Verse 1
PSALM 71
THE PRAYER OF AN OLD MAN FOR DELIVERANCE
The vast majority of the scholars whose works are available to us reject any thought of Davidic authorship of this psalm, but there is no agreement at all with regard to who did write it. Obviously, then, the community of scholars do not know anything about the author.
For this reason, we do not hesitate to accept the testimony of the superscription as it appears in the LXX.
Superscription: By David, a song sung by the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive,[1]
Dr. George DeHoff stated categorically that, "David wrote this psalm in his old age. He was beset by many enemies and so near death that he could feel himself sinking into the earth. He was an old man (Psalms 71:9,18); but old age had not dried up his hope or weakened his religious spirit (Psalms 71:5,15,20)."[2]
Matthew Henry also declared that, "David penned this Psalm in his old age; and many think it was in the times of the rebellion of Absalom, or during the insurrection of Sheba."[3]
Rawlinson pointed out that such distinguished scholars as, "Dr. Kay and Hengstenberg both considered the Psalm Davidic, with Kay naming the occasion as that of Adonijah's attempt, and Hengstenberg placing it in the times of the rebellion of Absalom."[4]
No less than twenty-three lines in this Psalm are taken from other Psalms of David; and it is much more reasonable to suppose that such a phenomenon was a product of David's remembering words and phrases he had previously used, than it is to suppose that Jeremiah, or some other alleged minstrel, was so familiar with the Psalms from his constant reading of them, that he would automatically substitute the words of David for his own vocabulary.
Of course, we cannot pretend to know that David wrote this psalm, but it certainly sounds like David throughout.
A PLEA FOR DELIVERANCE
"In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge:
Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me:
Bow down thine ear unto me, and save me.
Be thou to me a rock of habitation, whereunto I may continually resort:
Thou hast given commandment to save me;
For thou art my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked;
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man."
"Verses 1-3 here are quoted from Psalms 31."[5] Most of the terminology here actually has the significance of a Davidic signature.
"Thou art my rock and my fortress" (Psalms 71:3). This is a quotation from David's Psalms 18:2.
"Deliver me out of the hand of the wicked ... out of the hand ... of the cruel man" (Psalms 71:4). Here is another undeniable earmark of David's writing. "It is characteristic of David to single out from his adversaries an individual enemy from whom he prays to be delivered."[6] In fact, six of the psalms accredited to David show that he did that very thing: Psalms 13:2; 17:13; 18:17,48; 35:8; 41:6,9,11; 55:13-14.
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