Psalms 70 commentary

This psalm is almost the same as the last five verses of Ps 40. While here we behold Jesus Christ set forth in poverty and distress, we also see him denouncing just and fearful punishment on his Jewish, heathen, and antichristian enemies; and pleading for the joy and happiness of his friends, to his Father's honour. Let us apply these things to our own troubled circumstances, and in a believing manner bring them, and the sinful causes thereof, to our remembrance. Urgent trials should always awake fervent prayers.

PSALM 70

This psalm is merely a part of the fortieth, and the inscription, To call to remembrance, is perhaps designed to indicate this; David having taken these five verses out of that other psalm, and accommodated them for being used on some particular occasion. I shall only here repeat the words of the text; and would refer the reader for the interpretation to the proper place.

To the chief musician of David, to call to remembrance.

Psalm 70:1-5

1. O God! make haste to deliver me: O Jehovah! hasten to my help. 2. Let those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; let those who desire my hurt be turned backward, and put to confusion 3. Let those who say to me, Aha! aha! perish as a reward of their shame. 4. Let all those who seek thee rejoice and exult in thee: let those who love thy salvation say, Let God be magnified for evermore! 5. As for me, I am poor and needy: O God! hasten to me: thou art my help and my deliverer: O Jehovah! make no delay.

Make haste to help me - I am in extreme distress, and the most imminent danger. Haste to help me, or I am lost.

Let them be turned backward - They are coming in a body against me. Lord, stop their progress!

That say, Aha, aha - האה האה Heach! heach! a note of supreme contempt. See on Psa 40:15 (note).

Let God be magnified - Let his glory, mercy, and kindness, continually appear in the increase of his own work in the souls of his followers!

But I am poor and needy - עני ואביון ani veebyon, I am a poor man, and a beggar - an afflicted beggar; a sense of my poverty causes me to beg.

Thou art my help - I know thou hast enough, and to spare; and therefore I come to thee.

Make no tarrying - My wants are many, my danger great, my time short. O God, delay not!

Cry of a Persecuted One for Help

This short Psalm, placed after Ps 69 on account of the kindred nature of its contents (cf. more especially v. 6 with Psa 69:30), is, with but few deviations, a repetition of Psa 40:14. This portion of the second half of Ps 40 is detached from it and converted into the Elohimic style. Concerning להזכּיר, at the presentation of the memorial portion of the mincha, vid., Psa 38:1. It is obvious that David himself is not the author of the Psalm in this stunted form. The לדוד is moreover justified, if he composed the original Psalm which is here modified and appropriated to a special liturgical use.

Psa 70:1-3

We see at once at the very beginning, in the omission of the רצה (Psa 40:14), that what we have here before us is a fragment of Ps 40, and perhaps a fragment that only accidentally came to have an independent existence. The להצּילני, which was under the government of רצה, now belongs to הוּשׁה, and the construction is without example elsewhere. In Psa 70:3 (= Psa 40:15) יחד and לספּותהּ are given up entirely; the original is more full-toned and soaring. Instead of ישׁמּוּ, torpescant, Psa 70:4 has ישׁוּבוּ, recedant (as in Ps 6:11, cf. Psa 9:18), which is all the more flat for coming after יסגו אחור. In Psa 70:4, after ויאמרים the לי, which cannot here (cf. on the contrary, Psa 35:21) be dispensed with, is wanting.

Psa 70:4-5 ויאמרו instead of יאמרו is unimportant. But since the divine name Jahve is now for once chosen side by side with Elohim, it certainly had a strong claim to be retained in Psa 70:5. Instead of תּשׁועתך we have ישׁועתך here; instead of עזרתי, here עזרי. And instead of אדני יחשׁב לי we have here אלהים חוּשׁה־לּי - the hope is turned into petition: make haste unto me, is an innovation in expression that is caused by the taking over of the לי.

Urgent Petitions.

1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Lord . 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. 4 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. 5 But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord , make no tarrying.

The title tells us that this psalm was designed to bring to remembrance; that is, to put God in remembrance of his mercy and promises (for so we are said to do when we pray to him and plead with him. Isa. xliii. 26, Put me in remembrance)—not that the Eternal Mind needs a remembrancer, but this honour he is pleased to put upon the prayer of faith. Or, rather, to put himself and others in remembrance of former afflictions, that we may never be secure, but always in expectation of troubles, and of former devotions, that when the clouds return after the rain we may have recourse to the same means which we have formerly found effectual for fetching in comfort and relief. We may in prayer use the words we have often used before: our Saviour in his agony prayed thrice, saying the same words; so David here uses the words he had used before, yet not without some alterations, to show that he did not design to tie himself or others to them as a form. God looks at the heart, not at the words.

I. David here prays that God would make haste to relieve and succour him (v. 1, 5): I am poor and needy, in want and distress, and much at a loss within myself. Poverty and necessity are very good pleas in prayer to a God of infinite mercy, who despises not the sighing of a contrite heart, who has pronounced a blessing upon the poor in spirit, and who fills the hungry with good things. He prays, 1. That God would appear for him to deliver him from his troubles in due time. 2. That in the mean time he would come in to his aid, to help him under his troubles, that he might not sink and faint. 3. That he would do this quickly: Make haste (v. 1), and again (v. 5), Make haste, make no tarrying. Sometimes God seems to delay helping his own people, that he may excite such earnest desires as these. He that believes does not make haste, so as to anticipate or outrun the divine counsels, so as to force a way of escape or to take any unlawful methods of relief; but he may make haste by going forth to meet God in humble prayer that he would hasten the desired succour. "Make haste unto me, for the longing desire of my soul is towards thee; I shall perish if I be not speedily helped. I have no other to expect relief from: Thou art my help and my delivered. Thou hast engaged to be so to all that seek thee; I depend upon thee to be so to me; I have often found thee so; and thou art sufficient, all-sufficient, to be so; therefore make haste to me."

II. He prays that God would fill the faces of his enemies with shame, v. 2, 3. Observe, 1. How he describes them; they sought after his soul—his life, to destroy that—his mind, to disturb that, to draw him from God to sin and to despair. They desired his hurt, his ruin; when any calamity befel him or threatened him they said, "Aha, aha! so would we have it; we shall gain our point now, and see him ruined." Thus spiteful, thus insolent, were they. 2. What his prayer is against them: "Let them be ashamed; let them be brought to repentance, so filled with shame as that they may seek thy name (Ps. lxxxiii. 16); let them see their fault and folly in fighting against those whom thou dost protect, and be ashamed of their envy, Isa. xxvi. 11. However, let their designs against me be frustrated and their measures broken; let them be turned back from their malicious pursuits, and then they will be ashamed and confounded, and, like the enemies of the Jews, much cast down in their own eyes," Gen. vi. 16.

III. He prays that God would fill the hearts of his friends with joy (v. 4), that all those who seek God and love his salvation, who desire it, delight in it, and depend upon it, may have continual matter for joy and praise and hearts for both; and then he doubts not but that he should put in for a share of the blessing he prays for; and so may we if we answer the character. 1. Let us make the service of God our great business and the favour of God our great delight and pleasure, for that is seeking him and loving his salvation. Let the pursuit of a happiness in God be our great care and the enjoyment of it our great satisfaction. A heart to love the salvation of the Lord, and to prefer it before any secular advantages whatsoever, so as cheerfully to quit all rather than hazard our salvation, is a good evidence of our interest in it and title to it. 2. Let us then be assured that, if it be not our own fault, the joy of the Lord shall fill our minds and the high praises of the Lord shall fill our mouths. Those that seek God, if they seek him early and seek him diligently, shall rejoice and be glad in him, for their seeking him is an evidence of his good-will to them and an earnest of their finding him, Ps. cv. 3. There is pleasure and joy even in seeking God, for it is one of the fundamental principles of religion that God is the rewarder of all those that diligently seek him. Those that love God's salvation shall say with pleasure, with constant pleasure (for praising God, if we make it our continual work, will be our continual feast), Let God be magnified, as he will be, to eternity, in the salvation of his people. All who wish well to the comfort of the saints, and to the glory of God, cannot but say a hearty amen to this prayer, that those who love God's salvation may say continually, Let God be magnified.

PSAL. LXX.

To the Master of the Musicke, a Psalme of David for to record.

O God, for to deliver me; Iehovah, to mine helpe make haste. Let them be abashed and ashamed that seeke my soule; let them be turned backward and blush that delight mine evill: Let them turne backe for a reward of their shame, that say, aha, aha. Let all that seeke thee be joyfull and rejoyce in thee; and let them say continually, magnified bee God; they that love thy salvation. And I, poore afflicted and needy, O God, make haste to me; thou art mine helpe and my deliverer; Iehovah, delay not.

Annotations. TO record] or to cause remembrance: see Psal. 38. 1. Vers. 2. to deliver] or, to rid me free; understand, make haste, or vouchsafe, as is expressed in Psal. 40. 14. for this Psalme is the same in substance, and almost in words with the end of that Psalme: see the annotations there. Vers. 3. that seeke my soule] to make an end of it, as Psal. 40. 15. Vers. 4. turne backe] desolate or wasted, as Psal. 40. 16. Vers. 5. be God] in Psal. 40. 17. it is written, be Iehovah. Vers. 6. O God, make haste to me] for this, in Psalm. 40. 18. is, the Lord thinketh on me. Iehovah] in Psal. 40. 18. my God.

PSAL. LXX.

A Pſalm of David] Made, likely, or rather made uſe of from Pſal. 40.14, 15, &c. when Shaba the Son of Bichri was up in rebellion after Abſoloms death, 2 Sam. 20.1, &c. See Pſal. 69. title.

To bring to remembrance] Worthy to be remembred, and followed as a pattern of prayer. Some make this Pſalm an Appendix to the former, as Pſal. 43. is to Pſal. 42. Others make it a part of the next Pſalm; which is therefore, ſay they, without a title.

Verſ. 1. Make haſte, O God, to deliver me] As a Father [illegible: 1 letter]ans without leggs when his childe is hazarded.

Verſ. 2. Let them be aſhamed] See Pſal. 40.14. & 35.26, 27.

Verſ. 3. Let them be turned back for a reward] Vel ficit per inſidias vel ſupplantationem, more Athletarum, a [non-Latin text not transcribed], Let them be ſupplanted defeated,

That ſay, Aha, aha] Auguſtine rendreth it, Enge, Enge, that is, Well done; and giveth this Note upon it, Plus perſequitur lingua adulator is quàm manus interfectoris; The tongue of a Flatterer may miſchief a man more than the hand of a Murtherer. The Apoſtle, Heb. 11.37. ranketh their tempting and flattering promiſes among their bloudy deeds, their is ſing tongues, with their terrifying jaws.

Verſ. 4. Let all thoſe that ſeek thee, &c.] Piorum characteres, ſaith one, a godly, man caracterized, by his ſearch after God, his joy in him, his love to him, his praiſes of him.

Let God be magnefied] In illo quicquid ego: ille, non ego, ſaith Auguſtine.

Verſ. 5. But I am poor and needy] See Pſal. 69.29. with the Note.

Let them be confounded; viz., among themselves, and in their own understandings: and put to shame; viz., in the sight and presence of men before whom they think to attain great glory, in banding themselves against me. Thomas Wilcocks.

Aha, aha. In describing his human foes, our Saviour represents them as saying to him, Aha, aha. These exclamations are ebullitions of exulting insolence. They can escape from the lips of those only who are at once haughty and cruel, and insensible to the delicacies and decorum of demeanour. Doubtless, they would be the favourite expressions of the rude rabble that accompanied the traitor in his ignoble campaign against Incarnate Love, and of the rude aristocratic mob that held over the Apostle of Heaven the mockery of an ecclesiastical trial, and of the larger, more excited, and more rancorous multitude that insultingly accompanied him to the cross, and mocked him, and wagged their heads at him, and railed upon him as he meekly, but majestically, hung on the accursed tree. The prescient Saviour would, no doubt, catch in his ears the distant mutter of all the violent and ruthless exclamations with which his foes were about to rend the air; and, amid these heartless and sneering ejaculations, he could not but feel the keen and poisoning edge of the malevolent and hilarious cry, Aha, aha. O miracle of mercy! He who deserved the hallelujahs of an intelligent universe, and the special hosannas of all the children of men, had first to anticipate, and then to endure from the mouths of the very rebels whom he came to bless and to save, the malicious taunting of Aha, aha. James Frame.

Such as love thy salvation. They love it for its own sake; they love it for the sake of him who procured it by his obedience until death; they love it for the sake of that Holy Spirit who moved them to seek it and accept it; and they love it for the sake of their own souls, which they cannot but love, and which, without it, would be the most miserable outcasts in the universe. No wonder that in the light of its intrinsic importance, and of its intrinsic relations, they should be "such as love God's salvation." All men are lovers as well as seekers; for all men love. Some love money more than God's salvation; others love pleasure, even the pleasures of sin, more than God's salvation; and others love bustle and business more than God's salvation. But, as the stamp of the material, the temporal and the evanescent, is on all these earthly objects of men's love, the friends of Jesus elevate above them all, as the worthier object of their regard and embrace, the salvation of God. James Frame.

Let God be magnified. Not only The Lord be magnified, but also alway. Behold, when thou wast straying, and wast turned away from him; he recalled thee: Be the Lord magnified. Behold, he hath inspired thee with confession of sins; thou hast confessed, he hath given pardon: Be the Lord magnified.... Now, thou hast begun to advance, thou hast been justified, thou hast arrived at a sort of excellence of virtue; is it not a seemly thing that thou also sometime be magnified? No! Let them say, Be the Lord alway magnified. A sinner thou art, to be magnified in order that he may call; you confess, be he magnified in order that he may forgive: now thou livest justly, be he magnified in order that he may direct; you persevere even unto the end, be he magnified in order that he may glorify. Be the Lord, then, alway magnified. Let just men say this, let them say this that seek him. Whosoever doth not say this, doth not seek him... Be the Lord magnified. But, wilt thou thyself never be great? wilt thou be nowhere? In him was something, in me nothing; but if in him is whatsoever I am, be he magnified, not I. But, what of thee? But I am poor and needy: he is rich, he abounding, he needing nothing. Behold my light, behold whence I am illumined, for I cry, "Thou shalt illumine my candle, O Lord; my God, thou shalt illumine my darkness. The Lord doth loose men fettered, the Lord raiseth up men crushed, the Lord maketh wise the blind men, the Lord keepeth the proselytes." Ps 18:28 146:7. What, then, of thee? But I am needy and poor. I am like an orphan, my soul is like a widow destitute and desolate; help I seek, alway mine infirmity I confess. But I am poor and needy. There have been forgiven me my sins, now I have begun to follow the commandments of God; still, however, I am needy and poor. Why still needy and poor? Because I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind. Ro 7:23. Why needy and poor? Because, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." Mt 5:6. Still I hunger, still I thirst. Augustine.

But I am poor and needy. He had been rich, but for our sake he had become poor, that we, through his poverty, might be rich. Out of the fulness of his grace he had voluntarily entered, for our sakes, into a state in which he had experience, and most bitter experience, of the want of the means of enjoyment... But the word here rendered poor is often elsewhere, translated afflicted; in various ways he was afflicted. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and the acquaintance of grief. He was reproached, and "reproach broke his heart." James Frame.

I am poor and needy. By this I hold to be meant the chastisements, and fiery trials that come from God the Father; the temptations and bitter assaults of that foul and fell fiend, Satan; the persecutions and vexations inflicted by the hands of unreasonable and wicked men; and (but in this following Christ must be exempted) the inward corruptions, disordered motions, unsettled affections, and the original pollutions brought from the mother's womb; with the soul and body's inaptness and unableness with cheerfulness and constancy to run the direct and just paths of God's commandments. Many of these made the Head, all of these (and more, too) the members, poor and needy. John Barlow. 1618.

O Lord, make no tarrying. His prayer for himself, like his prayer for his foes and for his friends, was answered. The Lord made no tarrying. Ere four and twenty hours had rolled past, his rescued spirit was in Paradise, and the crucified thief was with him. O, what a change! The morning saw him condemned at the bar of an earthly tribunal, sentenced to death, and nailed to the bitter tree; before the evening shadowed the hill of Calvary, he was nestling in the bosom of God, and had become the great centre of attraction and of admiration to all the holy intelligences of the universe. The morning saw him led out through the gate of the Jerusalem below, surrounded by a ribald crowd, whose hootings rung in his ear; but ere the night fell, he had passed through the gate of the Jerusalem above, and his tread was upon the streets of gold, and angel anthems rose high through the dome of heaven, and joy filled the heart of God. James Frame.

(third clause). Helper, in all good works; Deliverer, from all evil ones. Make no long tarrying: it is the cry of the individual sinner. Dionysius the Carthusian (1471) quoted in Neale and Littledale's Commentary.

1. Occasion of his prayer.

(a) Affliction.

(b) Helplessness.

2. Subject of his prayer. Deliverance, help.

3. Importunity of his prayer. The time of deliverance may be an answer to prayer, as well as deliverance itself.

1. Times when such urgent prayer is allowable, praiseworthy, or faulty.

2. Reasons for expecting a speedy reply.

3. Consolations if delay should occur.

1. There are those who seek our soul's hurt.

2. We must oppose them, not dally or yield.

3. Our best weapon is prayer to God.

4. Their defeat is here described.

1. Who are these who cry "shame"?

2. What master do they serve?

3. What shall their wages be?

Joy for seekers, and employment for finders.

(last clause).

1. The character.

2. The saying.

3. The wish.

1. Who needs help?

2. Who renders help?

3. What it comes to: "deliver."

4. What prayer it suggests.

1. Confession! I am poor and needy. 2. Profession: Thou art my help, etc.

3. Supplication: Make haste; Make no tarrying.