Psalms 70:1

"O God, to my aid make speed" [Psalm 70:1]. For need we have for an everlasting aid in this world. But when have we not? Now however being in tribulation, let us especially say, "O God, to my aid make speed." "Let them be confounded and fear that seek my soul." Christ is speaking: whether Head speak or whether Body speak; He is speaking that has said, "Why do you persecute Me?" [Acts 9:4] He is speaking that has said, "Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of Mine, to Me you have done it." [Matthew 25:40] The voice then of this Man is known to be of the whole man, of Head and of Body: that need not often be mentioned, because it is known. "Be they confounded," he says, "and fear that seek my soul." In another Psalm He says, "I was looking unto the right and saw, and there was not one that would know Me: flight has perished from Me, and there is not one to seek out My soul." There of persecutors He says, that there was not one to seek out His soul: but here, "Let them be confounded and fear that seek My soul."...And where is that which you have heard from your Lord, "Love ye your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you"? [Matthew 5:44] Behold you suffer persecution, and cursest them from whom you suffer, how do you imitate the Passions of your Lord that have gone before, hanging on the cross and saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." [Luke 23:34] To persons saying such things the Martyr replies and says, you have set before me the Lord, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do:" understand thou my voice also, in order that it may be yours too: for what have I said concerning mine enemies? "Let them be confounded and fear." Already such vengeance has been taken on the enemies of the Martyrs. That Saul that persecuted Stephen, he was confounded and feared. […]

Make haste, O God, to deliver me,.... The phrase, "make haste", is supplied from the following clause in Psa 40:13; it is, "be pleased, O Lord", or "Jehovah". The Targum renders it, "to deliver us"; very wrongly; make haste to help me, O Lord; See Gill on Psa 22:19.

): I am poor and needy, in want and distress, and much at a loss within myself. Poverty and necessity are very good pleas in prayer to a God of infinite mercy, who despises not the sighing of a contrite heart, who has pronounced a blessing upon the poor in spirit, and who fills the hungry with good things.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

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.

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.