Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. Let those who say, "Aha, Aha!" turn back because of their shame. Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, "God is great!" But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay! (Psalm 70)

David wrote this, and many of the psalms, later in life. Most would not have perceived him as poor and needy. He was a great King - encumbered with kingly troubles - but poor and needy seems an overstatment.

Psalm 70 is merely an excerpt from Psalm 40 (verses 13-17). In this earlier psalm David wrote that God "drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog..." He was trapped. He could not extract himself. David's own sense of need is urgent.

David was a complicated man. Politically and personally he displayed nearly every vice: pride, envy, avarice, intolerance, disloyalty, disobedience, and more. But David was able to recognize and take responsibility for his own failures.

Even from a throne of power - surrounded by gold, diamonds, and his harem of wives and concubines - David was able to recognize his deep need and profound poverty.

Before we will accept the help of God we must recognize our need for God. David was blessed with an urgent sense of needing God.

Above is David and Bathsheba by Marc Chagall. More on David is available at Wikipedia