For critical readers, Psalm 71 has many textual and exegetical problems which have interested biblical scholars for years and which this book handles extensively with new insights. Again, using various exegetical tools, this work critically addresses two main points which, in the course of the study of this psalm, are repeated in a stereotyped fashion, namely: ‘The psalm is literarily of low worth because it is an anthology of texts taken from other parts of the Psalter’ and ‘The psalm is a prayer of a fellow being weighed down by the problems of old age’. This book methodically proves that such widely accepted judgements about the psalm are simply mistaken; that the psalm is an original literary work with a very clear structure, and that the supplicant has the problem of an impending attack from his enemies rather than that of old age. Finally, a detailed exposition of all the verses of the psalm is given in a language that is comprehensible to all.
