Brain Worm


Psalm 70
To the choirmaster. Of David, for the memorial offering.
1Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!
2Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life! Let them be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt!
3Let them turn back because of their shame who say, “Aha, Aha!”
4May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
5But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!

Have you ever had a praise chorus or the verse to your favorite hymn running through your brain all day long? That happens to me all the time which means I need to be fairly careful about what I hear with frequency. Those brain loops can have a positive (or negative – if it’s a stupid commercial jingle) effect on our day and on our faith. With my grandsons I call them “brain worms” and they get the point.

This psalm is an almost verbatim repeat of the last 5 verses of Psalm 40, which may indicate that this was a popular worship or liturgical anthem that people heard and repeated with frequency. It was quite possible that people had these 5 verses memorized and could quote them quickly and without a prompt. Imagine having these words on constant repeat throughout your mind all day long. Not a bad thing. It is also interesting that this psalm comes immediately after the end of Psalm 69 – the Messianic Psalm of Jesus' plea for help from God the Father. It may have even been quoted as a concluding chorus for that psalm as well.

Some people have quiet minds and probably are not subject to those “brain worms” but for those of us who are, this can be a valuable gift! Now you can take the Word of God and turned it into meditation and the Word goes with you all day long. It may not be the words to this psalm, but instead the words of a favorite hymn. Contemporary praise choruses can get stuck in my brain but so too can the words of Holy, Holy, Holy or Amazing Grace. Then the Lord is front and center and the day suddenly takes a new turn. If you’re not a person who has song words flying through your mind all day, maybe you can memorize just one of these verses that speaks to you (verse 4 is a gem!) and run that through the grey matter all day. Either way – you win!

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