Psalm 71 – In Old Age, Do Not Forsake Me

TEXT (Hebrew text at the end)

1. I take refuge in you, O LORD, may I never be disgraced.

2. In Your righteousness, save me and rescue me; incline Your ear to me and deliver me.

3. Be for me a sheltering boulder to which I may always come; You ordained my deliverance, for You are my rock and my fortress.

4. My God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked, from the grip of the unjust and the violent.

5. For You are my hope, O Lord; O LORD, my reliance from my youth.

6. In utero, I was dependent on You; it is You who brought me out from my mother’s womb; I sing Your praises always.

7. I have become, as it were, an exemplar for many, for You are my mighty refuge.

8. My mouth is full of Your praise; all the day, Your glorification.

9. Do not cast me off in time of old age; when my strength ends, do not forsake me!

10. For my enemies speak against me; those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,

11. speaking: “God has forsaken him; pursue and catch him, for there is no one who saves!’’

12. O God, do not be far from me; my God, hasten to my aid!

13. Let those who despise my life end in disgrace; let them be clothed in reproach and shame, those who seek my harm!

14. As for me, I shall always hope and add to all Your praises.

15. My mouth recounts Your righteousness, Your deliverance all the day, though I know not how to count it.

16. I come with praise of Your mighty acts, O Lord; LORD, I make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.

17. You have taught me, God, from my youth, and until now I have proclaimed Your wondrous deeds,

18. and even until hoary old age, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim Your strength1 to the next generation, Your might, to all who are to come,

19. Your righteousness, O God, is as high as the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You!

20. Having shown me much harm and trouble, You will again revive me; from the depths of the earth, again raise me up.

21. You will grant me much greatness, You will turn to comfort me.

22. Then I will acclaim You―Your faithfulness―with the lyre, O my God; I will sing a hymn to You with a harp, O Holy One of Israel.

23. My lips shall be jubilant, as I sing a hymn to You, [with] my life, that You have redeemed.

24. My tongue as well shall recite Your righteousness all the day; how disgracefully abashed are those who seek my harm!

Note

1. Literally, “arm.”

COMMENTARY

Unrelentingly individual, Psalm 71 cries the cry of aging.

Style and Structure

Despite use of phrases, sentences, and even sections found elsewhere in Psalms (the researcher Culley calculates that this accounts for 36 percent of the text), Psalm 71 has both its own central subject and well thought out structure. (The indefinite dating of most psalms makes it difficult to determine who borrowed from whom, or whether both uses are based on another, unknown precedent.)

Repetitions are frequent (as reflected in the translation), but the poet chooses to place many of these close to one another, giving a binding aesthetic to the psalm. (See “Additional Notes” for a listing.) The poet’s use of consecutive terms to communicate one idea (hendiadys: see “Additional Notes” for a listing) achieves the same effect. Repetitions are also used to approximate a refrain, to form an inclusion, and to create an echoing concentration on youth, old age, and forsakenness. All these I detail below. Moreover, certain repetitions reinforce the tone of the poem, terms such as “refuge,” “save,” “always,” and “all the day.”

The outstanding feature of Psalm 71 is its division of the psalm into two sections, form and content reinforcing one another: verses 1–13 the request and verses 14–24 the praise. (Each section integrates the other focus to a small degree.) The two end similarly, with term repetitions that almost form a refrain—“seek,” “harm,” and “disgrace,” with an additional word play, “reproach” (ch-r-p, v. 13) and abashed (ch-p-r, v. 24). Further, “my life” of verse 13 is repeated in verse 23. (Two terms, “disgrace” and “righteousness,” form the inclusio of the entire poem.)

The two halves are almost equal (101 and 102 words), highlighting the first word of the second half, “As for me.” This term is indeed somewhat awkwardly placed, since it usually implies the speaker’s situation as opposed to that of others, but here implies instead a change in the way he is speaking. The equal division also highlights a set of two terms equidistant from the center (in fact, one-third of the psalm from the beginning and one-third from end): in old age, do not forsake me (vv. 9 and 18). This is the primary concern of the speaker.

The Tragedy of Old Age

The speaker’s focus on old age is apparent from more than the structure. There are age references throughout. Although the psalm opens, as do many, with anxiety about the wicked and their intentions, verses 5–8 begin to integrate the element of passing years by recalling past relationships.

The import of the age reference becomes clear in the next verse. Verse 9 is shocking. Certainly age has always been accompanied by fears of uselessness, bodily failure, and the inability to survive, or to survive well. Here the address is to God and the wretchedness comes not only from a lack security vis-à-vis one’s place in this world, but also the feeling of no longer being of concern to God! This speaker is as much as asking whether God cares at all about anyone whose “time is past.”

Furthermore, the speaker’s feebleness is attributed by his enemies to God’s abandonment, and the speaker concurs (vv. 11, 12)! Unlike any other psalm, the speaker here pigeonholes his enemies’ possible ascendance within the framework of his advanced years.

In this light, even the second section, which is mostly praise, takes on a markedly melancholy tone, as his only repeated request is not to be abandoned. These isolated comments in verses 17 and 18 anchor the section, a desperate plea that the speaker not have outlasted his usefulness and that he, once a fine example of God’s work in this world (v. 7), might yet teach others (v. 18) and praise God. Through music, song, hymn, jubilation, and recitation, the speaker seems to foresee in the last three verses a recaptured rush of the enthusiasm and facility of youth.

This second half, then, reads as joy or heartbreak, depending on how the reader senses what lies ahead. On the surface, of course, the speaker finds great confidence in the past, and on that level all his life is a testimony that God will answer this prayer as well. The context, however, arises from change having taken place. Even with the last three verses’ determination to praise, the reader is hard put to be optimistic about the speaker’s immediate future. Lingering in the air is the echo of the identical last phrase in both halves: “those who seek my harm.”

* * * * * * * *

Additional Notes

1. Details of Style

I note the following repeated terms, in order of appearance, which come in close proximity: “rescue,” “deliver,” “praise,” “end,” “forsake,” “speak,” “recount” (= “count”), “come,” “righteousness” (three times in proximity), “might,” “until,” “relate,” “much,” “again,” and “sing a hymn.” “God” is also repeated in verses 11–12, 17–18, and 19.

The author also has a strong tendency to use hendiadys, and frequently also places two verbs consecutively. Among these are, by verse order: “save me and rescue me;” “my rock and my fortress”; “the unjust and the violent”; “end in disgrace” (v. 13 – literally “be disgraced, end”); “reproach and shame”; “hoary old age” (v. 18 – literally, “old age and age of white hair”); “again revive me” and “again raise me up” (v. 20 – “literally “return, give life” and “return, raise me up”); “come round to comfort me” (v. 21 – literally, “come round, comfort me”); “are shamefully abashed” (v. 24, literally, “are shamed, are abashed”).

2. Half a Psalm?

Two connections demand attention. Both seem to emanate from the fact that Psalm 71 has no title, uniquely so within the second book (division) of Psalms (with the exception of Psalm 43, widely accepted to be part of Psalm 42!).

In the Dead Sea scrolls, Psalm 71 appears in one instance as a direct, uninterrupted continuation of Psalm 38. Whereas there is some shared wording (“all the day,” “seekers of…my harm,” “hasten”) these are not unusually plentiful, and the only truly impressive parallel is to 38:22, “Do not forsake me O LORD; my God, be not far from me” (see Ps. 71:11, 12). I do note, however, that read as a unit, the combined text takes on particular strength because Psalm 38 deals with abandonment, which the combination reframes as the abandonment of old age.

It is more common to find Psalm 71 attached to its predecessor, Psalm 70. In commenting on Psalm 70, I explained why I do not conclude that the two are a single unit. However, I note here the arguments of those (including several medieval commentators) who do so conclude. (Recall that our division among psalms is uncertain, and that we know there were different traditions, so the question is a legitimate one.) These two psalms appear together in some manuscripts and there is a marked repetition pattern. Indeed, if Psalms 70 and 71 were a unit, the inclusio (in first two and last two verses) would be fully five terms, with a sixth possible echo (70:3, v’yikalmu, be in shame; 71:24, kawl hayom, all the day). The opening of Psalm 70 would then also enclose what would be the combined first part of the long psalm, through 71:13, with a number of echoes.

There are additional oddities in these considerations, for the two “candidates” for combination with Psalm 71, Psalms 38 and 70, share certain qualities. Both begin with the identical (unclear) term lihazkir, a term echoed in azkir, “make mention,” in 71:16. The last verse of Psalm 38 is strikingly parallel to the first and last verses of Psalm 70! All of this is testimony to how much we do not know. As I noted, Psalms 70 and 71 do present well-defined self-contained units, and Psalm 71 is particularly firmly structured as its own unit. For all these reasons and others previously stated, I have interpreted them separately, though there is room for either approach.

3. Two Other Comments

Verse 20 includes an alliterative three-word string that also rhymes, tsarot rabot vira’ot, translated above, “much harm and trouble.” Although it may just be coincidence, it has the appearance of a popular idiom.

Verse 9, transformed to the plural, became a central verse of worship on the Jewish Day of Atonement.

　

　

The author of these essays is Rabbi Benjamin Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem　and author of The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2009). This material is copyright by the author, and may not be reproduced. If you are interested in using the texts for study groups, please be in direct contact with the author, at psalmblog@gmail.com.

 

　

HEBREW TEXT

(א) בְּךָ יְהֹוָה חָסִיתִי אַל אֵבוֹשָׁה לְעוֹלָם:

(ב) בְּצִדְקָתְךָ תַּצִּילֵנִי וּתְפַלְּטֵנִי הַטֵּה אֵלַי אָזְנְךָ וְהוֹשִׁיעֵנִי:

(ג) הֱיֵה לִי לְצוּר מָעוֹן לָבוֹא תָּמִיד צִוִּיתָ לְהוֹשִׁיעֵנִי כִּי סַלְעִי וּמְצוּדָתִי אָתָּה:

(ד) אֶלֹהַי פַּלְּטֵנִי מִיַּד רָשָׁע מִכַּף מְעַוֵּל וְחוֹמֵץ:

(ה) כִּי אַתָּה תִקְוָתִי אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה מִבְטַחִי מִנְּעוּרָי:

(ו) עָלֶיךָ נִסְמַכְתִּי מִבֶּטֶן מִמְּעֵי אִמִּי אַתָּה גוֹזִי בְּךָ תְהִלָּתִי תָמִיד:

(ז) כְּמוֹפֵת הָיִיתִי לְרַבִּים וְאַתָּה מַחֲסִי עֹז:

(ח) יִמָּלֵא פִי תְּהִלָּתֶךָ כָּל הַיּוֹם תִּפְאַרְתֶּךָ:

(ט) אַל תַּשְׁלִיכֵנִי לְעֵת זִקְנָה כִּכְלוֹת כֹּחִי אַל תַּעַזְבֵנִי:

(י) כִּי אָמְרוּ אוֹיְבַי לִי וְשֹׁמְרֵי נַפְשִׁי נוֹעֲצוּ יַחְדָּו:

(יא) לֵאמֹר אֱלֹהִים עֲזָבוֹ רִדְפוּ וְתִפְשׂוּהוּ כִּי אֵין מַצִּיל:

(יב) אֱלֹהִים אַל תִּרְחַק מִמֶּנִּי אֱלֹהַי לְעֶזְרָתִי חישה {חוּשָׁה}:

(יג) יֵבֹשׁוּ יִכְלוּ שׂטְנֵי נַפְשִׁי יַעֲטוּ חֶרְפָּה וּכְלִמָּה מְבַקְשֵׁי רָעָתִי:

(יד) וַאֲנִי תָּמִיד אֲיַחֵל וְהוֹסַפְתִּי עַל כָּל תְּהִלָּתֶךָ:

(טו) פִּי יְסַפֵּר צִדְקָתֶךָ כָּל הַיּוֹם תְּשׁוּעָתֶךָ כִּי לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סְפֹרוֹת:

(טז) אָבוֹא בִּגְבֻרוֹת אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה אַזְכִּיר צִדְקָתְךָ לְבַדֶּךָ:

(יז) אֶלֹהִים לִמַּדְתַּנִי מִנְּעוּרָי וְעַד הֵנָּה אַגִּיד נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ:

(יח) וְגַם עַד זִקְנָה וְשֵׂיבָה אֱלֹהִים אַל תַּעַזְבֵנִי עַד אַגִּיד זְרוֹעֲךָ לְדוֹר לְכָל יָבוֹא גְּבוּרָתֶךָ:

(יט) וְצִדְקָתְךָ אֱלֹהִים עַד מָרוֹם אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ גְדֹלוֹת אֱלֹהִים מִי כָמוֹךָ:

(כ) אֲשֶׁר הראיתנו {הִרְאִיתַנִי} צָרוֹת רַבּוֹת וְרָעוֹת תָּשׁוּב תחינו {תְּחַיֵּנִי} וּמִתְּהֹמוֹת הָאָרֶץ תָּשׁוּב תַּעֲלֵנִי:

(כא) תֶּרֶב גְּדֻלָּתִי וְתִסֹּב תְּנַחֲמֵנִי:

(כב) גַּם אֲנִי אוֹדְךָ בִכְלִי נֶבֶל אֲמִתְּךָ אֱלֹהָי אֲזַמְּרָה לְךָ בְכִנּוֹר קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל:

(כג) תְּרַנֵּנָּה שְׂפָתַי כִּי אֲזַמְּרָה לָּךְ וְנַפְשִׁי אֲשֶׁר פָּדִיתָ:

(כד) גַּם לְשׁוֹנִי כָּל הַיּוֹם תֶּהְגֶּה צִדְקָתֶךָ כִּי בֹשׁוּ כִי חָפְרוּ מְבַקְשֵׁי רָעָתִי: