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71. Psalm 71

¹ In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
   let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
   turn your ear to me and save me.
³ Be my rock of refuge,
   to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
   for you are my rock and my fortress.
⁴ Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
   from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.

    ⁵ For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
   my confidence since my youth.
⁶ From birth I have relied on you;
   you brought me forth from my mother’s womb.
   I will ever praise you.
⁷ I have become a sign to many;
   you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
   declaring your splendor all day long.

    ⁹ Do not cast me away when I am old;
   do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
¹⁰ For my enemies speak against me;
   those who wait to kill me conspire together.
¹¹ They say, “God has forsaken him;
   pursue him and seize him,
   for no one will rescue him.”
¹² Do not be far from me, my God;
   come quickly, God, to help me.
¹³ May my accusers perish in shame;
   may those who want to harm me
   be covered with scorn and disgrace.

¹⁴ As for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.

    ¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds,
   of your saving acts all day long—
   though I know not how to relate them all.
¹⁶ I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD;
   I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone.
¹⁷ Since my youth, God, you have taught me,
   and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray,
   do not forsake me, my God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
   your mighty acts to all who are to come.

    ¹⁹ Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens,
   you who have done great things.
   Who is like you, God?
²⁰ Though you have made me see troubles,
   many and bitter,
   you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
   you will again bring me up.
²¹ You will increase my honor
   and comfort me once more.

    ²² I will praise you with the harp
   for your faithfulness, my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
   Holy One of Israel.
²³ My lips will shout for joy
   when I sing praise to you—
   I whom you have delivered.
²⁴ My tongue will tell of your righteous acts
   all day long,
for those who wanted to harm me
   have been put to shame and confusion.

22. I will also, O my God! praise thee. He again breaks forth into thanksgiving; for he was aware that the design of God, in so liberally succouring his servants, is, that his goodness may be celebrated. In speaking of employing the psaltery and the harp in this exercise, he alludes to the generally prevailing custom of that time. To sing the praises of God upon the harp and psaltery unquestionably formed a part of the training of the law, and of the service of God under that dispensation of shadows and figures; but they are not now to be used in public thanksgiving. We are not, indeed, forbidden to use, in private, musical instruments, but they are banished out of the churches by the plain command of the Holy Spirit, when Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:13, lays it down as an invariable rule, that we must praise God, and pray to him only in a known tongue. By the word truth, the Psalmist means that the hope which he reposed in God was rewarded, when God preserved him in the midst of dangers. The promises of God, and his truth in performing them, are inseparably joined together. Unless we depend upon the word of God, all the benefits which he confers upon us will be unsavoury or tasteless to us; nor will we ever be stirred up either to prayer or thanksgiving, if we are not previously illuminated by the Divine word. So much the more revolting, then, is the folly of that diabolical man, Servetus, who teaches that the rule of praying is perverted, if faith is fixed upon the promises; as if we could have any access into the presence of God, until he first invited us by his own voice to come to him.

23. My lips shall rejoice ¹¹⁸¹¹⁸     “The original word רנם expresses a brisk, vibratory motion, like that of the lips in singing a lively air, or of the feet in dancing. Hence, figuratively, it signifies to rejoice or exult In this passage, it may be understood literally of the lips, and figuratively of the soul. And the English language having no corresponding verb which may be taken literally in reference to one subject, and figuratively in reference to another, it might be better to express its sense in connection with each, by two different verbs, thus: —
   “My lips shall move briskly, when I sing unto thee,
And my soul shall rejoice, which thou, etc.”
    — Horsley. when I sing to thee. In this verse David expresses more distinctly his resolution not to give thanks to God hypocritically, nor in a superficial manner, but to engage with unfeigned earnestness in this religious exercise. By the figures which he introduces, he briefly teaches us, that to praise God would be the source of his greatest pleasure; and thus he indirectly censures the profane mirth of those who, forgetting God, confine their congratulations to themselves in their prosperity. The scope of the last verse is to the same effect, implying that no joy would be sweet and desirable to him, but such as was connected with the praises of God, and that to celebrate his Redeemer’s praises would afford him the greatest satisfaction and delight.