Psalm 71:21

Psalm 71:21, in plain English

God will restore your dignity and bring you comfort after all this suffering—you're not going to stay broken. The psalmist is declaring that his difficult season won't be permanent; honor and consolation are coming.

Why it's here

The writer has spent the entire psalm pouring out his pain to God—enemies are hunting him, his body is failing him, people are mocking him. But here's where his tone shifts. He's moved from desperate plea to confident declaration, speaking as though he can already see what God is about to do. This is the turning point where faith takes hold.

Who's speaking

An older man (likely David, given the personal details throughout) who has suffered relentlessly but hasn't abandoned his trust in God, now speaking with the certainty of someone who knows God keeps His promises.

Where it sits in the story

This echoes the pattern you see throughout Scripture—God humbles His people, allows them to be brought low, but then restores them with even greater honor. Think of Job getting back more than he lost, or David being hunted by Saul but eventually becoming king. The comfort God gives isn't just emotional relief; it's the deep peace of being vindicated and restored.

The scholarly reading

God will restore the psalmist's dignity and provide comfort after a season of affliction and social disgrace. This represents the reversal of fortunes that the petitioner has been requesting throughout the psalm.

Language and setting

The psalmist, having endured prolonged suffering and accusations from enemies, anticipates divine vindication. In the ancient Near Eastern social context, honor (kabod in Hebrew, carrying the sense of weightiness and prominence) was not merely internal dignity but public standing—one's reputation in the community. The promise of increased honor signals not just personal restoration but the public acknowledgment that the sufferer has been vindicated before witnesses.

Voice

The aging psalmist, likely composed in a context of legal or social persecution, speaks this as a confident assertion of what God will accomplish—moving from petition (earlier in the psalm) to declaration of anticipated divine action.

Significance

This anticipation of vindication echoes the pattern found throughout the Psalter where the righteous sufferer experiences reversal: the exaltation of the humble (as in Hannah's song, 1 Samuel 2) and the eventual triumph of God's justice. It prefigures Christ's resurrection as the ultimate vindication of the innocent sufferer unjustly condemned.

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.

23When I sing praise to You my lips will shout for joy, along with my soul, which You have redeemed.

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.