Psalm 71:7-16 “I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long. Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails. For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, saying, ‘God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.’ God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me. Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me. But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise. My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord GOD. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone.”

Is there a new takeaway from this section that we haven’t mentioned before? Yes! “My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure.” Even though we humbly request, there is also hope and expectancy with our prayers. God will do what is best for His kingdom, but we expect Him to defend us against unjust accusations, and we believe that He will continue to watch over us in our weakness. That’s why we continue to praise, even though we don’t yet know the outcome of our prayers!

For additional worship: Blessed Assurance (Reawaken Hymns)

Psalm 71:1-6 “In you, LORD, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For you are my hope, Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth. I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.”

God is our rock and fortress, but we shouldn’t presume that He has to help us. He is our hope, and we should reach out to him with humility.

1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.”

For additional worship: O God of Mercy, Hear Our Plea (Sovereign Grace Music)

Psalm 70:1-5 “For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder. Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, LORD. Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. Let them be turned because of their shame who say, ‘Aha! Aha!’ Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation continually say, ‘Let God be exalted!’ But I am poor and needy. Come to me quickly, God. You are my help and my deliverer. LORD, don’t delay.”

“A reminder” is literally “to bring to remembrance.” It is believed that this prayer would accompany a memorial offering, serving as a “reminder” to God that we need help! Think of it as knocking on the door more than once. And that may be a good reminder for us from this Psalm. It covers many of the ideas we’ve seen before, regarding salvation from our enemies and them being put to shame. But it also encourages us to be persistent in prayer.

Luke 18:1-5 “He also spoke a parable to them that they must always pray and not give up, saying, “There was a judge in a certain city who didn’t fear God and didn’t respect man. A widow was in that city, and she often came to him, saying, ‘Defend me from my adversary!’ He wouldn’t for a while; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will defend her, or else she will wear me out by her continual coming.’ ”

For additional worship: Pray (Sanctus Real)

Psalm 69:30-36 “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. It will please the LORD better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs. The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live. For the LORD hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moves therein! For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it. The children also of his servants shall inherit it. Those who love his name shall dwell therein.”

We can trust in God. What he has said He will do, He will do! He deserves and desires our praise, and it pleases Him even greater than a sacrifice. Why? Because presumably praise comes from the heart, while we can give a sacrifice for any number of reasons.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him [Jesus], then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.”

For additional worship: We Bring The Sacrifice Of Praise (The Maranatha Singers)

Psalm 69:17-29 “Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily! Draw near to my soul and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies. You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you. Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table before them become a snare. May it become a retribution and a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent. Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them. Let their habitation be desolate. Let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous. But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.”

Instead of David, imagine that this is from Jesus’ perspective.

Matthew 27:46 “About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lima sabachthani?’ That is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ”

Matthew 27:48 “Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.”

Jesus would certainly have had reason to pray this. To call down retribution on His enemies. To feel the way that we sometimes feel in this life. But what did He do?

Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’ “

In truth, Jesus died so that we wouldn’t be blotted out from the book of life! Unfortunately, most are, because they don’t believe.

For additional worship: Last Words (Andrew Peterson)

Psalm 69:13-16 “But as for me, my prayer is to you, LORD, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. Answer me, LORD, for your loving kindness is good. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, turn to me.”

When is an acceptable time to pray to God? Anytime we feel downtrodden, overcome by sin, persecuted, or overwhelmed. In fact, these very verses of Scripture can be our pattern and guide.

For additional worship: When All Thy Mercies (Hymns of Grace)

Psalm 69:5-12 “God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you. Don’t let those who wait for you be shamed through me, Lord GOD of Armies. Don’t let those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, God of Israel. Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children. For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.”

David bemoans his own sin. David bemoans the reproach he’s brought upon God. David bemoans the fact that his own faithfulness and repentance become something that others use to mock and humiliate him.

The lesson? Embrace repentance. Zealously return to God, even though others might not understand it. They may even make fun of you for it! But God is the only one we should want to impress. If we’ve rebelled against Him, we need to return.

For additional worship: Holiness (Take My Life)

Psalm 69:1-4 “For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Lilies.’ By David. Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck! I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.”

Have you ever been in deep distress and despair? In this Psalm David understands that he’s not perfect; he has certainly done some things wrong! However, there are others whom he has not wronged that pile on, give him grief, demand restitution and seek his downfall. David reveals here what we need to do in these times of deep anguish – we need to cry out to God and seek His help and encouragement!

For additional worship: I Must Tell Jesus (The Isaacs)

Psalm 68:28-35 “Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, God, that which you have done for us. Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings shall bring presents to you. Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls with the calves of the peoples. Trample under foot the bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war. Princes shall come out of Egypt. Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God. Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth! Sing praises to the Lord— Selah— to him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old; behold, he utters his voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God! His excellency is over Israel, his strength is in the skies. You are awesome, God, in your sanctuaries. The God of Israel gives strength and power to his people. Praise be to God!”

There are many passages in the Bible that talk about God eventually gathering the nations for judgment. Here we see the nations coming for praise, which I believe foreshadows the future Messianic kingdom!

Jeremiah 3:17 “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The LORD’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the LORD’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.”

All nations are a part of the kingdom because the Lord’s people aren’t just restricted to Israel. Instead, anyone who believes in Jesus as their savior is a member!

Isaiah 49:6 “Indeed, he says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.’ ”

Revelation 22:1-5 “He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will be no curse anymore. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light; for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.”

For additional worship: Lord of All Being (Weekly Hymn Project)

Psalm 68:20-27 “God is to us a God of deliverance. To the LORD, the Lord, belongs escape from death. But God will strike through the head of his enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness. The Lord said, “I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea, that you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies.” They have seen your processions, God, even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, amongst the ladies playing with tambourines, ‘Bless God in the congregations, even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!’ There is little Benjamin, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.”

God is our protector and deliverer too!

Colossians 1:12-14 “giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.”

The description of Israel’s procession to the sanctuary for worship should remind us that we are part of an even greater and more magnificent procession made possible because of Jesus!

Hebrews 12:22-24 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels, to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.”

For additional worship: Stand up and Bless the Lord (Hymns of Grace)