Psalm 70 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To Bring to Remembrance.

 ¹Make haste, O God, to deliver me!

Make haste to help me, O Lord!

²Let them be ashamed and confounded

Who seek my life;

Let them be turned back and confused

Who desire my hurt.

³Let them be turned back because of their shame,

Who say, “Aha, aha!”

⁴Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

And let those who love Your salvation say continually,

“Let God be magnified!”

⁵But I am poor and needy;

 Make haste to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay.

Commentary

Vs. 1 “Make haste, O God, to deliver me!

Make haste to help me, O Lord!”

David must have felt that his enemies were soon to close in on him, for urgency is at the heart of this psalm. This then is a psalm of imminent peril.

Vs. 2-3 ²Let them be ashamed and confounded

Who seek my life;

Let them be turned back and confused

Who desire my hurt.

³Let them be turned back because of their shame,

Who say, “Aha, aha!”

Because the enemies of the Lord had set themselves against David, he now asks that the Lord put them to shame for seeking a righteous man’s life and harm without a just cause, that He would confound all their plans and plots against him. For there were many desiring his hurt. Just as there were many onlookers who were watching him, wanting him to stumble so they could say “Aha, aha!” Therefore, David asks God to turn them all back, to expose their shame; their shameful lives and lies; which would cause them to turn away from him.

Vs. 4 “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;

And let those who love Your salvation say continually,

“Let God be magnified!”

In asking for deliverance from them David also asks that Lord lift up all who seek Him, that He make us rejoice and be glad in Him, that all of us who love His salvation say, “Let God be magnified.”  

 Vs. 5 “But I am poor and needy;

Make haste to me, O God!

You are my help and my deliverer;

O Lord, do not delay.”

David now returns to himself, declaring himself to the Lord as poor and needy, not proud, and self-sufficient, but completely dependent upon the Lord. In then closing he once again asks our God to make haste to him. For He is his (our) help and deliverer, Therefore O Lord, do not delay.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.