Psalm 71 is David’s language when his wicked son Absalom sought to take the throne of Israel from him and to kill him (2 Samuel chapters 15-18). This period in David’s life supplied the background for many of the psalms of the Second Book (Nos. 42 to 72). But it is plain that the 71St psalm has a place in God’s Word as having to do with the history of Israel, once young and now old, and pleading to be not cast off in the time of old age.
This is the last psalm that takes up the case of the remnant as distinguished from the nation. The prayer is for deliverance out of the hands of the wicked, the unrighteous and cruel, for in the Lord Jehovah is full trust. Observe the confidence expressed in verse 3.
Verse 5 does not mean that Israel has depended upon God from the first, but that in Him only have the faithful of all times confided. That which was of God in Israel, was as a wonder to many. It will be seen that the ways of God, and not the failure and sin of David or of Israel occupy the Divine Penman of this psalm.
And now it is the old age of Israel, as of David, when this psalm was written; will God cast off in the day of weakness? The answer is in verse 20 and the remaining verses of the psalm. Well may the inspired writer say, “O God, who is like unto Thee?” (verse 19), for He will bring back again to spiritual life the dead members of the chosen nation, so that the earth shall resound with the praise of Jehovah.