Psalm 71:1

In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1-3) These verses are borrowed, with some verbal alterations, from Psalm 31:1-3, where see Note.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 71:1-3. In thee, O Lord, &c. — See notes on Psalm 31:1. Thou hast given commandment to save me — By which he understands God’s purpose and promise, and his providence watching to execute them, all which are as powerful as a command.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

71:1-13 David prays that he might never be made ashamed of dependence upon God. With this petition every true believer may come boldly to the throne of grace. The gracious care of Divine providence in our birth and infancy, should engage us to early piety. He that was our Help from our birth, ought to be our Hope from our youth. Let none expect ease or comfort from the world. Those who love the Lord, often are hated and persecuted; men wondered at for their principles and conduct; but the Lord has been their strong refuge. The faithful servants of God may be assured that he will not cast them off in old age, nor forsake them when their strength fails.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust - See the notes at Psalm 25:2. Compare Psalm 22:4-5; Psalm 31:1.

Let me never be put to confusion - Let me never be ashamed; that is, Let me not be so disappointed in the trust that I repose in thee as to have occasion to feel ashamed that I have done it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 71

Ps 71:1-24. The Psalmist, probably in old age, appeals to God for help from his enemies, pleading his past favors, and stating his present need; and, in confidence of a hearing, he promises his grateful thanks and praise.

1-3. (Compare Ps 30:1-3).

The Treasury of David

1 In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.

3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.

4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

Psalm 71:1

"In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust." Jehovah deserves our confidence; let him have it all. Every day must we guard against every form of reliance upon an arm of flesh, and hourly hang our faith upon the ever faithful God. Not only on God must we rest, as a man stands on a rock, but in him must we trust, as a man hides in a cave. The more intimate we are with the Lord, the firmer will our trust be. God knows our faith, and yet he loves to hear us avow it; hence, the Psalmist not only trusts in the Lord, but tells him that he is so trusting. "Let me never be put to confusion." So long as the world stands, stand thou by me; yea, for ever and ever be faithful to thy servants. If thou forsake me, men will ridicule my religion, and how shall I be able to answer them? Confusion will silence me, and thy cause will be put to shame. This verse is a good beginning for prayer; those who commence with trust shall conclude with joy.

Psalm 71:2

"Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape." Be true, O God, to thy word. It is a righteous thing in thee to keep the promises which thou hast made unto thy servants. I have trusted thee, and thou wilt not be unrighteous to forget my faith. I am taken as in a net, but do thou liberate me from the malice of my persecutors. "Incline thine ear unto me, and save me." Stoop to my feebleness, and hear my faint whispers; be gracious to my infirmities, and smile upon me: I ask salvation; listen thou to my petitions, and save me. Like one wounded and left for dead by mine enemies, I need that thou bend over me and bind up my wounds. These mercies are asked on the plea of faith, and they cannot, therefore, be denied.

Psalm 71:3

"Be thou my strong habitation." Permit me to enter into thee, and be as much at home as a man in his own house, and then suffer me to remain in thee as my settled abode. Whereas foes molest me, I need a dwelling framed and bulwarked, to sustain a siege and resist the attacks of armies; let, then, thine omnipotence secure me, and be as a fortress unto me. Here we see a weak man, but he is in a strong habitation: his security rests upon the tower in which he hides and is not placed in Jeopardy through his personal feebleness. "Whereunto I may continually resort." Fast shut is this castle against all adversaries, its gates they cannot burst open; the drawbridge is up, the portcullis is down, the bars are fast in their places; but, there is a secret door, by which friends of the great Lord can enter at all hours of the day or night, as often as ever they please. There is never an hour when it is unlawful to pray, Mercy's gates stand wide open, and shall do so, till, at the last, the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door. Believers find their God to be their habitation, strong and accessible, and this is for them a sufficient remedy for all the ills of their mortal life. "Thou hast given commandment to save me." Nature is charged to be tender with God's servants; Providence is ordered to work their good, and the forces of the invisible world are ordained as their guardians. David charged all his troops to spare the young man Absalom, but yet he fell. God's commandment is of far higher virtue, for it compels obedience, and secures its end. Destruction cannot destroy us, famine cannot starve us; but we laugh at both, while God's mandate shields us. No stones of the field can throw us down, while angels bear us up in their hands; neither can the beasts of the field devour us, while David's God delivers us from their ferocity, or Daniel's God puts them in awe of us. "For thou art my rock and my fortress." In God we have all the security which nature which furnishes the rock, and art which builds the fortress, could supply; he is the complete preserver of his people. Immutability may be set forth by the rock, and omnipotence by the fortress. Happy is he who can use the personal pronoun "my" - not only once, but as many times as the many aspects of the Lord may render desirable. Is he a strong habitation? I will call him "my strong habitation," and he shall be my rock, my fortress, my God (Psalm 71:4), my hope, my trust (Psalm 71:5), my praise (Psalm 71:6). All mine shall be his, all his shall be mine. This was the reason why the Psalmist was persuaded that God had commanded his salvation, namely, because he had enabled him to exercise a calm and appropriating faith.

Psalm 71:4

"Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked." God is on the Same side with us, and those who are our enemies are also his, for they are wicked; therefore will the Lord surely rescue his own confederates, and he will not suffer the evil to triumph over the just. He who addresses such a prayer as this to heaven, does more injury to his enemies than if he had turned a battery of Armstrongs upon them. "Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man." Being wicked to God, they become unrighteous towards men, and cruel in their persecutions of the godly. Two hands are here mentioned: they grasp and they crush; they strike and they would slay if God did not prevent; had they as many hands as Briareus, the finger of God would more than match them. THE ARGUMENT

The matter of this Psalm plainly showeth that it was written in a time of David’s great distress, and his old age, mentioned Psalm 71:9 and Psalm 71:18 which proves that it belongs not to Saul’s time, but rather to the time of Absalom’s rebellion, which happened in his old age.

The psalmist, in confidence of his faith, and in experience of past favours, prayeth unto God to deliver him, but consume his enemies, Psalm 71:1-13; promising constancy of hope in him, Psalm 71:14-16; praying for his persevering strength and power, Psalm 71:17,18; acknowledgeth his troubles to be from God, Psalm 71:19-21; Promiseth thankfulness to him for his deliverance, Psalm 71:22-24.

This verse and the next are taken out of Psalm 31:1,2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust,.... The Targum is,

"in thy Word;''

See Gill on Psalm 31:1;

let me never be put to confusion; or "be ashamed"; see the note as before.

Geneva Study Bible

In {a} thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

(a) He prays to God with full assurance of faith, that he will deliver him from his adversaries.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. In thee … do I put my trust] Better, In thee … have I taken refuge. See note on Psalm 57:1, and cp. Psalm 7:1; Psalm 11:1; Psalm 16:1; Psalm 25:20.

let me never be put to confusion] Let me never be ashamed. He has put himself under Jehovah’s protection: may he never be disappointed and disgraced by finding that his trust is vain. Cp. Psalm 31:17; Psalm 25:2; Psalm 25:20; Psalm 22:5; Php 1:20. It will be remembered that the verse forms the close of the Te Deum.

1–3. The prayer of faith in the midst of danger. These verses are taken, with but little change, from Psalm 31:1-3.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust let me never be put to confusion; rather, as in Psalm 31:1, "let me never Be ashamed;" or, let me never be put to shame (Cheyne). Psalm 71:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Stayed upon Jahve, his ground of trust, from early childhood up, the poet hopes and prays for deliverance out of the hand of the foe. The first of these two strophes (Psalm 71:1-3) is taken from Psalm 31:2-4, the second (Psalm 71:4-6, with the exception of Psalm 71:4 and Psalm 71:6) from Psalm 22:10-11; both, however, in comparison with Psalm 70:1-5 exhibit the far more encroaching variations of a poet who reproduces the language of others with a freer hand. Olshausen wishes to read מעוז in Psalm 71:3, Psalm 90:1; Psalm 91:9, instead of מעון, which he holds to be an error in writing. But this old Mosaic, Deuteronomial word (vid., on Psalm 90:1) - cf. the post-biblical oath המעון (by the Temple!) - is unassailable. Jahve, who is called a rock of refuge in Psalm 31:3, is here called a rock of habitation, i.e., a high rock that cannot be stormed or scaled, which affords a safe abode; and this figure is pursued still further with a bold remodelling of the text of Psalm 31:3 : לבוא תּמיד, constantly to go into, i.e., which I can constantly, and therefore always, as often as it is needful, betake myself for refuge. The additional צוּית is certainly not equivalent to צוּה; it would more likely be equivalent to אשׁר צוית; but probably it is an independent clause: Thou hast (in fact) commanded, i.e., unalterably determined (Psalm 44:5; Psalm 68:29; Psalm 133:3), to show me salvation, for my rock, etc. To the words לבוא תמיד צוית corresponds the expression לבית מצודות in Psalm 31:3, which the lxx renders καὶ εἰς οἶκον καταφυγῆς, whereas instead of the former three words it has καὶ εἰς τόπον ὀχυρόν, and seems to have read לבית מבצרות, cf. Daniel 11:15 (Hitzig). In Psalm 71:5, Thou art my hope reminds one of the divine name מקוה ישׂראל in Jeremiah 17:13; Jeremiah 50:7 (cf. ἡ ἐλπίς ἡμῶν used of Christ in 1 Timothy 1:1; Colossians 1:27). נסמכתּי is not less beautiful than השׁלכתּי in Psalm 22:11. In its incipient slumbering state (cf. Psalm 3:6), and in its self-conscious continuance. He was and is the upholding prop and the supporting foundation, so to speak, of my life. And גוזי instead of גּחי in Psalm 22:10, is just such another felicitous modification. It is impracticable to define the meaning of this גוזי according to גּזה equals גּזה, Arab. jz', retribuere (prop. to cut up, distribute), because גּמל is the representative of this Aramaeo-Arabic verb in the Hebrew. Still less, however, can it be derived from גּוּז, transire, the participle of which, if it would admit of a transitive meaning equals מוציאי (Targum), ought to be גּזי. The verb גּזה, in accordance with its radical signification of abscindere (root גז, synon. קץ, קד, קט, and the like), denotes in this instance the separating of the child from the womb of the mother, the retrospect going back from youth to childhood, and even to his birth. The lxx σκεπαστής (μου) is an erroneous reading for ἐκσπαστής, as is clear from Psalm 22:10, ὁ ἐκσπάσας με. הלּל בּ, Psalm 44:9 (cf. שׂיח בּ, Psalm 69:13), is at the bottom of the expression in Psalm 71:6. The God to whom he owes his being, and its preservation thus far, is the constant, inexhaustible theme of his praise.