Psalm 71:14
“But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
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Psalm 71 is the prayer of an older believer who has trusted God from his youth and now asks not to be cast off in old age. Verse 14 answers the taunts of enemies in the preceding verses.
What Does Psalm 71:14 Mean?
This verse is the deliberate choice of a person who refuses to let hope run dry. The single word "But" carries the whole weight of it -- the psalmist has just described enemies who say God has forsaken him, and against that accusation he plants his flag: "But I will hope continually." Hope here is not a mood that comes and goes; it is a settled decision to keep leaning on God no matter what the circumstances suggest.
Notice the upward direction in "more and more." The psalmist does not aim merely to hold steady but to increase -- to praise God with growing fullness as the years pass. This is the testimony of someone who has walked with God long enough to know His faithfulness firsthand, and who treats every new deliverance as fuel for deeper worship. The verse pairs hope and praise as two sides of one life: hope looks forward to what God will yet do, and praise looks back at what He has already done. Together they form a rhythm that can carry a believer through old age, opposition, and weakness. The point is not that troubles vanish, but that the trusting heart keeps choosing to lift its eyes and its voice.
In the Original Language
The phrase "hope continually" uses the Hebrew verb yachal, to wait expectantly, while "more and more" renders a word for adding or increasing, picturing praise that grows rather than stays the same.
Cross References
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.”
- Psalm 42:5
“Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;”
- Romans 12:12
“The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
- Lamentations 3:24
Application
When voices around you or within you say that God has given up, answer them with a deliberate choice to keep hoping and to praise Him more, not less.