Psalms 71

Psalms 71:1-13

This psalm seems to have been proved by David in his old age, probably at the time of Apsalom’s rebellion. 1. He prays that God would deliver and save him, ver. 2, 4. and not call him off, ver. 9. or be far from him, ver. 12. and that his enemies might be put to shame, ver. 13. He pleads his confidence in God, ver. 1, 3, 5, 7. The experience he had of help from God, ver. 6. and the malice of his enemies against him, ver. 10, 11. 2. He concludes the psalm with believing prays, ver. 14, 8c. Never was his hope more established, ver. 16, 18, 20, 21. Never were his joy and thanksgiving; more enlarged, ver. 15, 19, 22, 23, 24. Let old disciples join in his prayer, his faith, his joy.

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 art my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually refer: thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock and my torrtles. 4. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5. 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. 9. Call me not off in the time of old age, for take me not when my strength failed. 10. For mine enemies speak against me: and they that I lay wait for my soul, take counsel together. 11. Saying, God hath forsaken him: perfectate and take him, for there is none to deliver him. 12. O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help. 13. Let them be confounded and confounded that are adversaries to my soul: let them be covered with reproach and dishonour, that seek my hurt.

The longer the faithful soul hath been found in the good ways of God, the stronger he grows. Influentialist the vices. Thus David here appears.

1. He professes his confidence in God, amidst the sharp trials with which he was now exercised. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; delighting to repeat the pleasing subject, and dwelling upon the sure foundation on which his hope was built; a rock, no tempest could shake; a fortress, no foe could wake; a strong refuge, where he was safe from danger; a strong habitation, where he reified in comfort. Note, They who know God, his faithfulness and grace, will with comfort and confidence be engaged to trust him in every time of need.

2. He remembers to God’s glory, and for his own present encouragement, the past deliverances he had experienced, v. 5, 6. From the womb he had been holden up, protected amidst the dangers of infancy, and the perils of youth; and therefore now he is sure that God will not fail to save him, and resolves never to cease in praising him. Note, The more we reflect on what God hath done for us, it will both engage our trust in him, and awaken our praises to him.

3. He makes his prayer in the present emergency of his affairs, and it consists of various particulars, and is supported with the most urgent pleas.

[1.] He prays that he may not be put to confusion, v. 1. but find God his strong habitation in his troubles; pleading God’s righteousness as a reason why he should vindicate his suffering cause, v. 2. and his promise, v. 3. on which his hope was grounded. Note, They who confidently plead God’s faithfulness, shall never be covered with confusion, as disappointed of their hope.

[2.] He cries for deliverance, v. 4. from the surrounding dangers, when flying from his rebellious son, and supports his prayer with urging God’s relation to him, O my God, as an argument for present help; and his enemies ill character, as a reason for saving him out of their hand. Note, My God is the most powerful of all arguments in our approaches to God, to obtain his grace, and encourage our patient waiting upon him.

[3.] He desires to have new matter for his praises, and subjects for fresh songs all the day; and intimates how greatly God would be glorified in his preservation. I am a wonder unto many; reduced to such a state of deep distress, want, and wretchedness; and the more forlorn, the greater the mercy would appear, and the louder and more incessantly God’s mercy in his reformation would be magnified, v. 7, 8. Note, God delights in the depth of our misery to magnify his mercy.

[4.] He begs not to be cast off now at last; and, to move his gracious Master’s pity, produces his locks grown hoary in his service, and urges his weakness as a plea for compassionate relief, v. 9. Note, [1.] In old age we must expect infirmities, and need an increase of faith and patience to bear them. [2.] God’s old servants are never cast off: though they cannot be active in his service as formerly, their hoary heads are a crown of glory, and ready to receive the crown of righteousness, in that world where their youth will be renewed as the eagle’s. [3.] When we are most sensible of our own weakness, we shall most assuredly experience the divine support.

[5.] He interests God to draw near, and make haste to help him. His dangers could not bear delay; for his enemies were many, politic, plotting his ruin; encouraging themselves in hope that God had forsaken him, and therefore they must prevail; and discouraging his friends from helping him, and his heart from depending on God. Note, [1.] They who are most afflicted of God, are not therefore rejected of him. [2.] The vain hope of the sinner will prove a lie in his right hand.

[6.] He befenders God to turn the evil they meditated against him upon themselves, and to cover them with reproach and dishonour, who fought his hurt; wherein he speaks not in a spirit of revenge; but in the spirit of prophecy, foreseeing and foretelling their impending ruin. Note, They who persist in the ways of wickedness, may expect to reap the wages of wretchedness.

14. But o Pl. cl. 5. & trans. 17. 18. p Phila. 19. v Ver. 9. Hoh. The to old age, and grey born. Phila. 1. Hoh. Ann. PC. Icaris. 6. 8. Ind. 1a. 5. § Hoh. The influences of plattery. v Ver. 13.

15. 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 murders thereof. 16. I will go ‘in 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 gray-headed, O God, ‘for take me not: until I 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. Your which hast shewed me great and fine 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 plattery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, 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 are confounded, for they are brought unto shame, that seek my hurt.

Psalms 71:14-24

Filled with hope and joy, the plaintiff is happy in the midst of all his sorrows, and the greatest of his troubles cannot silence his incessant praise.

1. He expresses his lively hope in a variety of instances; I will hope continually, at all times, and in all situations; when others despair of my recovery, my heart shall never fear nor fail, because the God of my hope faineth me. (1.) God’s power and promise are his grand supports; I will go in the strength of the Lord God, disclaiming all self-sufficiency, and strong in the Lord, and the power of his might, for duty I shall be enabled, and in danger be secure. I will make mention of thy righteousness only, either his fidelity in his word, or that perfect righteousness of Jesus, which is the believer’s supreme hope and plea. Note, Though we have neither strength nor righteousness in ourselves, there is such faineth of both in the Redeemer, that we may be always most confident in him, when most despairing of ourselves. (2.) His past experience encourages his present hopes. God had been the guide of his youth, v. 17. and he had hitherto acknowledged his wondrous preservation; therefore in his old age he trusts God will not fortake him, but enable him to leave with the rising generation, a testimony of God’s faithfulness and care, as a grateful acknowledgment to his glory, and an engagement to them to make him their hope and trust. Note, (1.) Early impressions of divine grace are a singular mercy, and demand fortable improvement. (2.) Every day’s experience should confirm our confidence, that God will never leave me fortake us. (3.) The longer we live under the Divine protection and favour, the more earnest should we be in commending these good ways of God, in which we have walked, to the generations to come. (3.) In many great and fine troubles he had been supported, therefore in the present he trusts he shall not taint; that shall quicken me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth, tho’ he seemed to use dead and buried in his grave, he was assured his case was not beyond the Divine power, nor his circumstances to desperate, but God would retrieve them. Note, (1.) Great and fine troubles are here often the portion of the righteous, but he who brings them into their difficulties, can and will safely extricate them out of them. (2.) Though we go down at death into the grave, and the earth clots upon us, we have a hope still full of immortality, a refurrection-day shall quicken our dust, and bring us from these depths of the earth again. (4.) He not only expects deliverance from his troubles, but an increase of his greatness and consolation, v. 21. Thus the darkness of our troubles, like the cloud which covers the sun, serves but to heighten our joys, when at God’s word the cloud vanishes, the sun of divine grace shines with double lustre, and the trial of our faith contributes to the increase of our honour and glory. (5.) His enemies that fought his hurt, must with shame retire, and find it vain to contend with him whom God protects. Note, All our spiritual enemies at last shall gnaith in despair, when they see us set above their misery, and receive the eternal defect of their deeds.

2. He exults in joyful praises. All the day would be he showing foreth God’s righteousness and his salvation. His justice in the defilection of the wicked, his enemies; his faithfulness and mercy in his own preservation; and, above all, the perfect righteousness of Jesus, on account of which alone salvation becomes secured to sinners: these deferred continual thanks, therefore he resolves, I will praise thee more and more, or add to all thy praise, v. 14. Since every day afforded some new occasions, called for increasing acknowledgments, and left him far

behind, unable to keep pace even in gratitude, with the mercies continually showered upon him, the number of which surpassed his comprehension, v. 15. They were like the God who bestowed them, very high, above all blessing and praise, and without parallel; for in heaven or earth none can compare with him, or do as he doth, v. 19. With joy therefore, surpassing great, his soul within, redeemed by divine grace and truth, v. 23. Shall swell with gratitude too big for utterances, but voice he heard aloud in praise, and calling in the sacred and of anæst, to affil the expressions of his enraptured Spirit, the plattery and harp should pour forth a flood of harmony, and raise his song high as heaven’s arch, and rival the angelic choir above. Note, (1.) Praise is the natural expression of the grateful heart, the bounden duty of the favoured sinner, and the acceptable sacrifice to a gracious God. (2.) When we sing with our lips, let us be careful to make melody with our hearts, and not forget the sense in the sound. They sacrifice to their own drag, who merely love to hear their own voices; and that made a most inhumanious to God, which however exquisite in itself, serves to draw off our attention from the divine object of our praises, to the manner and performance of them. (3.) It is the joyful hope of every redeemed soul, however feeble now his efforts, that thereby he shall be enabled to offer more worthy praises, when, with his golden harp before the throne, he shall have learnt the song of Moses and the Lamb, and join those heavenly hush, whose ceaseless songs fill God’s eternal temple with Graphic harmony.