Psalm 70

Prayer for Help against the Enemies.

To the chief musician, as a prayer to be used in public worship, a psalm of David, to bring to remembrance, the hymn being intended for that part of the service when the meat-offering was added to the sacrifice; for its sweet smell was to rise to the nostrils of Jehovah together with the prayers of the faithful and plead for a gracious hearing. Compare Psalm 40, 13–l7.

V. 1. Make haste, O God, to deliver me, from the sufferings and persecutions to which believers are subject; make haste to help me, O Lord! V. 2. Let them be ashamed and confounded, by being disappointed in their intention of harming the believer, that seek after my soul; let them be turned backward, baffled, their plans frustrated, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt, taking pleasure in doing evil.

V. 3. Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame, as a punishment of their iniquity to their disgrace, that say, Aha, aha! in sneering derision. V. 4. Let all those that seek Thee, with truly believing hearts, rejoice and be glad in Thee, finding the true joy of faith in their confidence in Jehovah; and let such as love Thy salvation, with a proper appreciation of the blessings of redemption, say continually, Let God be magnified, exalted in hymns of thanksgiving.

V. 5. But I am poor and needy, with the trouble which is the lot of all believers; make haste unto me, O God, for such is the proper importunate character of prayer. Thou art my Help and my Deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying!

It seems that the Messiah’s prayer in Ps. 40 is here adapted to all believers, in order to teach them to place all their trust in life and death in the Lord alone, in the salvation gained through the work of the Redeemer, for in Him we have deliverance in all circumstances of life.