Commentary - Psalm 70

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 70 is a prayer of raw urgency. It is a cry for help from a man who is not playing religious games. He is in trouble, his enemies are gloating, and he wants God to intervene, and to do so now. This is one of those psalms that makes tidy, buttoned-up Christians a bit nervous. David is telling God to hurry up. But this is not the impertinence of a spoiled child. It is the desperation of a son who knows his father's address and knows the door is always open. The psalm is a beautiful mess of imprecation against God's enemies, a call for the joy of God's people, and a humble confession of personal need. It is a short psalm, but it packs a theological punch, reminding us that our relationship with God is not one of abstract philosophical definitions, but one of a desperate, dependent child clinging to a mighty and delivering Father.

The structure is straightforward. It begins with an urgent plea for deliverance (v. 1). This is followed by a series of imprecations, calling for the shame and confusion of those who seek the psalmist's life (vv. 2-3). Then, in a wonderful pivot, the prayer turns to the people of God, asking for their joy and gladness as they magnify the Lord (v. 4). The psalm concludes as it began, with a personal confession of affliction and need, and a final, pressing plea for God not to delay (v. 5). This is a prayer for the foxhole, for the hospital bed, for the moment when the bill comes due and the cupboards are bare. It is a prayer for every believer who has ever felt the hot breath of the enemy on his neck and known that his only hope is the swift intervention of God.

Outline

Key Issues

Beginning: A Prayer of Remembrance

The superscription tells us this is a psalm "To bring to remembrance." This is not just David jogging God's memory, as though the Ancient of Days were forgetful. Rather, this is a liturgical function. This is a prayer to be offered when the people of God need to remember who God is and what He has promised to do. It is a prayer that brings God's covenant faithfulness to the forefront of the worshiper's mind. When you are in deep distress, the first thing the enemy attacks is your memory. He wants you to forget God's past deliverances. He wants you to forget God's promises. This psalm is a weapon against that spiritual amnesia. It is David, on behalf of all the saints, saying, "Lord, let us remember Your power, Your justice, and Your salvation. And as we remember, act again."

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 O God, hasten to deliver me; O Yahweh, hasten to my help!

The prayer begins with a bang, not a whimper. There is no gentle clearing of the throat. David is in trouble, and he needs help right now. He uses two different names for God, Elohim and Yahweh, and two different requests, "deliver me" and "hasten to my help." This is poetic, but it is also earnest. He is covering all the bases. "O God" appeals to His power as the Creator. "O Yahweh" appeals to His covenant faithfulness, His personal name by which He bound Himself to His people. The repetition of "hasten" underscores the urgency. This is not a man who can afford to wait. The water is up to his neck. This kind of prayer is a great gift to the church because it legitimizes our own cries of desperation. God does not want us to pretend we have it all together. He wants us to come to Him as we are, troubles and all, and to be honest about our need. He is not offended when we tell Him to hurry; He invites it. It is an expression of faith, not of disrespect. It assumes He is the only one who can help, and that His help is worth having immediately.

2 Let those be ashamed and humiliated Who seek my life; Let those be turned back and dishonored Who delight in evil against me.

Here we come to the imprecations. Modern sensibilities often stumble here. Are we supposed to pray this way about our enemies? The short answer is yes, but with careful biblical guardrails. David is not praying about someone who cut him off in traffic. He is praying about those who "seek my life" and "delight in evil against me." These are not personal slights; this is a spiritual battle. These are men who have set themselves against God's anointed and, by extension, against God Himself. To pray for their shame and dishonor is to pray for the vindication of God's righteousness. Shame in the biblical world is a public reality. It is to have your wickedness exposed for all to see. David is praying that the plans of the wicked would fail so spectacularly that they would be covered in public disgrace. He wants them "turned back," for their forward momentum in their evil plans to be broken and reversed. This is a prayer for justice. It is a prayer that God's kingdom would come and His will would be done. And when God's kingdom comes, one of the first orders of business is the routing of His enemies.

3 Let those turn back because of their shame Who say, “Aha, aha!”

The "Aha, aha!" is the sound of gloating. It is the sound of schadenfreude, of taking pleasure in the misfortune of another. These are the enemies who are standing on the sidelines, watching David's predicament, and rubbing their hands together with glee. They see his trouble as their victory. This is the same spirit we see in the enemies of Christ at the cross, wagging their heads and mocking Him. David prays that their very shame would be the reason they are turned back. He is asking God to make their evil so evident, so publicly humiliating, that it stops them in their tracks. Their gleeful "Aha!" will be stuck in their throats as their own ruin descends. This is not petty revenge. It is a desire to see evil overplay its hand and be exposed for the hollow, self-destructive fraud that it is. It is a prayer that the laughter of the wicked would be silenced by the justice of God.

4 Let those be joyful and glad in You All who seek You And let them say continually, “Let God be magnified,” Those who love Your salvation.

The pivot here is glorious. After praying for the downfall of the wicked, David immediately turns to the blessing of the righteous. The two are two sides of the same coin. The justice that shames the wicked is the very thing that brings joy to the people of God. Notice the description of the righteous: they are those who "seek" God and "love His salvation." Their identity is wrapped up in their orientation toward God. And what is the result of God's deliverance? Joy and gladness. This is not a superficial happiness based on circumstances, but a deep-seated joy in God Himself. And this joy is not quiet or private. It is vocal. It results in continual praise: "Let God be magnified." The great business of the saints is to make God look great. When God delivers us, the proper response is not to puff out our own chests, but to magnify Him. The salvation He works is the occasion for our worship. This verse is the positive counterpart to the imprecations. David is praying for a world set right, where the wicked are shamed and the righteous are glad in their God.

5 But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my protector; O Yahweh, do not delay.

The psalm ends where it began, with the psalmist's own desperate need. After praying for the grand cosmic reordering of things, he brings it right back down to his own situation. "But I am afflicted and needy." This is a beautiful expression of humility. Even as he is God's anointed, even as he is a man after God's own heart, he knows his own standing before the Almighty. He is poor. He is in need. He doesn't have the resources in himself to fix his situation. And so, he throws himself utterly upon God. "Hasten to me, O God!" There's that urgency again. He then confesses his faith: "You are my help and my protector." This is not a wish; it is a declaration. He knows who God is. God is the one who helps. God is the one who delivers. And on the basis of that firm knowledge, he makes his final plea, returning to the covenant name: "O Yahweh, do not delay." This is faith in its purest form. It is acknowledging utter personal bankruptcy and, in the same breath, laying hold of the infinite riches of God's character. It is the perfect prayer for any believer who feels overwhelmed, because it is honest, humble, and shot through with a rugged confidence in the God who saves.

Application

So what do we do with a psalm like this? First, we must learn to be honest in our prayers. God is not looking for polished prose; He is looking for broken and contrite hearts. When you are in trouble, tell Him. When you need help now, tell Him to hurry. He is a Father, and He can handle the raw emotion of His children. Your desperation is not an offense to Him; it is an opportunity for Him to show Himself strong on your behalf.

Second, we must learn to pray biblically about our enemies. This does not mean we pray for Aunt Mildred's car to break down because she slighted us at Thanksgiving. It means we learn to distinguish between personal offenses, which we are called to forgive, and the high-handed wickedness of those who set themselves against Christ and His Church. We should pray for their confusion, for their plans to be thwarted, for their public shaming. We pray this not out of personal malice, but out of a zeal for God's glory and the good of His people. And we always pray it with the understanding that the ultimate way God can confound an enemy is to save him, as He did with Saul of Tarsus.

Finally, we must ground our urgent pleas in a deep-seated joy in God's salvation. Our prayers for help should always be coupled with a readiness to praise. The goal of our deliverance is not simply our comfort, but that God would be magnified. We, like David, are afflicted and needy. We are always in a state of dependence. But we are also those who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. Our God is our help and our protector. He came in the person of His Son to deal with our greatest enemy, sin and death. He did not delay then, and He will not ultimately delay now. He will come. And because of this, we can be joyful and glad in Him, and say continually, "Let God be magnified."