Psalm LXXI
1 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.
2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: Incline thine ear unto me, and save me.
3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: Thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my
fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked. Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
6 For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.
6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: Thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: My praise shall be continually of thee.
7 I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.
8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise, and with thy honour all the day. 0 Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength
faileth.
10 For mine enemies speak against me;
And they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together,
11 Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none
to deliver him.
12 O God, be not far from me! 0 my God, make haste for my help.
13 Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.
15 My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness
And thy salvation all the day;
For I know not the numbers thereof.
1() 1 will go ill the strength of the Lord God:
I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
17 O God, thou hast taught me from my youth:
And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake mo not; Until 1 have shewed thy strength unto this generation,
And thy power to every one that is to come.
19 Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high,
Who hast done great things. O God, who is like unto thee!
20 Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me
again. And shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: Unto thee will I sing with the hai-p, O thou Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; And my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long:
For they arc confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.
The Third Part of the Book of Psalms (according to the Jew- The tone and
.... .. ^’’^ singer.
ish division) begins, not inappropriately, with a plaintive yet pleasant song for the time of our sojourning here, embracing both prospect and retrospect. Our Head could sing it too, when in all our affliction he was afflicted. It will be asked, however, how Christ could use such verses as verses 9 and 18, since these look forward apparently to the frailty of age. The reply to this felt difficulty is, that these expressions are used by him in sympathy with his members, and in his own case denote the state equivalent to age. His old age was ere he reached three-and-thirty years, as John viii. 57 is supposed to imply; for “worn-out men live fast.” Barclay seems to give the right sense in the following lines: —
“Grown old and weak with pain and grief
Before his years were half complete.*
Besides, the words signify,” Forsake me not from this time
* Parkhurst {apud Fry), remarks, that ]pT, “old age,” rather expresses the effect that age has on the body, than the time of life. Gesenius gives “decrepit, the chin hanging down,” as the radical meaning, and compares it with the Latin “senex” which is said to be an abbreviation of “seminex” half-dead. In verse 18, also. n3’’2J^ ps the head grown white
References I
old age.
The plan.
212 PSALM LXXl. — THE KIGHTEOUS ONE’S
onward, even were I to live to grey hairs.” This is a view that conveys precious consolation to aged ones, who might be ready to say that Christ could not altogether enter into their feelings, having never experienced the failing weakness of age, the debility, the decay, the bodily infirmities so trying to the spirit. But this Psalm shews us that in effect he did pass through that stage of our sojourning, worn out and wasted in bodily frame and feeling, by living so much in so short a time. The aged members of his Church may find his sweet sympathy breathed out in Isaiah xlvi, 3, 4; and here they may almost see him learning the lesson in a human way, as he bends under the weight of our frailties. For this reason, among others, this jjsalm was specially prized by Robert Blair, one of our godly forefathers. He used to call it “His psalm.”
Such expressions as verse 6, “continually,” verse 8, “all the day,” verse 1 5, “all the day,” may be illustrated by Augustine’s comment: — “In prosperis, quia consolaris; in adversis, quia corrigis; antequam essem, quia fecisti; quum essem, quia salutem dedisti: quum peccassem, quia ignovisti, quum conversus essem, quia adjuvisti: quum perseverassem, quia coronasti.”
The plan of the Psalm is interesting. We have, from verses 1-4, prayer; verses 5-8, motives for confidence; verses 9-13, prayer; verses 14-17, confidence expressed; verse 18, prayer; verse 19 to end, confidence largely declared.
In verse 7, “wonder” is q. d., a monster, a prodigious sight.
We are to understand verse 16 a little differently from our version. It may read thus (as lxvi. 13) —
“/ will go forward (thinking) upon the mighty deeds of the Lord Jehovah. I will celebrate thy righteousness (in working these mighty deeds); Thee alone!”
Giving no glory to human skill and valour (Psalm xliv, 3), and finding in Jehovah himself alone a sufficient theme for praise, the Head and every member journeys on. His trust and theirs look to the power, and wisdom, and love of him who guides the vessel, not boasting of the frail vessel’s strength to buffet the billows of a tempest-lashed ocean.
his company.
There are precious glimpses given us of Messiah’s childhood in verses 5, 6, 17, when we listen to this Psalm as sung by his lips. And then in the close, from verse 20 to 24, resurrectiondeliverance is the theme. The Head has enjoyed all that he anticipated; the members as surely will. Do we not see Messiah and (verses 22-24) the ransomed company — the hundred and forty-four thousand with the Lamb — on Mount Zion, and hear the harpers harping with their harps in that day’s unclouded bliss?
“/, too (as well as angels), 2V’aise thee with the psaltery, Thy truth, 0 God! I chant thee with the harp,
0 Holy One of Israel!?
My lips rejoice when I sing of thee,
And my soul which thou hast redeemed. Yea, my tongue (as well as that of angels) all the day speaketh of thy
righteousness (see verse 16): For put to shame, sunk in confusion, are they who sought my hurt!”
Antichrist and all foes are for ever ruined; Christ and his Church triumph and reign. This is the anticipation that leads to these closing strains of rapturous exultation.
We may refer to Hebrews iii. 6, as suggesting the substance of the whole Psalm; for what else is it than
The Righteous One’s confidence of hope to the end?