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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
71:4-11 Rescue Me from the Wicked Who Want to Hurt Me. The next section identifies the specific occasion for the prayer: the wicked, namely, unjust and cruel men who look for any opening to do harm to the faithful (vv. 4, 10-11). As usual in the Psalms, the term "wicked" refers to those who oppose true faith in God. The singer professes not to be in this category, but among the faithful from my youth, and prays that God will not cast him off in the time of old age. This is to remind Israel that the benefits of the covenant are not automatic but are for those who are faithful to its provisions. Hence the congregation will come to love piety, and each will yearn to have his mouth . . . filled with God's praise.
71:5-6 from my youth . . . from before my birth . . . from my mother's womb. The Israelites singing this came into the world as members of Abraham's family, the recipients of God's promises. These believers learn here to trace God's work in their lives back to the very beginning of their personal existence, before they were even born. Indeed, they even consider the faith that they articulate now to have begun then, before they could speak it. Cf. 22:9-10; 139:13-16; Luke 1:41-44.
