Psalm 70
5 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 40×4Psalms 35×2Psalms 143×1Psalms 71×1Isaiah 41×1Proverbs 24×1
Summary
Chapter summary
An urgent fragment, nearly identical to the close of Psalm 40: 'Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O Jehovah.' Let them be put to shame that seek after my soul; let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, 'Let God be magnified.' 'But I am poor and needy; make haste unto me, O God… O Jehovah, tarry not.' The church made its opening words a daily prayer.
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 70The history
The phrase in the title, to bring to remembrance, points at the memorial portion of the grain offering: a priest took a handful of the flour and oil with all the frankincense and burned it on the altar, and the rest fed the priests. The smoke was the reminder. This psalm is that handful in words — a spoken memorial offering.
It is also the closing section of Psalm 40, lifted out and made to stand alone, with the plain word God where the longer psalm used the covenant name. Ancient songbooks did this routinely, and it tells us something about how Israel worshipped: a piece of a long song was cut down for a service that needed something short.
Aha, aha is a jeer — the noise a crowd makes when someone they dislike goes down. The psalm asks that the jeerers be turned back for a reward of their own shame, which is the same coin returned.
Make haste opens the psalm and closes it. The urgency is not decoration; it is the form. Five verses, no history lesson, no vow ceremony, just speed.
What it meant to them
This is what a person prays when there is time for nothing else. Israel kept it in the book precisely because not every crisis leaves room for Psalm 68.
And even at this length it makes room for other people: let all those that seek thee rejoice. The shortest prayer in the section still is not only about the man praying it.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 70. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.