Psalm 70:5

But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Make haste unto me, O God.—In Psalm 40:17, “The Lord (Adonai) thinketh on me.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

70:1-5 The speedy destruction of the wicked, and the preservation of the godly. - This psalm is almost the same as the last five verses of #Ps 40". While here we behold Jesus Christ set forth in poverty and distress, we also see him denouncing just and fearful punishment on his Jewish, heathen, and antichristian enemies; and pleading for the joy and happiness of his friends, to his Father's honour. Let us apply these things to our own troubled circumstances, and in a believing manner bring them, and the sinful causes thereof, to our remembrance. Urgent trials should always awake fervent prayers.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But I am poor and needy - This is the same as in Psalm 40:17.

Make haste unto me, O God - Hebrew, אלהים 'Elohiym. In the parallel place in Psalm 40:17, this is, "The Lord thinketh upon me," - where the Hebrew word is not אלהים 'Elohiym, but אדני tub ,my 'Adonāy (Lord). The word "make haste" seems to have been introduced here by design - thus carrying out the main idea in Psalm 40, but turning here to "petition" what is there stated as a "fact."

Thou art my help and my deliverer ... - The close of the psalm is the same as the close of Psalm 40, except that the word Lord (Yahweh) is used here instead of "God" (אלהים 'Elohiym). It is not possible to ascertain whether these changes were mere matters of taste, or whether they were designed to adapt the psalm to some new circumstance, or to the special feelings of the psalmist at the time. There is no evidence that they are mere errors of transcribers, and indeed the changes are so made that this cannot be supposed. The change of the names אלהים 'Elohiym, יהוה Yahweh, and אדני 'Adonāy, for example, is such as must have been by design, and could not have been made by copyists. But what that design was must remain unknown. The alterations do not in any way, as far as we can understand, affect the sense.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 70

Ps 70:1-5. This corresponds to [606]Ps 40:13-17 with a very few variations, as "turn back" (Ps 70:3) for "desolate," and "make haste unto me" (Ps 70:5) for "thinketh upon me." It forms a suitable appendix to the preceding, and is called "a Psalm to bring to remembrance," as the thirty-eighth [see on [607]Ps 38:1, title].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But I am poor and needy,.... In Psalm 40:17 it follows, yet "the Lord thinketh on me"; instead of which it is here; see Gill on Psalm 40:17;

make haste unto me, O God; which repeats for sense the same petition as in Psalm 71:1;

thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying; in Psalm 40:17 it is, "O my God".

Geneva Study Bible

But I am {e} poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

(e) Because he had felt God's help before, he grounds on experience, and boldly seeks him for help.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. But I &c.] But as for me, who am afflicted and needy. Cp. Psalm 69:29; Psalm 69:33; Psalm 9:18; Psalm 35:10; Psalm 37:14; Psalm 86:1; Psalm 109:22.

make haste unto me, O God] So Psalm 141:1. “The text of Psalm 40:17, “The Lord will take thought for me,” glancing back at “thy thoughts to us-ward” in Psalm 70:5, is probably the original reading. The variation here may have been introduced for the sake of closer parallelism to make no tarrying. my help, as Psalm 33:20 : my deliverer, as Psalm 18:2; Psalm 18:48, a different word from that used in Psalm 70:1.

O Lord] In Psalm 40:17, O my God. make no tarrying] Cp. Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 9:19, A.V. defer not), and the promise in Isaiah 46:13.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God. Instead of this last clause, Psalm 40:17 has, "Yet the Lord thinketh upon me," which cannot be ascribed to a corruption, but must be an alteration made deliberately. Thou art my Help and my Deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying. Identical with Psalm 40:17, except that here once more "Jehovah" replaces "Elohim."



Psalm 70:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

ויאמרו instead of יאמרו is unimportant. But since the divine name Jahve is now for once chosen side by side with Elohim, it certainly had a strong claim to be retained in Psalm 70:5. Instead of תּשׁועתך we have ישׁועתך here; instead of עזרתי, here עזרי. And instead of אדני יחשׁב לי we have here אלהים חוּשׁה־לּי - the hope is turned into petition: make haste unto me, is an innovation in expression that is caused by the taking over of the לי.