Psalms 70:5 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

But I am poor and needy - This is the same as in Psalms 40:17.

Make haste unto me, O God - Hebrew, אלהים 'Elohiym. In the parallel place in Psalms 40:17, this is, “The Lord thinketh upon me,” - where the Hebrew word is not אלהים 'Elohiym, but אדני tub ,my 'Adonāy (Lord). The word “make haste” seems to have been introduced here by design - thus carrying out the main idea in Psalms 40, but turning here to “petition” what is there stated as a “fact.”

Thou art my help and my deliverer ... - The close of the psalm is the same as the close of Psalms 40, except that the word Lord (Yahweh) is used here instead of “God” (אלהים 'Elohiym). It is not possible to ascertain whether these changes were mere matters of taste, or whether they were designed to adapt the psalm to some new circumstance, or to the special feelings of the psalmist at the time. There is no evidence that they are mere errors of transcribers, and indeed the changes are so made that this cannot be supposed. The change of the names אלהים 'Elohiym, יהוה Yahweh, and אדני 'Adonāy, for example, is such as must have been by design, and could not have been made by copyists. But what that design was must remain unknown. The alterations do not in any way, as far as we can understand, affect the sense.

Psalms 70:5

5 But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.