My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.
This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.
I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.
Psalm 70 is essentially a repetition of a portion of Psalm 40. There are some differences that may prove to be instructive, and provide opportunity for comment. The following tables will provide my reader an opportunity to quickly compare each verse between the two psalms and consider the differences for themselves.
As before, variations between the two Psalms will be noted by italicized font. Earlier comments for this first portion may be found at Psalms for Psome – Ps 40.07
Let’s consider the last two verses.
| Psalm 70 | Psalm 40 |
| 4 – May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you! May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!” | 16 – But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!” |
The difference in this verse when compared with the parallel in Psalm 40 is the psalmist’s reference to God. In Psalm 70, he uses the common name for the creator God. Our psalmist speaks of God in the more general terms, where in Psalm 40, the psalmist refers to God by using the more personal name of Jehovah. Two short posts are available for my reader if they are interested in following up on these names.
Names of God – ELOHIM (GOD) – 1
Names of God – JEHOVAH (LORD) – 2
| Psalm 70 | Psalm 40 |
| 5 – But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay! | 17 – As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! |
In our final verse, we see the psalmist repeating his immediate need, and removes the description of “the Lord takes thought for me”. This seems to reflect an intentional “depersonalizing” of the Psalm, yet the psalmist refers to God with the more personalized name of God in the end.
No matter how we interpret this adjustment to the message of this man in need, it is refreshing to hear in both the 40th and 70th psalm that these men knew their place. They were poor and needy.
They knew their position before the God they prayed to. May we remember also, that we are but poor and needy people, looking to the Lord God for our assistance.
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Considering the Bible 