Same Song, Fifth Verse: When a Psalm Won’t Let Go

Psalm 70 is short—only five verses long—but it makes up for its brevity with urgency and repetition. The psalm opens with a plea: "Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me." That phrase alone appears almost verbatim in several other psalms, and it shows up again at the end of this one. It's hard to miss the sense of desperation.

Talking in Circles (On Purpose)

What caught my attention most was how much the psalm circles around the same words and ideas. Help me. Save me. Let them be put to shame. May those who seek you rejoice. It feels like the speaker is stuck in a loop, repeating variations of the same thoughts. But instead of reading that as a flaw or filler, I started to wonder if there's something purposeful in the repetition.

Maybe repetition is what urgency sounds like. When people are afraid or overwhelmed, they don't usually speak in elegant, structured paragraphs. They say the same things over and over. Sometimes it's a cry for help; sometimes it's a mantra. Sometimes it's both.

Anchoring Through Echoes

This psalm also reminded me of how often we repeat ourselves when we're trying to make something real—whether it's comforting someone, making a promise, or just trying to keep a thought steady in our minds. Repeating a phrase can be a way of holding on, especially when nothing else feels certain.

In a text like this, repetition might not be about poor memory or limited vocabulary. It might be an intentional way of creating rhythm, urgency, or focus. If the writer keeps returning to a phrase like "come quickly to help me," maybe it's because there's nothing else to say that matters more in that moment.

No Resolution? No Problem.

Psalm 70 doesn't offer much resolution. The final line is another repetition: "You are my help and my deliverer; Lord, do not delay." It ends almost exactly where it began. That structure might feel incomplete to some readers, but maybe that’s the point. Sometimes, there's no neat ending—just the same needs, the same hopes, spoken again and again.

It makes me think about how repetition functions in modern life, too. Emergency alerts, protest chants, daily affirmations, even text messages we send when we're too tired to say something new. Repeating words might not change a situation, but it can create a kind of anchor.

Psalm 70 might be short, but it's dense with that sense of circling back. And whether or not one shares the speaker's beliefs, the need behind those repeated lines feels familiar. There's something human in it.