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Psalm 38:21-22

Psalm 38:21 Yahveh, do not abandon me; my God, do not be far from me.

Psalm 38:22 Hurry to help me, my Lord, my salvation.¹

It is a terrible thing to get the point in life where you think even God could abandon you. The psalmist was a spiritual man – a theologian. He knew that God could not. But he felt that God could.

hurry to help

This is the end of the psalm. No happy ending. We are left to assume that this frantic prayer of a desperate person was answered. Logic tells us that it was, or else the song would not have been written. But the aim of this psalm is not to simply tell a story. If that were the aim, we would expect a conclusion. No, the aim of this psalm seems to be didactic. It teaches us how to pray when we desperately need God to come to our rescue.

Do you feel the distance today? Does it seem that God is far from you, and you desperately need him nearer. Pray. He is there, and he is listening.

Lord, do not abandon us; our God, do not be far from us.

Hurry to help us, our Lord, our salvation

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¹subscription: For the choir director, for Jeduthun.