#DailyDevotion Come LORD Jesus, Come Quickly
Psalm 70 antiphon v. 4
4 But may all who look to You for help find joy and delight in You. May those who love You for saving them always say, “God is great!” 1Come quickly, O God, to rescue me, O LORD, to help me. 2May those who are trying to destroy me be disappointed and ashamed, and those who delight in harming me turn back in disgrace. 3May those who say, “Aha! Aha!” be appalled by their own shame. 4But may all who look to You for help find joy and delight in You. May those who love You for saving them always say, “God is great!” 5 I am poor and needy, O God, come to me quickly. You are my Helper and my Deliverer; O LORD, don’t delay! 4 But may all who look to You for help find joy and delight in You. May those who love You for saving them always say, “God is great!”
The antiphon for a psalm or introit of the day introduces the main theme for the day. For this coming Sunday is verse 4, “But may all who look to You for help find joy and delight in You. May those who love You for saving them always say, ‘God is great!’” We see several themes here. There are those who look to God for help. These same people will find joy and delight in the LORD. They love the LORD for saving them. The praise God by saying, “God is great.”
Indeed in both the epistle lesson from 1 Thess. 4 and the Gospel lesson from Matt. 25 we see these themes. We await the resurrection and the return of our LORD Jesus Christ in both of these. We realize the fullness of our salvation at Jesus’ return as we are raised from the dead bodily and enter into his eternal kingdom. This hope indeed is our joy and delight.
The first verse is appropriate as we await the day of our salvation and the full manifestation of Jesus’ kingdom on earth. “Come quickly to rescue and to help me O LORD our God!” Such is our prayer we received from John in his Revelation 22, 17“Come!” say the Spirit and the bride. “If you hear this, say, ‘Come!’ If you are thirsty, come. If you want it, take the water of life as a free gift… 20He who spoke these truths says: ‘Yes, I am coming soon!’ Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!”
Verse two and three expresses how we feel in life when encountering those who do not share our joy and hope. While they may express their disdain at our hope and joy, some may even try to harm us because of it, we turn them to the LORD. Their disgrace and shame is coming upon them as they deserve. The foolish virgins are examples whose disgrace comes upon them for not knowing the LORD and those hypocritical followers of the LORD from Amos who gave an outward show of piety at worship but the rest of their days were spent worshipping demons in thought, word and deed.
Verse five again reminds of the call from Revelation 22 and says, “O God, come to me quickly. You are my Helper and my Deliverer; O LORD, don’t delay!” We may pray at meals, “Come LORD Jesus” and we should mean more than be at our table but rather may we dine at his table at the great wedding feast of the Lamb. We desire him to come quickly because we despise our fallenness and want to be robed in his righteousness and glory, seeing his face and being made like him.
O LORD Jesus, come quickly and save us! Deliver us from those who hate us and give us your eternal life in the world to come. In your precious name we pray. Amen.