PSALM LXX

The psalmist prays for speedy deliverance, 1; prays against those who sought his life, 2, 3; and for the blessedness of those who sought God, 4; urges his speedy deliverance, 5.

NOTES ON PSALM LXX

The title in the Hebrew is, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembranee. There seems little sense in this title. It seems to intimate that the Psalm was written as a memorial that David had been in sore affliction, and that God had delivered him. So the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic. It is almost word for word the same with the five last verses of Psalm 40., to the notes on which the reader is referred.

Verse 1. Make haste to help me ] I am in extreme distress, and the most imminent danger. Haste to help me, or I am lost.

Verse 2. Let them be turned backward ] They are coming in a body against me. Lord, stop their progress!

Verse 3. That say, Aha, aha. ] hah hah Heach! heach! a note of supreme contempt. See on Psa. xl. 15.

Verse 4. 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!

Verse 5. But I am poor and needy ] wybaw yn[ 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!

ANALYSIS OF THE SEVENTIETH PSALM

The contents of this Psalm are the following: - I. The prayer of David for himself, that he may be freed from his enemies, ver. 1, repeated ver. 5.

II. For the speedy overthrow of the wicked ver. 2, 3.

III. For the prosperity of the godly, ver. 4.

IV. The arguments he uses to induce God to answer his prayer.