayer given in the Scriptures: "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Suffering produces endurance (Rom. 5:3), but God surely is faithful "to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude 1:24). May He come speedily, and in our day.  Amen.

Transliteration:

chushah l'ezrati Adonai teshua'ti

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