Psalms 71:20 Meaning and Explanation
“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.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Suffering can make the future seem closed, especially when strength is fading and enemies appear confident. This prayer gives words for faith that remembers God's rule even over painful seasons and waits for his restoring power. Its hope reaches deeper than a request for immediate relief, because the psalmist looks to God for renewed life after he has been brought very low.
The psalmist remembers that God has allowed him to pass through severe trouble and confesses confidence that the same God will restore his life, raising him from his lowest condition.
The Context of Psalms 71:20
Psalm 71 is the prayer of one who has trusted the LORD from youth and now seeks help in old age. He asks for rescue from hostile people who say that God has forsaken him. In verses 14 through 19, his plea is joined to determined praise: he will hope continually, speak of God's righteousness, and declare God's power to the coming generation. Verse 20 stands at the turning point from remembered affliction to expected renewal. Verse 21 continues that expectation with increased greatness and comfort, and the psalm closes with music, rejoicing, and public praise for God's redemption.
What Does Psalms 71:20 Mean?
The speaker addresses God directly: "Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles." He does not deny the severity of what he has endured. The troubles are "great," large in their weight and reach, and "sore," painful and grievous. His wording places his experience before God without pretending that faith has made suffering small. At the same time, God remains the One addressed in prayer. The psalmist sees his life under God's sovereign care, the same care he had already praised from the womb and through the years. From that remembered relationship he says, "shalt quicken me again." He expects God to give life, strength, and renewed vigor where trouble has left him diminished.
The repeated word "again" is central to the verse. God has sustained this servant before, and his past help becomes grounds for present hope. The prayer does not set a schedule or describe the precise form restoration will take. It does confess that descent is not beyond God's reach. "The depths of the earth" vividly expresses a condition of extreme lowliness, peril, and nearness to death. In the chapter, this confidence fits the psalmist's concern about old age. He asks to remain useful in declaring God's strength to another generation. His hope therefore includes restored capacity for praise and witness, as the following verses show. God can revive a life whose troubles seem to have exhausted its remaining strength.
The language also opens toward the Bible's larger hope in God's power over death. The psalmist may be speaking first of deliverance from a desperately low condition, and the wording is broad enough to carry that immediate sense. Yet bringing someone up from the depths of the earth naturally resonates with God's promised victory over the grave. That hope is fulfilled with particular clarity in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, whose death did not end his mission or silence his praise. Through him, the promise of resurrection gives lasting depth to prayers for renewal. We may bring grave fears to God while trusting that no depth, including death itself, lies outside his life-giving power.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 71:20
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”
- Psalm 138:7
“He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.”
- Psalm 40:2
“And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,”
- Ezekiel 37:13
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:22
Where Psalms 71:20 Echoes in Scripture
Ezekiel 37:13 provides a strong later echo: God promises to bring his people up from their graves and thereby make himself known to them. Ezekiel's vision addresses the restoration of Israel in a time of national hopelessness, while Psalm 71 is an individual's prayer amid personal distress and advancing age. Both passages speak of God as the One who can reverse a condition that appears final. The echo supports a resurrection-shaped reading without requiring Psalm 71 to settle every detail of its immediate fulfillment.
How to Apply Psalms 71:20 Today
When trouble has lasted a long time, prayer can honestly name its severity before God. This verse invites us to remember particular ways God has sustained us across earlier seasons, including help that came through people, provision, correction, endurance, or deliverance. Such remembrance strengthens hopeful prayer without requiring us to minimize present pain. It also makes room for those whose strength is reduced by age, illness, grief, or opposition. We can ask God to quicken us for the duties and praise still given to us today. Our hope may include earthly restoration, and it finally rests in God's power to raise the dead.
Reflection & Prayer
Where do we feel brought into a depth from which our own strength cannot lift us? We might name that place plainly before God and recall one earlier mercy that shows his faithful care. Suggested prayer: "O God, thou hast seen my trouble. Quicken me again, sustain me in this day, and teach me to praise thee with the life thou givest."