Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 2 · Psalm 71
The Seventy First Psalm.
THe seventy first Psalm is a prayer for deliverance in time of distress, probably of Absolom's conspiracy, which happened to him in the latter end of his life, referred to v. 9. & 18.
1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me‖not be pa… to shame for ever. foreign never be put to confusion.
Paraphrase. Lord, all my repose and confidence is in thee, I have not forsaken this my hold to catch after any other secular aid; O let not my reliance on thee be still disappointed and frustrated.
2. Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape; encline thine eare unto me, and save me.
Thou art the patron of all that are in distress, and thou hast promised thy certain relief to all that constantly wait on thee, and in those thy promised mercies I have a peculiar portion: Thy justice therefore and fidelity, as well as thy mercy, are concerned in granting me a seasonable deliverance at this time.
3. Be thou†to me for a rock of repose foreign my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress.
O be thou my sure place of retreat, whither I may constantly betake my selfe in time of distress or danger. This thou hast promised, O Lord, and therefore on thee I confidently depend for the performance of it.
4. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
Lord, suffer not injurious wicked men to succeed in their projected violences and cruelties against me.
5. For thou art my hope, O Lord God; thou art my trust from my youth.
To obtain thy audience to this request I have this argument of all others most forcible with thee, viz. that I am one that have ever depended and relied on thee, as thy creature and peculiar client.
6. By thee have I been holden up from the womb, thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
Who acknowledge it thy worke of continued protection, by which I have been supported every houre of my life, as of thy primary gift that I ever had any being in the world, and so am obliged to bless and magnify thy name continually for both.
7. I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong*hope foreign refuge.
I am vilified, and scoffed, and reproached by many, that I can talk of relief from heaven, when in the eye of man I am so low, and in such a deplored and lost condition; but yet am I not disheartned or amated by this, I know whom I have trusted, and that there is no security like that of relying and depending on thee.
8. ‖my mouth shall— foreignLet my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
O be thou now pleased to hasten to my relief, that I may be able to refute these scoffers, and divulge and proclaim to others the glorious advantages of thy service, beyond any other course that can be received in competition with it.
9. Cast me not off in the time of old age, forsake me not when my strength faileth me.
When I am in the wane of mine age, and most feeble and destitute of strength, I have none to fly unto but thee only; O be thou pleased not to reject or despise me.
10. For mine enemies‖say to me foreign speak against me, and they that lay wait for my soule take counsel together,
11. Saying, God hath forsaken him; persecute him and take him, for there is none to deliver him.
But refute the obloquies of my enemies, who rejoyce and triumph over me, and resolve and assure one another that I am forsaken by God, and may now be securely assaulted and destroyed by them.
12. O God, be not farre from me: O my God, make haste for my help.
Let this their impiety excite and provoke thee speedily to arise to my relief, who have no other to depend on but thee only.
13. Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soule; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.
And so shall my triumphant enemies be brought to shame, seeing themselves thus frustrated and disappointed in their malicious designes and attempts against my life.
14. But I will hope continually, and will†adde unto, or over and above all thy praise. foreign yet praise thee more and more.
But whatever their triumphs and scoffs are, they shall not drive me from my fast and sure hold, nor yet from proclaiming to all men the exceeding goodness of that God on whom I wait; but the more they scoff, the more will I magnify his greatness, and profess my dependance on him,
15. My mouth shall*recount shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; ‖thoughfor I know nota. the numbers thereof.
And continually declare, and depraedicate his mercy and fidelity (that never fails to deliver those that rely on him.) And when I have spent my whole life on this task, I shall justly think that I have come farre short of giving him his due praises, whose abundant excellencies and goodness toward his servant are infinitely above my imperfect measures either of valuation or expression.
16. Ib. will†go in in the strengths— goe in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine onelyonly.
Whatsoever I undertake, shall not be in any confidence of mine own, but in a full reliance on Gods strength alone, and never talk of any security, but that which I hold by his free mercy and fidelity which obligeth him to performe his promise, and never to forsake those that depend on him.
17. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
O blessed God, I have had experience of thy wonderfull acts of power and goodness from the first part of mine age, and accordingly I have made declaration of them.
18. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, untill I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
Doe not thou now that my years increase, and therewith my wants of thy support, withdraw it from me, but afford me matter of continual acknowledgments, that I may yet proclaim thy attributes to many more than yet I have done, that I may live to be an instrument of bringing in many proselytes to thy service, who as yet are not born, or know nothing of thee.
19. Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee?
O how great is thy bounty, how infinitely great? how glorious are thy works of power and goodness? There is none that can in the least be compared with thee.
20. Thou which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and*returne foreign shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Though thou hast permitted me to fall into very sharp afflictions and distresses, yet I doubt not either of thy power or will to restore me again, and rescue me out of the lowest and most disconsolate state.
21. Thou shalt increase my greatness,c. and‖return and comfort me. comfort me on every side.
And having done so, exalt me higher than I was before the turning of thy face from me.
22. I will also praise thee with the Psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou holy one of Israel.
And for this thy constant performance of promise to me, and all thy rich mercies, I will in the solemnest manner exalt and praise thy name, O thou great and only God of heaven, who hast revealed thy selfe to thy people.
23. My lips shall greatly rejoyce, when I sing unto thee; and my soule, which thou hast redeemed.
And this shal be to me the joyfullest imployment in the world; joy to my tongue, that is above measure honoured by being the instrument of thy praises, and joy to my very life, which hath been rescued by thee from such present dangers.
24. My tongue also shall talke of thy righteousness all the day long: for they are confounded, for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt.
And therefore being the pleasantest, it shall also be the most constant imployment of my life, to depraedicate thy mercy, and performance of all thy gratious promises, who hast secured me, and disappointed and frustrated all mine enemies.
Annotations on Psalm LXXI.
V. 15. The numbers] foreign,foreign from foreign numeravit, regularly signifies numbers, and so the Chaldee renders it foreign the numbers of them; and Symmachus accordingly, foreign, I know not how to number. The Lxxii. now read foreign, I know not tradings, negotiationes saith the Roman Psaltery. But the Latine, reading literaturam, makes it more probable that the more antient reading of the Lxxii. was not foreign, but foreign. The Syriack retein the Hebrew foreign the numbers thereof, and is not so well rendred by the Latine, Scripturam. The elegancy is here observable, foreign my mouth shall number or recount thy righteousness, foreign though I know not the number of them, they being so numerous that 'tis not possible to count them.
V. 16. I will goe] foreign foreignto goe, or goe in, signifies (among many other things) the administration of any publick office; See Num. xxvii. 16, 17. where to goe out and foreign to goe in before them, is to govern the people, and so oft elsewhere: and so also of more private actions, Deut. xxviii. 6. Thou shalt be blest foreign in thy going out, i. e. in all thy undertakings. And thus (without the addition of going out) it is here used for any action of his life.
V. 21. Comfort] foreign,foreign from foreign conversus fuit, doth regularly signify shalt return; so all the antient Interpreters seem to understand it, (and not in the notion of circuivit:) foreign, thou hast returned and comforted, say the Lxxii. and so the Latine reversus, the Chaldee, foreign from foreign to returne.