Psalm 71:20

Psalm 71:20, in plain English

You've been through many troubles and hard times, but God keeps bringing you back—even when things feel like death, God is pulling you back to life.

Why it's here

The psalmist closes by acknowledging that being faithful to God doesn't mean avoiding suffering; it means being confident that suffering isn't the final word. God has proven this pattern repeatedly in their life.

Who's speaking

The same aging person, now with perspective on their whole journey.

Where it sits in the story

This is resurrection hope. Not escape from trouble, but confidence that God brings life out of death, hope out of despair. It's the gospel in miniature: God doesn't leave you in the depths; He brings you up.

The scholarly reading

The psalmist acknowledges that while God has permitted severe afflictions, he trust that God will restore him repeatedly—even lifting him from the depths of death itself.

Language and setting

The 'depths of the earth' (מְצוּלוֹת־אָרֶץ, metzulot-aretz) uses language of the grave, Sheol, the absolute nadir of human experience. Yet the psalmist asserts that God's restoration extends even here—no place lies beyond divine reach. The word 'revive' (תְחַיֵּנִי, techayeni) suggests not merely recovery but resurrection, a return to life itself. This is the psalm's most audacious claim: God's power supersedes death.

Voice

The elderly witness, now speaking from comprehensive theological confidence: his entire life, from birth to advanced age to death itself, remains within God's sovereign restorative power.

Significance

This verse became crucial for early Christian resurrection theology. Patristic commentators, especially Athanasius, saw this as prefiguring Christ's resurrection and therefore the believer's hope in resurrection to come (1 Corinthians 15). The psalm thus moves from individual lament to apocalyptic hope—the personal crisis becomes an occasion for witnessing to God's ultimate power over death itself.

18Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.

19Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You?

20Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.

21You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.

22So I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.

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.