Psalm 70-To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. For The Memorial Offering
1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord! 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life; let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!” 4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” 5 But I am poor and needy; make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; o Lord, do not delay.
“Hazkir” is found in the heading of Psalms 70. “According to the Targum, this is an indication that the psalm was sung at the sacrificial rite called askara and is translated ‘for a memorial offering.’” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary) “The memorial offering was the part of the grain offering brought to the Lord voluntarily to show devotion to Him. While most of the grain offering was given to the priests to eat, the memorial offering was burned on the altar as a pleasing aroma to The Lord. (Leviticus 2). It was not an offering to pay for sin, it as an offering of gratitude, devotion, and praise. Every week an offering was made of twelve loaves of bread and placed in the tabernacle as the showbread. Each week a portion of the grains and oil used to make those loaves was burnt as a memorial to the Lord. (Leviticus 24). These offerings, both the grain offering and the showbread were offerings which resulted in fellowship, an invitation to friendship with God and unity among His people.” (Donald Campbell) “Whole Psalm. Francke would apply the present Psalm to the state of the Christian church after the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and would put the words in the mouths of the faithful of that time. On the same ground of transferring the language adapted to Christ in Psalms 40:1-17 to the faithful in this Psalm, we need not hesitate to take them on our lips, as the language of the church in every age. I cannot but reassert my conviction of the intentional arrangement of the Psalms in the order in which we now have them, made in all probability, partially at least, at the time they were handed over to public use.” (W. Wilson)
Our memorial is the Lord’s Supper. “THIS psalm is entitled ‘A psalm to bring to remembrance’.. It served to bring to his remembrance some special deliverance— [perhaps eternal destruction]: and for a similar end it may well be used by us. We have many who would exult in our destruction, even as he had: and we may well desire that all their efforts may be frustrated, and their expectations disappointed. On the other hand, we should desire the prosperity and happiness of the Lord’s people: and be earnest with God in prayer, that we ourselves may ‘participate the felicity of his chosen, and give thanks with his inheritance.’ Our past trials and deliverances should all be brought to remembrance for this end; and be made subservient to our own advancement in the divine life, and to the glory of our God.” (Horae Homileticae)
Nothing "can prevent the humbled sinner from feeling himself to be poor and needy : hence his entire dependence upon a merciful God, and his fervent applications to him on all occasions; while the proud can only pray formally and hypocritically. (Matthew 5:3. Luke 18:9-14.) But ‘the poor in spirit’ have God for their Helper and Deliverer; and shame must be the portion of all who seek after their souls, desire their hurt, or rejoice in their calamities. Sometimes these are so ashamed as to repent and seek forgiveness : but unless this be the case, they will be treated as the enemies of Christ; because they tread in the steps of those who persecuted Him, in His poverty and humiliation; and hate His image and His cause in His poor disciples. But those who ‘seek the LORD,’ and ‘love his salvation,’ have the prayers of all the people of God on earth, and the intercession of Christ in heaven, in their behalf. Joy and gladness will therefore be vouchsafed them, and they will eternally magnify the God of their salvation.” (Thomas Scott)