In the 1975 TV documentary “Cracked Actor,” the legendary David Bowie shows off his artistic flair by scissor-kicking phrases from magazines. He then rearranges those snipped-out words to create songs. Talk about magazine magic! And guess what? It turns out that Psalm 71 is a total rockstar compilation of phrases pulled from the other Psalms*. It’s like a holy mixtape crafted by a seriously dedicated Bible geek or a Psalm nerd. But fear not, my fellow geeks and nerds, I happily embrace your awesomeness! Keep on rockin’ those Psalms!

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Psalms in Book 2 are like Book 1 in that they are mostly lament and distress although they now include a communal voice in addition to the singular voice of the first book.

The books of Psalms are roughly themed like this:

Book 1: Psalms 1 – 41: God is beside us.
Book 2: Psalms 42 – 72: God goes before us
Book 3: Psalms 73 – 89: God is all around us.
Book 4: Psalms 90 – 106: God is above us.
Book 5: Psalms 107 – 150: God is among us.

71 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame!
² In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
    incline your ear to me, and save me!
³ Be to me a rock of refuge,
    to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.
⁴ Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.

⁵ For you, O Lord, are my hope,
    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
⁶ Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
    you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.
⁷ I have been as a portent to many,
    but you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
    and with your glory all the day.

⁹ Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
    forsake me not when my strength is spent.
¹⁰ For my enemies speak concerning me;
    those who watch for my life consult together
¹¹ and say, “God has forsaken him;
    pursue and seize him,
    for there is none to deliver him.”

¹² O God, be not far from me;
    O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³ May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
    with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
    who seek my hurt.

¹⁴ But I will hope continually
    and will praise you yet more and more.
¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
    of your deeds of salvation all the day,
    for their number is past my knowledge.
¹⁶ With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
    I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.
¹⁷ O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

¹⁸ So even to old age and grey hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
    your power to all those to come.

¹⁹ Your righteousness, O God,
    reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
    O God, who is like you?
²⁰ You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
    will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will bring me up again.
²¹ You will increase my greatness
    and comfort me again.
²² I will also praise you with the harp
    for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
    O Holy One of Israel.
²³ My lips will shout for joy,
    when I sing praises to you;
    my soul also, which you have redeemed.
²⁴ And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
    who sought to do me hurt.

Psalm 71 ESVUK

O God, make speed to save us.
All O Lord, make haste to help us.

That’s how the Church of England starts its Evening Prayer service. It’s also the middle verse in Psalm 71, verse 12 (which I’ve separated and made bold), and it’s also the first verse of Psalm 70. Psalm 70 is actually the last five verses of Psalm 40.

Confused yet? Me too. Let’s try to unpack it.

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Psalm 70 is in the Psalter because of Psalm 71. A bold statement? Yes. It looks like someone snipped the last few verses from Psalm 40 and placed them next to Psalm 71, which follows the theme of those dark words. But Psalm 71 adds something to the doomand gloom of Psalm 70, that thing (using words from other Psalms) is HOPE!

Now read back through the Psalm again and make a note not only of where the word hope apperars, but of all the parts which are hopeful to someone going through severe difficulty.

Have you done that?

Really?

Good. Now that’s done we’ll look at the first few verses.

Verses 1-4 are a call for help which are answered with a song of trust on the next four verses. The typical structure of a lamenting psalm. This is repeated whith the plea in verses 9-13 answered in 14-17 and again in verse 18 and 19-24.

Complicating that simple structure is another one, a chiasm. Chiasm, meaning crossing over, is a form used in nearly all Psalms and is a repetition of similar ideas in the reverse sequence.

The themes are:

• Part A
  • May I not be put to shame (verse 1)
  • The righteousness of God (verse 2)
• Part B
  • My youth (verse 5)
  • The time of old age (verse 9)
• Part C
  • My enemies … who watch for my life (verse 10)
• Central section
  • O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
• Part C’
  • My accusers … who seek my hurt (verse 13)
• Part B’
  • My youth (verse 17)
• To old age and grey hairs (verse 18)
• Part A’
  • The Righteousness of God
  • May they be put to shame (both verse 24)

The chiasm is neat in that youth and old age forms the end of the first answer and the start of the second cry for help. The end of the second answer and the start of the third cry for help is the same. The two structures interact. On the other hand the subject of God’s righteousness in the A and A’ parts spills over into B’which is not too neat.

I think my autustic fascination with structure and patterns is satisfied there.

So what do I make of this song? It can be seen as a Psalm of David, as a prophetic lament and a Messianic psalm because it draws from all those categories in its compilation. It is a song of resurrection: God brings us through our troubles so that what once we hid because we were ashamed becomes part of our story of transformation. Look at the New Testament story of the woman at the well in Samaria in John 4:1-26. Before she met Jesus she sneaked to the well, ashamed to be seen, ashamed of her sexual history. After she met Jesus she ran through the street shouting at people, telling them,” Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.” Her shame became her testimony. Her life was metaphoricly reserrected and points forward to the resurrestion of Jesus. Psalm 71 does the same.

That hope, the hope that transforms our shame, becomes an integral part of our story because it speaks of what God has accomplished for us. It envelops the essence of Psalm 71 as well. It not only narrates the tale of “God has guided me through challenging times,” but also instills in us the steadfast belief that God will guide us through the darkest moments. Life can indeed present its challenges, but the unwavering confidence and hope in God’s unwavering support will sustain us throughout life’s long haul.

The Psalms are not about preaching, they are proclamation, telling out of what God has done, being relevant becuse they are honest about the troubled times the Psalmists went through, so that even 3,000 years on it can speak to each of us in our troubled times.

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< Psalm 70 | Psalm 71 | Psalm 72 >

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*Psalms which contributed verses to Psalm 71 are:
Psalms 8, 10,14, 18, 19, 22, 34, 37, 40, 41,42, 56, 60,70, 80, 83, 90, 91, 109, 126 & 138.