Over the last few weeks, I have had to spend a lot of hours in medical facilities. One of the things that I have discovered is that as much as quietness, prayer time and meditation is needed, during the daytime hours, nowhere in a busy hospital is there a place for any of the above. Not even in the small chapel. People are always walking; doctors, nurses and aides are always moving; the paging system is always paging someone. The hospital must be one of the busiest places on the planet. There is nothing negative here about the use of the word busy. Giving some thought to it, I don’t think that I want to be a patient in a hospital that was not busy.
For me, one of the most unsettling moments in the hospital is when the pager pages the emergency code — “Code blue to room 202; rapid response to room 202; all units, code blue to room 202.” Every time I hear the words “code blue” or “rapid response,” two things immediately happen to me. First I send a quick blessing to the room. Then I envision activity — doctors and nurses on a quick step moving to that room; everybody in place; everybody moving, doing their best to rescue and save a life possibly tilting on the brink of death. The best word for me to describe what I envision going on at that moment, in that one single place in the hospital is “Busy.”
Here in Psalm 70, one of the shortest of all the Psalms, the writer, who is in desperate need of help, has sent out the rapid response code to God for saving help. Verse 1 is rendered in the Message Bible, “God! Please hurry to my rescue! God, come quickly to my side.” Another version, “O Lord, make haste to help me!” And the NIV rendering is, “Hasten, O God, to save me; O Lord, come quickly to help me.”
In his commentary on this text, the theology academic Greg Garrett suggests, “These verses are not specific about the danger from which the speaker desires relief. These enemies seek the life of the psalmist, desire to hurt him or her, or delight in her or his misfortunes. Whatever the case, God’s rescue is called for and expected.” The psalmist has found himself/herself in crises, in a life threatening moment, and the code has been sent out to God and rapid response is expected. Code blue, God come quickly!
Here is a salient thought that all of us must always hold on to. There will be some places, life threatening moments, when the need for divine assistance is imperative, and nothing or no one can help but God. For the psalmist. this is one of those moments. “Deliver me; help me; hasten to me; God — quickly, quickly! Quick to my side, quick to my rescue…”
I have a feeling that a whole lot of people are sending out to God a “code blue page” and have found themselves waiting for the rapid response team. Far too many people today are living in crises and life threatening times — economic devastation; mental anguish over the lost of a job or the demise of a loved one; the possibility for some and the probability for others of foreclosure/bankruptcy; an illness that has claimed your physical body and is taking its toll on you, your relatives and friends; for whatever reason or for no reason at all, the walls of life seem to be closing in around you. You have found your life in that space where nothing and no one but divine assistance and help is imperative. Code blue God, come quickly.
Loading...
Comments