Psalms 70:1-5

Psalms 42:72

Gordon Churchyard

Words in boxes are from the Bible.

Words marked with a *star are described in the word list at the end.

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Help to Remember

Psalms 70

Jesus said, "Do this to remember me". (Luke 22:19) (These are words that Jesus said when he ate supper the last time with his friends.)

Psalms 70

(This is) for the (music) leader.
(It is) a psalm of David, to give him help to remember.

v1 God, save me!
*LORD, hurry to give me help.

v2 There are people that want to kill me.
I hope that they will become ashamed and confused.
There are people that want to destroy me.
I hope that everyone will say that they are bad people.

v3 I want all those people that say to me "*Aha! Aha!"
to become very sorry for what they have done.

v4 I want everyone looking for you to be happy, very happy.
I want everyone that loves it when you save them to say, "*Praise God".

v5 But I am poor and I need help.
God, hurry to give me help.
You are my help, and you save me.
God, do not be long!

The Story of Psalms 70

If you read Psalms 40:13-17 you will find that it is *like Psalms 70. There are very few differences. Why do these words come twice in our Bibles? If you look at Psalms 35:4; Psalms 35:21; Psalms 35:26 and 27 you will find that most of Psalms 70 is there also. It really comes three times! Perhaps the word "remember" at the top gives us help. David thought that it was important to remember the words of Psalms 70, because he was often in danger. Perhaps he used them when he was not thanking God for an answer to his *prayer (as in Psalms 40). There are two other examples of psalms coming twice or three times: Psalms 14 and 53; and Psalms 57; Psalms 60 and 108.

In the New Testament also we find words repeated. Many of the stories of Jesus come more than once. The Feeding of 5000 People comes 4 times! *Saint Paul also said, "To write the same things to you... is safe" (Philippians 3:1). When things come more than once it means that God wants us to remember them in a special way.

What Psalms 70 means

Verse 1: David asks God for help soon, because (verse 2) an enemy is going to kill him.

Verse 3: The enemy thinks that he has beaten David, so the enemy says, "*Aha! Aha!" These are not really words, but sounds that people make when they think, "I have won the fight!"

Verse 5: David remembers again that he needs help from God.

Something to do

Read Psalms 40:13 - 17 and Psalms 70 and find where they are not the same. Do the differences change what it means?

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level A (1200 words)

July 2001

LORD ~ a special name for God; only his people use it (look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).
lord ~ someone with authority (with a capital L a name for God, look after Psalm 25 in Psalms 1-41).'aha/aha! ~ something that people say when they think that they are right (and others are wrong).
praise ~ (noun, or being something) words that say that someone or something is very good.
praise ~ (verb, or doing something) say that someone or something is very good.
like ~ another word for ‘as’.
prayer ~ words that you say when you *pray.
saints ~ another name for God’s people, or Christians.'