Psalms 70

Wesley: Make haste—this and the following verses nearly the same with Psalm 40:13–17. Deliver from enemies; he doubles the request to express vehemency. The twin petitions (deliver / help) refuse leisurely religion when danger is near.

Haste is begged because need is authentic and prayer is the appointed means. Grace that can deliver still summons urgent asking; delay on our side would be presumption.

Calvin: under sense of danger he earnestly entreats God to make haste. Although God does not always answer at the very moment we call, it is our duty to pray that he would make haste. The repetition shows intensity of desire.

Urgency in prayer does not deny providence’s timing; it confesses helplessness. Make haste is the poor saint’s cry, not unbelief.

Wesley: Shame—confusion of face; Seek—to take away life; Turned back—disappointed. Those who hunt the life and delight in hurt are asked to meet shame, not applause.

Imprecation here is petition for public check on malice. Shared seriousness—gloating over a saint’s hurt is sin God may reverse; the pray-er does not take personal revenge but asks God to confound.

Calvin: he prays that the wicked who sought his life might be put to shame. Shame and confusion are judicial, not petty spite—God’s honor and the sufferer’s safety are joined when hunters of life are turned back.

Delight in another’s hurt invites dishonor from the Judge. Common confession: both camps take the imprecation as prayer for God’s justice, not a joke.

Wesley: Aha—words of insult and triumph. The taunt is short; the shame asked for matches the sneer.

Mockery of the godly is named so prayer can be specific. Grace does not require the sufferer to pretend the gloat never happened; it invites asking God to reverse the triumph.

Calvin ties the aha to malicious joy over another’s fall—God is asked to turn the mockers back by their own shame. The Lord hears when scorn becomes a weapon.

Aha is not harmless banter. Judicial shame answers verbal cruelty; the psalm will not baptize gloating.

Wesley: Seek thee—thy favour; Continually—or, all the day. Seekers rejoice; lovers of salvation keep saying God is great.

Seeking and loving salvation are living postures. Joy and the confession “God be exalted” are the community’s answer while enemies say Aha—grace invites that praise to be spoken evermore.

Calvin: while enemies are shamed, the godly who seek God rejoice. Love of salvation issues in perpetual exaltation of God—praise is the flip side of the imprecation.

Salvation’s lovers confess greatness, not self-rescue. God is great is doxology under pressure.

Wesley: Poor—helpless and miserable; Make haste repeated in great distress; Help—my helper; Delay not. Poverty of spirit frames the last plea.

The needy may still hasten to God and name him help and deliverer. Do-not-delay is faith’s urgency, not a contract; the asker must keep coming as poor.

Calvin: he calls himself poor and needy that by confession of misery he may the more effectually move God to pity. Help and deliverer are titles of God alone; delay-not rests on that character.

Poverty confessed, not merit displayed. Hasten is begged because God is the deliverer; the saint’s emptiness is the argument.