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Psalm 71

Prayer for Lifelong Protection and Help

1

In you, O L ord, I take refuge;

let me never be put to shame.

2

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

incline your ear to me and save me.

3

Be to me a rock of refuge,

a strong fortress, to save me,

for you are my rock and my fortress.

 

4

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

5

For you, O Lord, are my hope,

my trust, O L ord, from my youth.

6

Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

 

7

I have been like a portent to many,

but you are my strong refuge.

8

My mouth is filled with your praise,

and with your glory all day long.

9

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

do not forsake me when my strength is spent.

10

For my enemies speak concerning me,

and those who watch for my life consult together.

11

They say, “Pursue and seize that person

whom God has forsaken,

for there is no one to deliver.”

 

12

O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

13

Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;

let those who seek to hurt me

be covered with scorn and disgrace.

14

But I will hope continually,

and will praise you yet more and more.

15

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,

of your deeds of salvation all day long,

though their number is past my knowledge.

16

I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord G od,

I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

 

17

O God, from my youth you have taught me,

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

18

So even to old age and gray hairs,

O God, do not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might

to all the generations to come.

Your power 19and your righteousness, O God,

reach the high heavens.

 

You who have done great things,

O God, who is like you?

20

You who have made me see many troubles and calamities

will revive me again;

from the depths of the earth

you will bring me up again.

21

You will increase my honor,

and comfort me once again.

 

22

I will also praise you with the harp

for your faithfulness, O my God;

I will sing praises to you with the lyre,

O Holy One of Israel.

23

My lips will shout for joy

when I sing praises to you;

my soul also, which you have rescued.

24

All day long my tongue will talk of your righteous help,

for those who tried to do me harm

have been put to shame, and disgraced.


9. Cast me not off in the time of my old age. David having just now declared that God had been the protector of his life at his birth, and afterwards his foster-father in his childhood, and the guardian of his welfare during the whole course of his past existence; being now worn out with age, casts himself anew into the fatherly bosom of God. In proportion as our strength fails us — and then necessity itself impels us to seek God — in the same proportion should our hope in the willingness and readiness of God to succor us become strong. David’s prayer, in short, amounts to this: “Do thou, O Lord, who hast sustained me vigorous and strong in the flower of my youth, not forsake me now, when I am decayed and almost withered, but the more I stand in need of thy help, let the decrepitude and infirmities of age move thee to compassionate me the more.” From this verse expositors, not without good reason, conclude that the conspiracy of Absalom is the subject treated of in this psalm. And certainly it was a horrible and tragical spectacle, which tended to lead, not only the common people, but also those who excelled in authority, to turn away their eyes from him, as they would from a detestable monster, when the son, having driven his father from the kingdom, pursued him even through the very deserts to put him to death.


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