Psalms 71:11

My Notes

What Does Psalms 71:11 Mean?

"Saying, God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him; for there is none to deliver him." The psalmist's enemies interpret suffering as divine abandonment — and use that interpretation as permission to attack. The logic is predatory: God has left him, so he's fair game. There's nobody to rescue him. The suffering that should provoke compassion instead provokes aggression. The vulnerable person becomes a target precisely because they're vulnerable.

The enemies' theology is the theology of Job's friends weaponized: if God has forsaken someone, that someone must deserve it, and attacking them is therefore justified. The sufferer's vulnerability becomes evidence of guilt, and guilt justifies further harm.

Reflection Questions

• 1.When have you been the vulnerable person whose suffering was interpreted as divine abandonment?
• 2.How do you respond when others are down — with compassion or with the predatory logic of the psalmist's enemies?
• 3.What does it mean that the psalmist is still praying (proof God hasn't forsaken) even while enemies claim God has?
• 4.Where have you assumed God abandoned someone because their circumstances looked bleak?

Devotional

God has forsaken him. Get him. There's nobody to save him. The enemies see the psalmist's suffering and smell blood. They interpret the absence of divine rescue as divine permission to attack. If God has abandoned this person, we can too — with impunity.

This is the most predatory form of theological reasoning: using someone's pain as proof that they deserve more pain. The person is down. God hasn't intervened. Therefore God must have withdrawn his protection. Therefore there's no risk in attacking. Therefore: persecute and take him.

The logic is cruel precisely because it has a veneer of theology. They're not just attacking a weak person. They're constructing a theological justification for it: God left him. We're just following God's lead. The suffering is the evidence. The attack is the logical conclusion.

This happens constantly. The person going through a hard season gets avoided rather than supported because people assume the difficulty means divine disfavor. The ministry that struggles gets abandoned by partners who interpret the struggle as a sign God has moved on. The individual whose life falls apart gets blamed and isolated rather than surrounded and strengthened.

The psalmist's enemies are wrong on every count. God hasn't forsaken him (the psalm itself is proof — he's still praying). There IS someone to deliver (God, to whom the prayer is directed). And the enemies' attack isn't justice — it's exploitation of vulnerability.

When you see someone suffering, the question isn't: has God forsaken them? The question is: will I?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture