Sidneian Psalms: Psalm 71 (“In Te Domini Spe-
ravi,” “On thee my trust is grounded”) MARY
SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE (1599)
Psalm 71 is typically regarded as David’s prayer to God
for deliverance from his son Absalom. The poem is
also a particularly touching appeal for aid and comfort
in old age, when previous strength, power, and social
status have been lost.
Psalm 71 opens with an emphatic statement of trust
in the Lord, and this concept recurs repeatedly
throughout the entire poem. The speaker appeals to
the Lord for freedom and justice, stressing his own
faith in God’s willingness and ability to defend him. In
God alone, the poem affi rms, the speaker fi nds stabil-
ity and safety. Subtly, he suggests his present insecure
position in the world. The speaker underscores his
lengthy relationship with God: “Since imprison’d in
my mother” (l. 19), the speaker has trusted in God.
The line recalls not just the speaker’s embryonic exis-
tence in his mother’s womb but also the transmission
of sin from mother to child, and the speaker’s own
inevitable participation in that inheritance.
Midway through the poem, the speaker has begun
to suggest his own advanced age (l. 55) and his mis-
treatment at the hands of his fellow men. His mature
years, he admits, have left him bereft of any other com-
fort or strength besides that which he fi nds in the Lord.
Deprived of almost every worldly good, then, he pleads
that the Lord not abandon him as well. Because his
earthly enemies have gathered against him, he can turn
to no one but the Lord. The speaker hopes that his
enemies’ own spite and hate will work against them,
destroying them from within; since the speaker places
his own hopes in the hands of God, though, he ulti-
mately sees his age as an advantage rather than a weak-
ness. His snowy head bears witness to his years—time
in which he may demonstrate the power and might of
the Lord to the ages and every other living person. He
acknowledges that while he may have experienced
great sorrow and woe, God’s power may again revive
and exalt him. The psalm ends with the speaker’s
promise to continue raising his voice in song and
music; with that harmony, he implies, his enemies will
be vanquished.
See also HERBERT, MARY SIDNEY; SIDNEAN PSALMS
(OVERVIEW).
Winter ElliottSidneian Psalms: Psalm 120 (“Ad Dominum,”
“As to th’Eternal often in anguishes”) MARY
SIDNEY HERBERT, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE (1599)
MARY SIDNEY HERBERT modeled Psalm 120 on her com-
posite readings of multiple translated versions of the
Psalms. Written in unrhymed quantitative meter,
Psalm 120 showcases her attention to poetic variety
and allows her to experiment with a verse form that
her brother, SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, had also attempted to
utilize in his psalm paraphrases.
Herbert identifi es the speaker of Psalm 120 as a Bab-
ylonian exile rather than David, King of the Israelites.
In the fi rst four lines of the poem, the anguished psalm-
ist describes how he has repeatedly called out for God
without ever receiving an answer. In the second STANZA,
the speaker entreats God to help him recognize elo-
quent but treasonous language for what it is. What
good, the speaker asks in the third stanza, results from
wronging, forgery, and deceit?
Stanza 4 is crafted of an elegant series of similes that
build upon one another:Though like an arrow strongly delivered
It deeply pierce, though like to Juniper
It coales doe cast, which quickly fi red,
Flame very hott, very hardly quenching?
(ll. 13–16)The words of the “fi lthy forgers” described in stanzas
2 and 3 pierce deeply and burn fast like juniper—a
highly fl ammable wood.
The poem’s fi nal two stanzas heighten the psalmist’s
exilic, nomadic lifestyle. The psalmist has lived in
Kedar and Mesech, lands in Arabia and Asia Minor, far
from his homeland. During his exile, he frequently has
lived in a tent or a “howslesse harbour” (l. 20). For too
long, he concludes, he has led a nomadic lifestyle.
“With frendly peaces furious enemies” (l. 22) he has
dwelled—that is, he has lived with furious enemies in
times of peace, and he fi nds that when he calls them to406 SIDNEIAN PSALMS: PSALM 71