Psalm 70: 1 – 5
Aha, Aha
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O LORD! 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life; Let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!” 4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” 5 But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.
I have heard many native speakers in the United states answer with a brief and cold "aha" when someone says, "thank you". So, a question I want you to help answer for me ‘Is it appropriate to answer like that?’ I myself feel offended when I receive such a response from someone I don't know.
I figure that it seems to depend on the intonation and facial expression. It may also be a wave of dismissal like ‘Don't mention it’ or ‘Think nothing of it’.–
I think what we are hearing is a short, simple "uh-huh", which is intended as an acknowledgement that they have received your thanks and consider the exchange complete. It is not intended to be rude; in fact, ignoring someone who says "thanks" is much ruder. It's very informal and is probably mostly used when whatever answer they gave that prompted you to thank them was a small, barely noteworthy thing.
Other utterances that we may hear include:
Sure
yup
you bet
no prob
mm-hmm (or even just mmm)
To a peer or a social inferior, aha may indeed be appropriate in casual situations— in fact, a mere mmm or wave of the hand would be sufficient. It is an acknowledgement of the thanks, but simultaneously a dismissal of it as if it were unnecessary.
I tell you that aha is much more respectable than no response at all , it is American normal way of responding to thank you , I am myself not originally American , I notice that mostly non-Americans are offended by this normal aha , I had a non-American friend who was going really crazy if Americans said aha after he said thanks.
Sometime though someone might add another ‘Aha’ to their response which changes the attitude. When one responds this way, it was not initiated by saying a thank you. What they are doing are agreeing that whatever happened to you, you finally ‘get what is coming to you.’
This is what is happening to our brother David. When he was being bombarded by hardships many Anti-David’s just responded as he informs us in verse 3, “Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!”
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.
We have here another Psalm of David dedicated to the chief musician. It is said to be to ‘to bring to remembrance’. Compare Psalm 38 where we find the same phrase. Alternately we may translate as, ‘to make memorial’.
The thought is that he wanted to bring to God’s remembrance his sufferings and need and that he wanted by his words to remember how God was with him in his extremity.
The Psalm divides into three parts:
1). A cry to be delivered from those who would dishonor him (70.1-3).
2). A call to believers to rejoice and magnify God (70.4).
3). A general plea for help (70.5).
There are three types of people from whom he wants to be delivered. Those who seek his life; those who delight in his hurt; and those who say, ‘aha, aha’. And he prays that they may all be confounded and shamed.
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O LORD! 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life; Let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!”
Psalm 40 reads as the first line, ‘be pleased, O YHWH, to deliver me’, which may be an expansion on this, for the abrupt form is acceptable in a Psalm. His cry is for deliverance, and what is more, deliverance in a hurry. He has a number of enemies. He wants those who seek his life to be both ashamed and confounded. He wants those who delight in his hurt to be driven back and brought to dishonor. He wants those who mock him and seek to shame him, to themselves be desolate because of their own shame. He is clearly confident that YHWH will be aware how much of it is their own fault, and indeed that what is to be done to them is deserved.
Turning from dealing with those who have sought his downfall he now calls on God to ensure that those who seek Him and those who love His salvation will be able to rejoice and magnify God. It is a case of the contrast between the unrighteous and the righteous, between those who want to dismiss religion and attack religious adherents, and those who truly love God.
4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!”
In contrast with what he wishes on evildoers he prays that those who seek God may rejoice and be glad in Him. He prays that those who love God’s saving power might be able to say continually, ‘Let God be magnified’. There is clearly a contrast between those who love God and are faithful to Him, and those who are merely after their own ends.
His confidence lies in the fact of his own trust in God, and in his own faithfulness and obedience to God. He is sure that YHWH will be on his side because he is faithful to His covenant requirements and always grateful to Him for His help.
It is important to note his desire that the righteous will ‘be glad in Him’ and will magnify Him. Central to his thinking was that God might be glorified through His people.
He closes by admitting his own weakness and calling on God to speed up His response, because God alone was his help and deliverer. And he pointedly refers his final plea to ‘YHWH’, his personal covenant God, asking him not to delay in answering him.
5 But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.
One of the tests of a truly righteous man is that he does not see himself as righteous or deserving because he is deeply aware of his own failings. And so, it was with David. He was one of the most moral and righteous men of his times (despite the black spots), as well as one of the most powerful, and yet he saw himself as simply ‘poor and needy’, and no doubt could not fully understand why the Lord bothered about him. But he knew that He did, and he rejoiced in it. And so, he prays that God will make haste to help and deliver him and will not linger, and closes by directly addressing YHWH, the One Who Is his personal covenant God.
While we must always recognize that God will answer in His own time, there is encouragement here for us to seek to impress God with the urgency of our situation. If the situation is important enough we too may cry, ‘make haste, O God, and do not linger’, although we must still recognize that our times are in His hands.
