Text -- Psalms 71:1-5 (NET)

Psalm 71

71:1 In you, O Lord, I have taken shelter! Never let me be humiliated! 71:2 Vindicate me by rescuing me! Listen to me! Deliver me! 71:3 Be my protector and refuge, a stronghold where I can be safe! For you are my high ridge and my stronghold. 71:4 My God, rescue me from the power of the wicked, from the hand of the cruel oppressor! 71:5 For you give me confidence, O Lord; O Lord, I have trusted in you since I was young.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 71:1

¹ sn Psalm 71. The psalmist prays for divine intervention and expresses his confidence that God will protect and vindicate him. The first three verses are very similar to Ps 31:1-3a.

NET Notes: Psa 71:2

¹ tn Heb “in your vindication rescue me and deliver me.” Ps 31:1 omits “and deliver me.”

² tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”

³ tn Ps 31:2 adds “quickly” before “deliver.”

NET Notes: Psa 71:3

¹ tc Heb “become for me a rocky summit of a dwelling place.” The Hebrew term מָעוֹן (ma’on, “dwelling place”) should probably be emended to מָעוֹז (ma’oz, “refuge”; see Ps 31:2).

² tc Heb “to enter continually, you commanded to deliver me.” The Hebrew phrase לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ (lavo’ tamid tsivvita, “to enter continually, you commanded”) should be emended to לְבֵית מְצוּדוֹת (lÿvet mÿtsudot, “a house of strongholds”; see Ps 31:2).

³ sn You are my high ridge. This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28.

NET Notes: Psa 71:4

¹ tn Heb “hand.”

NET Notes: Psa 71:5

¹ tn Heb “for you [are] my hope.”

² tn Heb “O Lord, my source of confidence from my youth.”