3 Be my strong Rock, the strong place of my salvation; for you are my Rock, and my safe place.
The Lord is my Rock, my walled town, and my saviour; my God, my Rock, in him will I put my faith; my breastplate, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Let your ear be turned to me; take me quickly out of danger; be my strong Rock, my place of strength where I may be safe. For you are my Rock and my strong tower; go in front of me and be my guide, because of your name.
The God of your fathers is your safe resting-place, and under you are his eternal arms: driving out the forces of your haters from before you, he said, Let destruction overtake them.
But the Lord will send his mercy in the daytime, and in the night his song will be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
<A Prayer of Moses, the man of God.> Lord, you have been our resting-place in all generations.
Happy is he whose resting-place is in the secret of the Lord, and under the shade of the wings of the Most High; Who says of the Lord, He is my safe place and my tower of strength: he is my God, in whom is my hope.
For he will give you into the care of his angels to keep you wherever you go. In their hands they will keep you up, so that your foot may not be crushed against a stone.
He is my strength, and my Rock; my high tower, and my saviour; my keeper and my hope: he gives me authority over my people.
He will have a place on high: he will be safely shut in by the high rocks: his bread will be given to him; his waters will be certain.
Give up to destruction old men and young men and virgins, little children and women: but do not come near any man who has the mark on him: and make a start at my holy place. So they made a start with the old men who were before the house.
And I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the mark of the living God: and he said with a great voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to do damage to the earth and the sea, Do no damage to the earth, or the sea, or the trees, till we have put a mark on the servants of our God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 71
Commentary on Psalms 71 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 71
David penned this psalm in his old age, as appears by several passages in it, which makes many think that it was penned at the time of Absalom's rebellion; for that was the great trouble of his later days. It might be occasioned by Sheba's insurrection, or some trouble that happened to him in that part of his life of which it was foretold that the sword should not depart from his house. But he is not over-particular in representing his case, because he intended it for the general use of God's people in their afflictions, especially those they meet with in their declining years; for this psalm, above any other, is fitted for the use of the old disciples of Jesus Christ.
He is in an ecstasy of joyful praise; and, in the singing of it, we too should have our faith in God encouraged and our hearts raised in blessing his holy name.
Psa 71:1-13
Two things in general David here prays for-that he might not be confounded and that his enemies and persecutors might be confounded.
Psa 71:14-24
David is here in a holy transport of joy and praise, arising from his faith and hope in God; we have both together v. 14, where there is a sudden and remarkable change of his voice; his fears are all silenced, his hopes raised, and his prayers turned into thanksgivings. "Let my enemies say what they will, to drive me to despair, I will hope continually, hope in all conditions, in the most cloudy and dark day; I will live upon hope and will hope to the end.' Since we hope in one that will never fail us, let not our hope in him fail us, and then we shall praise him yet more and more. "The more they reproach me the more closely will I cleave to thee; I will praise thee more and better than ever I have done yet.' The longer we live the more expert we should grow in praising God and the more we should abound in it. I will add over and above all thy praise, all the praise I have hitherto offered, for it is all too little. When we have said all we can, to the glory of God's grace, there is still more to be said; it is a subject that can never be exhausted, and therefore we should never grow weary of it. Now observe, in these verses,