“Help, Lord…” (Ps 12:1).
This is one of the shortest prayer requests in the Bible. Patricia Laitin tells about a school teacher who was explaining to her young charges the benefits of brevity in writing. She then gave them the assignment of writing about something exciting, but as briefly as possible. One little fellow turned in his paper on which was written: “Help! Help!”
In moments of crisis, when there is no time to even assess the nature of the difficulty, we can simply and succinctly call on our all-knowing Lord who is “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (46:1). Moses named one of his sons “Eliezer,” which simply means “God of help.” On his 120th birthday, as he sang to Israel, he poetically declared, “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun (the righteous ones), who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33:26-27). A mere cry unleashes Heaven’s Cavalry!