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Psalm Seventy
Psalm 70
Chapter Contents
The speedy destruction of the wicked
and the
preservation of the godly.
This psalm is almost the same as the last five verses of Psalm
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.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 70
This psalm is copied almost word for word
from the eleventh psalm
and perhaps is for that reason entitled
A psalm to
bring remembrance. For it may sometimes be of use to pray over again the
prayers we have formerly made to God on like occasions. David here prays
that
God would send help to him
shame to his enemies
and joy to his friends. To
the chief musician
a psalm of David
to bring to remembrance.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
TITLE. To the
Chief Musician
A Psalm of David. So far the title corresponds with Psalm
40
of which this is a copy with variations. David appears to have written the
full length Psalm
and also to have made this excerpt from it
and altered it
to suit the occasion. It is a fit pendant to Psalm 69
and a suitable preface
to Psalm 71. To bring to remembrance. This is the poor man's memorial.
David personally pleads with God that he may not be forgotten
but David's Lord
may be heard here also. Even if the Lord seems to forget us
we must not forget
him. This memorial Psalm acts as a connecting link between the two Psalms of
supplicatory expostulation
and makes up with them a precious triad of song.
EXPOSITION
(The
Reader is referred for full Exposition
and Notes to Ps 40:13-17
in "Treasury of David
"Vol.
2
pp 267-268.)
Verse
1. This is the second Psalm which is a repetition of another
the
former being Psalm 53
which was a rehearsal of Psalm 14. The present differs
from the Fortieth Psalm at the outset
for that begins with
"Be pleased
"and this
in our version
more urgently with
Make haste; or
as in the
Hebrew
with an abrupt and broken cry
O God
to deliver me; O Lord
to help
me hasten. It is not forbidden us
in hours of dire distress
to ask for
speed on God's part in his coming to rescue us. The only other difference
between this and verse 13 of Psalm 40
is the putting of Elohim in the
beginning of the verse for Jehovah
but why this is done we know not;
perhaps
the guesses of the critics are correct
but perhaps they are not. As
we have the words of this Psalm twice in the letter
let them be doubly with us
in spirit. It is most meet that we should day by day cry to God for deliverance
and help; our frailty and our many dangers render this a perpetual necessity.
Verse
2. Here the words
"together
"and
"to destroy it
"which occur in Psalm 40
are omitted: a man in haste uses no more words
than are actually necessary. His enemies desired to put his faith to shame
and
he eagerly entreats that they may be disappointed
and themselves covered with
confusion. It shall certainly be so; if not sooner
yet at that dread day when
the wicked shall awake to shame and everlasting contempt. Let them be ashamed
and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward
and put
to confusion
that desire my hurt: turned back and driven back are merely
the variations of the translators. When men labour to turn others back from the
right road
it is God's retaliation to drive them back from the point they are
aiming at.
Verse
3. Let them be turned back. This is a milder term than that
used in Psalm 40
where he cries
"let them be desolate." Had growing
years matured and mellowed the psalmist's spirit? To be "turned back
"however
may come to the same thing as to be "desolate; "
disappointed malice is the nearest akin to desolation that can well be
conceived. For a reward of their shame that say
Aha
aha. They thought to
shame the godly
but it was their shame
and shall be their shame for ever. How
fond men are of taunts
and if they are meaningless ahas
more like animal
cries than human words
it matters nothing
so long as they are a vent for
scorn and sting the victim. Rest assured
the enemies of Christ and his people
shall have wages for their work; they shall be paid in their own coin; they
loved scoffing
and they shall be filled with it—yea
they shall become a
proverb and a byword for ever.
Verse
4. Anger against enemies must not make us forget our friends
for it
is better to preserve a single citizen of Zion
than to kill a thousand
enemies. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. All true
worshippers
though as yet in the humble ranks of seekers
shall have cause for
joy. Even though the seeking commence in darkness
it shall bring light with
it. And let such as love thy salvation say continually
Let God be magnified.
Those who have tasted divine grace
and are
therefore
wedded to it
are a
somewhat more advanced race
and these shall not only feel joy
but shall with
holy constancy and perseverance tell abroad their joy
and call upon men to
glorify God. The doxology
"Let the Lord's name be magnified
"is infinitely
more manly and ennobling than the dog's bark of "Aha
aha."
Verse
5. But I am poor and needy. Just the same plea as in the
preceding Psalm
Ps 69:29: it seems to be a favourite argument with tried
saints; evidently our poverty is our wealth
even as our weakness is our
strength. May we learn well this riddle. Make haste unto me
O God. This is
written instead of "yet the Lord thinketh upon me
"in Psalm 40: and
there is a reason for the change
since the key note of the Psalm frequently
dictates its close. Psalm 40 sings of God's thoughts
and
therefore
ends
therewith; but the peculiar note of Psalm 70 is "Make haste
"and
therefore
so it concludes. Thou art my help and my deliverer. My help in
trouble
my deliverer out of it. O Lord
make no tarrying. Here is the name of
"Jehovah" instead of "my God." We are warranted in using
all the various names of God
for each has its own beauty and majesty
and we
must reverence each by its holy use as well as by abstaining from taking it in
vain. I have presumed to close this recapitulatory exposition with an original
hymn
suggested by the watchword of this Psalm
"MAKE HASTE."
Make
haste
O God
my soul to bless!
My help and my deliverer thou;
Make haste
for I am in deep distress
My case is urgent; help me now.
Make haste
O God! make haste to save!
For time is short
and death is nigh;
Make haste ere yet I am in my grave
And with the lost forever lie.
Make
haste
for I am poor and low;
And Satan mocks my prayers and tears;
O God
in mercy be not slow
But snatch me from my horrid fears.
Make haste
O God
and hear my cries;
Then with the souls who seek thy face
And those who thy salvation prize
I will magnify thy matchless grace.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse
2. 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.
Verse
3. 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.
Verse
4. 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.
Verse
4. 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.
Verse
5. 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.
Verse
5. 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.
Verse
5. 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.
Verse
5. (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.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse
1.
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.
Verse
1.
1.
Times when such urgent prayer is allowable
praiseworthy
or faulty.
2.
Reasons for expecting a speedy reply.
3.
Consolations if delay should occur.
Verse
2.
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.
Verse
3.
1.
Who are these who cry "shame"?
2. What master do they serve?
3. What shall their wages be?
Verse
4. Joy for seekers
and employment for finders.
Verse
4. (last clause).
1.
The character.
2. The saying.
3. The wish.
Verse
5.
1.
Who needs help?
2. Who renders help?
3. What it comes to: "deliver."
4. What prayer it suggests.
Verse
5.
1.
Confession! I am poor and needy.
2. Profession: Thou art my help
etc.
3. Supplication: Make haste; Make no tarrying.
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》