Psalm 71:15

Psalm 71:15, in plain English

Your whole life—everything that comes out of you—will be dedicated to telling people about God's righteousness and salvation, even though you'll never fully understand how deep those things really are.

Why it's here

The psalmist isn't claiming expertise or complete understanding. They're saying: 'I'm going to testify to what I know, even though what I know is only the beginning of what God is.'

Who's speaking

Someone committing their remaining years to witness.

Where it sits in the story

This is what every believer is called to do—testify to what we've experienced of God's rescue and righteousness, even though we'll never exhaust the mystery.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist commits to ceaselessly declaring God's righteousness and saving acts, though acknowledging that human language cannot fully capture their vastness.

Language and setting

The phrase 'cannot know their full measure' (לֹא־אָדַע סְפָרוֹת, lo adah sefarot) is remarkable: the psalmist admits that his proclamation, while total ('all day long'), remains partial and inadequate to its subject. This is what medieval theologians called *via negativa*—the recognition that God's works exceed comprehension. The speaker's mouth overflows (verse 8), yet he remains epistemically humble.

Voice

The elderly testimonial figure, now positioning his witnessing voice as both necessary and necessarily limited—a humble realism about human capacity to articulate divine reality.

Significance

This combines the Psalmist's confidence in God's accessibility (through praise) with apophatic theology (the unspeakable transcendence of God). Paul echoes this tension ('now we see darkly,' 1 Corinthians 13:12), and it shapes the mystical theology of Gregory of Nyssa.

13May the accusers of my soul be ashamed and consumed; may those who seek my harm be covered with scorn and disgrace.

14But I will always hope and will praise You more and more.

15My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure.

16I will come in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim Your righteousness—Yours alone.

17O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds.

Read all of Psalm 71 — From youth to gray hairs, the psalmist has known God's faithfulness. Now aging and weak, he asks: do not forsake me when my strength is spent.