Psalms 71:20

_THOU, WHICH HAST SHEWED ME GREAT AND SORE TROUBLES, SHALT QUICKEN ME AGAIN, AND SHALT BRING ME UP AGAIN FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH._ (Thou), which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again. So the Qeri' and the ancient versions, the Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac; but the Kethibh reads, 'us ... us ... us;' and so the Chaldaic Targum. The Qeri' evidently changed the us into me, to make it accord with the first person singular going before. The transition to 'us' from "I" and "me" heretofore, shows that the application of the psalm is not limited to the individual sufferer, but extends to the whole Church, and also to the literal Israel, in affliction. Messiah, the son of David, represents the whole people. 'Quicken us' - i:e., revive us after we have been as it were dead with calamities (Hosea 6:1;...

20._Thou hast made me to see great and sore troubles. _The verb _to see _among the Hebrews, as is well known, is applied to the other senses also. Accordingly, when David complains that calamities had been _shown _to him, he means that he had suffered them. And as he attributes to God the praise of the deliverances which he had obtained, so he, on the other hand, acknowledges that whatever adversities he had endured were inflicted on him according to the counsel and will of God. But we must first consider the object which David has in view, which is to render by comparison the grace of God the more illustrious, in the way of recounting how hardly he had been dealt with. Had he always enjoyed a uniform course of prosperity, he would no doubt have had good reason to rejoice; but in that case he would not have experienced what it is to be delivered from destruction by the stupendous power o...

14-24 The psalmist declares that the righteousness of Christ, and the great salvation obtained thereby, shall be the chosen subject of his discourse. Not on a sabbath only, but on every day of the week, of the year, of his life. Not merely at stated returns of solemn devotion, but on every occasion, all the day long. Why will he always dwell on this? Because he knew not the numbers thereof. It is impossible to measure the value or the fulness of these blessings. The righteousness is unspeakable, the salvation everlasting. God will not cast off his grey-headed servants when no longer capable of labouring as they have done. The Lord often strengthens his people in their souls, when nature is sinking into decay. And it is a debt which the old disciples of Christ owe to succeeding generations, to leave behind them a solemn testimony to the advantage of religion, and the truth of God's promi...

Verse Psalms 71:20. Thou, _WHICH HAST SHOWED ME GREAT AND SORE TROUBLES_] _Multiplied straits_ and difficulties. And thou hast only _showed_ them. Hadst thou permitted them to have _fallen upon me_ with all their own energy and natural consequences, they would have destroyed me. As it was, I was nearly buried under them. _SHALT QUICKEN ME AGAIN_] Shalt revive me - put new life in me. This has been applied to the passion of our Lord, and his resurrection; for it is added, Thou _SHALT BRING ME UP AGAIN FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE EARTH._] Death shall not prey upon my body; thy Holy One can see no corruption. As applicable to David, it might mean his being almost overwhelmed with afflictions; and his deliverance was like a life from the dead....

THOU, WHICH HAST SHOWED ME GREAT AND SORE TROUBLES - Or rather, who hast caused us to see or experience great trials. The psalmist here, by a change from the singular to the plural, connects himself with his friends and followers, meaning that he had suffered with them and through them. It was not merely a personal affliction, but others connected with him had been identified with him, and his personal sorrows had been increased by the trials which had come upon them also. Our severest trials often are those which affect our friends. SHALT QUICKEN ME AGAIN - literally, “Shalt return and make us live.” The word “quicken” in the Scriptures has always this sense of “making to live again.” See the notes at John 5:21; compare Romans 4:17;...

EXPOSITION Psalms 71:1 is, like so many others, a psalm divided between complaint and praise. It is comparatively wanting in originality, being, to a very great extent, an echo of other psalms, especially Psalms 22:1, Psalms 31:1, Psalms 35:1, and Psalms 40:1. Complaint, mingled with prayer, occupies the first half (Psalms 40:1); praise and thanksgiving the second (Psa 40:14 -24). The authorship of the psalm is very doubtful, as it has no "title," and fe

[THOU], WHICH HAST SHOWED ME GREAT AND SORE TROUBLES,.... Or, "made [him] to see" g; that is, to experience. David had his troubles, and these were great, both as to quantity and quality; and very grievous and hard to be borne, and were very trying and afflictive: some outward, such as he endured when persecuted by Saul; and afterwards in his own family, though the incest of Ammon, the murder of him by Absalom, and Absalom's rebellion against him; the curses of Shimei, and the bickerings of the sons of Zeruiah; with many others: and some inward, arising from the corruptions of his heart, the hidings of God's face, and the temptations of Satan. His experience of all which he ascribes, not to instruments or second causes, but to God himself; who had either laid them upon him, or suffered them to befall him, for wise ends of his glory, and his servant's good. There is in this clause and the...

This Psalm, written by an old man, is specially suitable for an old man. It is numbered seventy-one, and it may suit those who have reached that age; but it is also appropriate to us all in prospect of the days of feebleness that will come to us, sooner or later, if we are spared to grow old. Psalms 71:1. _In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion._ «Stand by me, O Lord, for I only stand as thou upholdest me; and if thou shouldest leave me, after I have trusted in thee, what could I say or do? Therefore, O Jehovah, since I put my trust in thee, ‘let me never be put to confusion.'» Psalms 71:2. _Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape:_ «I am like a poor dove taken in a net, I cannot get away. Stretch out thine hand,

Psalms 71 Israel's Song of Hope _ 1. Declaration of trust (Psalms 71:1)_ 2. Anticipations of faith (Psalms 71:12) 3. Revival and victory (Psalms 71:19) This Psalm, which bears no inscription whatever, gives another prophetic picture of the faith and the anticipations of faith as found in the godly of Israel, when the salvation is about to come out of Zion. They look to Him who is all sufficient to deliver and to save them. The Psalm may well be called Israel's song of hope. It abounds in many beautiful, refreshing statements, equally precious to us....

LXXI. A PSALM OF GRATITUDE FOR GOD'S CONSTANT CARE OF HIS SERVANT FROM YOUTH TO OLD AGE. The Psalmist expresses himself in language borrowed from older sources. PSALMS 71:1. Quoted from Psalms 31. Use is also made of Psalms 22. But the Psalmist is a man of original power, and the Ps. has a definite character of its own. He has powerful enemies and has been brought to death's door, but he is full of trust that God, who has led him from his infancy, will lead him to the end. He is already growing old. The writer cannot be speaking in the name of Israel (see Psalms 71:9). Psalms 71:6_ c_. Read, my hope shall be continually in thee....