26 June
Bible In 365 Days 
Psalm 70-73
Psalm 70
This short psalm is a rushing sob of anxious solicitude. There is little restfulness in it. Enemies are engaged in cruel persecution and mockery. It seems as though the singer felt that the strain was becoming too much for him, and in fear lest he should be overcome he cries aloud for God to hasten to his deliverance. The faith of the singer is evident in that he cries to God, and evidently has no room in his heart to question God's ability to keep him. The only question is whether help will arrive in time.
It is not the highest type of faith which is revealed, but we are profoundly thankful to find such a song in this great book of religious poetry. Rightly or wrongly, we often come to just such places of doubt. No doubt exists either of God's ability, or of His interest in and love for us, but is He not trying us beyond the power of our endurance? He is not; but for moments of terrible tension it seems as though He were. Then here is a psalm for such days or hours. Let us take it and use it, knowing that He would far rather have in our song an expression of an honest questioning than any affectation of a confidence not possessed. Moreover, He would rather have from us such a song than silence.
Psalm 71
This is pre-eminently a song of the aged, and, like old age, it is reminiscent. The singer passes from memory to hope, and from experience to praise. No very definite division is possible. Generally speaking, it may be noticed that the first part expresses need, and is principally prayer, while the second half affirms con6dence and is principally praise.
The song opens with a prayer for deliverance (Psalms 71:1-8). This is not so much a cry out of present distress as a prayer that in the event of trouble the singer may be able to resort to God. The old man is discovered in that the first three verses are almost a direct quotation from Psalm 31, perhaps one of his own. His experience of God from birth is his confidence that he will be heard now. This leads the song on in prayer that he may still be helped in age, for he still has adversaries (Psalms 71:9-13). Here again are quotations from earlier psalms which the marginal references will aid the reader in discovering.
The singer then rises to higher levels as he tells of his confidence in God, and asks that he may be helped to declare God to the succeeding generation. The Psalm is a song of sunset, and it is full of beauty. There are storm clouds in the western sky. Some are spent, and some still threaten; but on all is a light which transfigures them.
Psalm 72
This is a great psalm of the Theocracy. Incidentally the whole perfect order is revealed. God high over all enthroned, and in all actively governing. The king, appointed by God, and gaining his guidance from God, so reigning over his own people as to succor the needy, spoil the oppressor, and secure the prosperity of the righteous; and so reigning that the beneficial influence of the kingship and kingdom are felt over all the earth. Submission to him is followed by deliverance of the poor and helpless, and universal peace and prosperity.
This is the Kingdom for which the world still waits. It is a perfect order which has never yet been established, because the ultimate rule of God has never yet been recognized and obeyed. This was surely all in the view of Jesus when He taught us to pray for the coming of the Kingdom. The One King has come, and men would not have Him to reign. Therefore, notwithstanding all the best and highest efforts of man without Him, the needy are still oppressed, and peace and prosperity are postponed. To us the song of this psalm is a prophecy of hope. We have seen the King, and we know the perfect Kingdom must come, for God cannot be defeated.
Psalm 73
The marginal reading, "Only good is God to Israel," indicates the real value of the song. Israel has no other good, and needs no other. Yet it is not always easy to realize this, and the psalmist tells how he nearly stumbled in view of the prosperity of the wicked, and how he was restored. The first half describes the perplexing vision of the prosperity of the wicked. The whole psalm was written in the light of the conviction expressed in the last half, but it describes first the things which startled and perplexed the soul. The wicked prosper in life, and death itself seems to have no terror for them. They are satisfied, and more than satisfied, and because of these things men deny the knowledge of God, and turn their feet into the way of wickedness, affirming the uselessness of right-doing to procure benefits.
The psalmist now tells the story of how he was delivered. He attempted to unravel the mystery and find out why men succeeded and were satisfied without God. It was too painful, that is, too difficult, for him. He could not solve the riddle. At least he found the true viewpoint. He went into the sanctuary of God. Then everything changed. He ceased to look at the present only. He saw the end of the wicked. A more spacious outlook, taking in the whole issue of things, corrected all the false seeming of the near vision. Yet the sanctuary was also the place where the nearest things were seen most accurately, seen, that is, in relation to the large things. Again he remembered and recognized his own wrong in misjudging God, but was able to affirm God's presence and care; and out of the consciousness the song of praise was born. To see the issue of the near is to understand the real meaning of the near, and this is ever to bring to the heart of the trusting a thanksgiving and a song.
