At a time when I was feeling spiritually impoverished, I came across this Psalm of David, and it became both an encouragement and a prayer.

I was encouraged by the fact that God thinks about the poor and needy. In context, David is not speaking specifically about financial poverty, although throughout Scripture we see that God also regards the financially poor.

What encouraged me was the thought that while I was crying out from my place of spiritual poverty, God had me in His mind.

David identifies God as his help and his deliverer, and asks Him to come quickly. This Scripture became my prayer, and reminded me why the Psalms are such a window into the deeply personal relationship we can have with God.

As I repented of the state I had let myself drift into, I was reminded just how much I need God daily.

The poverty I repented of was neglect. The poverty David describes is something else: knowing exactly how much you need God.

I am determined to make poor and needy my posture.

Because the truth is, I need God more and more.

As the world grows more wicked, as my responsibilities increase, and as the distractions of life multiply, I need Him more.

I cannot pretend that I am behind the veil 24/7. That simply isn’t true. There are times when my attention is divided, when I become distracted, and when I recognise that I have not given God the place in my daily life that He ought to occupy.

So, like David, I am poor and needy.

And when I began looking into the other places where David describes himself this way, I gained even more insight into this man whom God described as a man after His own heart.

Consider this.

David was a king. A man who possessed more material wealth than most of us will ever have in this life. So why would a man like this repeatedly declare himself poor and needy?

The context of his declarations is revealing.

In Psalm 40, David remembers God’s previous deliverance, but by verse 12 he is once again overwhelmed, this time acknowledging the weight of his own iniquities.

And yet, five verses later, he declares:

David acknowledges his failure, but he does not allow that failure to prevent him from crying out to God.

In Psalm 70:5, he makes almost the same declaration while urgently seeking deliverance from those who desire his destruction.

But what I found particularly interesting is that David does not reserve the description poor and needy for moments when he has failed God.

In Psalm 86, David describes himself as poor and needy, but immediately afterwards he declares his devotion and trust in God.

The word holy here is personal. It means devoted. So even in his devotion, David still recognised that he was poor and needy.

And in Psalm 109, David describes the pain of being hated by people to whom he had shown love. He speaks of false accusations, betrayal, physical weakness and a wounded heart.

What becomes apparent is that being poor and needy is not necessarily a measure of someone’s financial position, righteousness or standing with God.

It can describe the condition of someone who recognises that they cannot preserve, defend, sustain or deliver themselves without God’s help.

Jesus gave this posture a name, and attached a blessing to it.

Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are often called “the poor” and “the needy”, sometimes both together, just as David does in Psalm 40:17. Often it has nothing to do with money. It describes a frame of mind.

Jesus makes that explicit. The words “in spirit” fix the meaning: these are people who know, deep down, how completely they need God.

And notice the tense. Theirs is the kingdom. Not will be.

Recognising your poverty before God isn’t where your riches end. It’s where they begin.

David understood something you must never lose sight of.

Whatever your position, possessions, experiences or accomplishments, you remain dependent upon God.

Jacob knew this too. Having recognised how little he deserved of all that God had done for him, he confessed:

Jacob was confronting the reality of his own unworthiness in the face of God’s faithfulness. Despite everything he had acquired, he recognised that he was a recipient of mercies he could never claim to deserve.

I once wrote a song using his words:

“I’m not worthy of Your mercy or the truth that You have shown me.”

And I added:

“I don’t deserve that You delight in knowing me.”

There is something about coming to the end of yourself that causes you to recognise just how dependent you are upon God.

The old hymn echoes the same sentiment:

“I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain.”

You need God in every season and in every area of life.

And what is even more astonishing is that God wants to be involved in your life. Yet He calls you to seek Him, trust Him and willingly submit yourself to Him.

It is easy to compartmentalise God. To involve Him in some matters and navigate others alone. To acknowledge Him in your spiritual life while relying on your own understanding in your everyday decisions.

But God is interested in all of you.

He knows your need, but do you know your need?

How many situations could you have navigated from a place of peace if you had involved the Saviour from the beginning?

How often have you exhausted yourself trying to manage what you should first have brought before Him?

If Christ is your righteousness, your standing with Him was never built on your own strength. Depending on Him isn’t weakness. It’s living in the truth.

So stop treating your dependence on God as something you acknowledge only when everything else has failed.

Whether you are prospering or struggling, standing strong or confronting your weakness, experiencing victory or crying out for deliverance, your need for God remains.

So tell Him that you are poor and needy.

Ask Him to make haste and intervene in your life.

And remember that David, even in his distress, could declare something that should encourage every one of us:

He is my help and my deliverer. So today, I declare: