to prop (literally or figuratively) · verb, niphal perfect, 1st person common singular
womb
מִבֶּ֗טֶןmi.Be.ten
H990
the belly · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
took
גוֹזִ֑יgo.Zi
H1491
to cut off · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
mother’s
אִ֭מִּי'I.mi
H517
a mother (as the bond of the family) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
bowels
מִמְּעֵ֣יmi.me.'Ei
H4578
used only in plural the intestines · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
praise
תְהִלָּתִ֣יte.hi.la.Ti
H8416
laudation · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
continually
תָמִֽידta.Mid
H8548
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet…
Psalms 22:9-10 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
Psalms 139:15-16 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Galatians 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
Isaiah 49:1 Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made…
Isaiah 46:3-4 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from…
Isaiah 49:5 And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shal…
Psalms 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 71:1-13
Two things in general David here prays for - that he might not be confounded and that his enemies and persecutors might be confounded.
I. He prays that he might never be made ashamed of his dependence upon God nor disappointed in his believing expectations from him. With this petition every true believer may come boldly to the throne of grace; for God will never disappoint the hope that is of his own raising. Now observe here,
1. How David professes his confidence in God, and with what pleasure and grateful variety of expression he repeats his profession of that confidence, still presenting the profession of it to God and pleading it with him. We praise God, and so please him, by telling him…
By thee have I been holden up from the womb,.... Supported in being, upheld in life, and sustained with food and raiment, and followed with the mercies and blessings of life from thence to this present moment; which the psalmist takes notice of, as he does of what goes before and follows after, to encourage his faith and hope in God as to present deliverance;
thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels; See Gill on Psalm 22:9; the Syriac version is, "thou art my hope from my mother's bowels"; the Arabic version, "thou art my helper"; and the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "thou art my protector"; the word is only used here, and in Psalm 90:10; and is there rendered "cut off";…
Psalm 71:5-8
5. For thou art my expectation, [or hope,] O Lord Jehovah! My trust from my youth. 6. Upon thee have I leaned [or have I been sustained] from the womb: [103] thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise is continually of thee. 7. I have been as a prodigy to the great ones, [104] and yet [105] thou art my strong confidence. 8. My mouth shall be filled with thy praise and with thy glory daily.
5. For thou art my expectation, O Lord Jehovah! The Psalmist here repeats what he had said a little before concerning his trust or confidence. But some, perhaps, may be inclined to refer this sentence rather to the matter or ground afforded him for hope and confidence than…
The Church Fathers
Lastly, there follows the reason why I say this: "for You are my patience" [Psalm 71:5]. Now if He is patience rightly, He is that also which follows, "O Lord, my hope from my youth." My patience, because my hope: or rather my hope, because my patience. "Tribulation," says the Apostle, "works patience, patience probation, but probation hope, but hope confounds not." [Romans 5:3-5] With reason in You I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting. "O Lord, my hope from my youth." From your youth is God your hope? Is He not also from your boyhood, and from your infancy? Certainly, says he. For see what follows, that you may not think that I have said this, "my hope from my youth," as if God noways profited mine infancy or my boyhood; hear what follows: "In You I have been strengthened from the womb." Hear yet: "From the belly of my mother You are my Protector" [Psalm 71:6]. Why then, "from my youth," except it was the period from which I began to hope in You? For before in You I was not hoping, though You were my Protector, that led me safe unto the time, when I learned to hope in You. But from my youth I began in You to hope, from the time when You armed me against the Devil, so that in the girding of Your host being armed with Your faith, love, hope, and the rest of Your gifts, I waged conflict against Your invisible enemies, and heard from the Apostle, "There is not for us a wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers," etc. [Ephesians 5:12] There a young man it is that does fight against these things: but though he be a young man, he falls, unless He be the hope of Him to whom he cries, "O Lord, my hope from my youth." "In You is my singing always." Is it only from the time when I began to hope in You until now? Nay, but "alway." What is, "alway"? Not only in the time of faith, but also in the time of sight. For now, "So long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord: for by faith we walk, not by sight:" [2 Corinthians 5:6] there will be a time when we shall see that which being not seen we believe: but when that has been seen which we believe, we shall rejoice: but when that has been seen which they believed not, ungodly men shall be confounded. Then will come the substance whereof there is now the hope. But, "Hope which is seen is not hope. But if that which we see not we hope for, through patience…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Praise · Is due to God on account of: Constant preservation — Is due to God on account of: Constant preservation
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Stayed upon Jahve, his ground of trust, from early childhood up, the poet hopes and prays for deliverance out of the hand of the foe. The first of these two strophes (Psa 71:1-3) is taken from Psa 31:2-4, the second (Psa 71:4-6, with the exception of Psa 71:4 and Psa 71:6) from Psa 22:10-11; both, however, in comparison with Psa 70:1-5 exhibit the far more encroaching variations of a poet who reproduces the language of others with a freer hand. Olshausen wishes to read מעוז in Psa 71:3, Psa 90:1; Psa 91:9, instead of מעון, which he holds to be an error in writing. But this old Mosaic, Deuteronomial word (vid., on Psa 90:1) - cf. the post-biblical oath המעון (by the Temple!) - is unassailable…
The psalmist has trusted God throughout his life (see 22:9).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 71:6
By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.
By thee have I been holden up from the womb. Before he was able to understand the power which preserved him, he was sustained by it. God knows us before we know anything. The elect of old lay in the bosom of God before they were laid on their mothers' bosoms; and when their infantile weakness had no feet strong enough to carry it, the Lord upheld it. We do well to reflect upon divine goodness to us in childhood, for it is full of food for gratitude. Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels. Even before conscious life, the care of God is over his…
