Psalm 71

 ¹In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame.

²Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;

Incline Your ear to me, and save me.

³Be my strong refuge,

To which I may resort continually;

You have given the commandment to save me,

For You are my rock and my fortress.

⁴Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,

Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

⁵For You are my hope, O Lord God;

You are my trust from my youth.

⁶By You I have been upheld from birth;

You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.

My praise shall be continually of You.

⁷I have become as a wonder to many,

But You are my strong refuge.

⁸Let my mouth be filled with Your praise

And with Your glory all the day.

⁹Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

¹⁰For my enemies speak against me;

And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,

¹¹Saying, “God has forsaken him;

Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

¹²O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³Let them be confounded and consumed

Who are adversaries of my life;

Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor

Who seek my hurt.

¹⁴But I will hope continually,

And will praise You yet more and more.

¹⁵My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness

And Your salvation all the day,

For I do not know their limits.

¹⁶I will go in the strength of the Lord God;

I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

¹⁷O God, You have taught me from my youth;

And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

¹⁸Now also when I am old and grayheaded,

O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your power to everyone who is to come.

¹⁹Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,

You who have done great things;

O God, who is like You?

²⁰You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,

Shall revive me again,

And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

²¹You shall increase my greatness,

And comfort me on every side.

²²Also with the lute I will praise You—

And Your faithfulness, O my God!

To You I will sing with the harp,

O Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,

And my soul, which You have redeemed.

²⁴My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;

For they are confounded,

For they are brought to shame

Who seek my hurt.

Commentary

Vs. 1 “In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame.”

Trusting in the Lord means just that trusting in the Lord! Therefore, in life, in death and everything and every circumstance in between we can be confident that we will never be put to shame as we trust in Him (Psalm 34:22; Isaiah 28:16; 45:17-19; Jer. 17:7-8; Joel 2:26-27; Rom. 9:33, 10:9-13; 1 Peter 2:6-8 etc.).

Vs. 2-3 “Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;

Incline Your ear to me, and save me.

³Be my strong refuge,

To which I may resort continually;

You have given the commandment to save me,

For You are my rock and my fortress.

David’s appeal here is given through words that God has inspired in him, words that are meant to guide and strengthen us as well, words for us all to take to heart.

For these are words that will connect us with His heart. Therefore, David’s appeal to God is based solely on God’s righteousness, that He would save him because of His Righteousness, for that is the only way to have salvation from God, that our God saves us by His Righteousness, not our own. And in this David wants more than just a deliverance from God, he wants God to continually be his strong refuge, the only one that he resorts to. Therefore, because he has placed his faith in Him, he is confident that the Lord has given the command to save him. Therefore, with his trust is in Him David declares to God that He alone is my rock and fortress.

Vs. 4 ⁴Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,

Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.

David continues his appeal, which the humble and the meek know all to well. That God would deliver him out of the hand of the wicked, and out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For in this life those who live righteously will suffer persecution and wrath at the hands of the wicked. Just as those who have a heart of compassion for others, whose hearts are always moved by empathy, gentleness, and kindness will find themselves being objects of scorn, ridicule, and abuse at the hands of the unrighteousness and cruel. For their hearts are as hard as stone, and their “tender mercies” are always cruel.

Vs. 5-6 ⁵For You are my hope, O Lord God;

You are my trust from my youth.

⁶By You I have been upheld from birth;

You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.

My praise shall be continually of You.

The familiarity, the closeness, the intimacy, the safety that David feels with God our Father, our Lord God and Savior is known by all who likewise know Him. And yet even before David knew Him, he acknowledges that God knew him. That it was He who brought him into this world, and it has been Him who has upheld him in it. Therefore, from his youth David has trusted Him and now in his elder years his praise shall still be continually of Him.

Vs. 7-8 ⁷I have become as a wonder to many,

But You are my strong refuge.

⁸Let my mouth be filled with Your praise

And with Your glory all the day.

Even though David had become a wonder to many, his faith was still in the Lord. Know then that when shallow people abandon you and cast you off, the Lord does not. Because of His faithfulness then David wanted his mouth to filled with His praise and His glory all the day. For neither his abuse and mistreatment, nor his neglect or abandonment by others would dictate what David felt in His heart towards God. That then is maturity, being able to see beyond ones present to one’s future!

Vs. 9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

In looking forward David still has to face his own fears here and now, and one of them was growing old, that time of life when we are most vulnerable, when we become more and more dependent. For having already experienced abandonment by others, David knows that people cannot be relied upon, therefore he prays that God would not cast him off in the time of old age, during that time of life when one’s strength fails, when one can no longer pick oneself up. His prayer here is deeping his trust in God.

Vs. 10-11 ¹⁰For my enemies speak against me;

And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,

¹¹Saying, “God has forsaken him;

Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

Even though David knew his future, David’s here and now was his reality as well. For his enemies were speaking against him, and those who were seeking his life were becoming more and more emboldened, for as their numbers multiplied, and people were turning against David, they began saying amongst themselves, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

Vs. 12-13 ¹²O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

¹³Let them be confounded and consumed

Who are adversaries of my life;

Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor

Who seek my hurt.

Therefore, David turns to God and asks that He make haste and help him, that He be the One who confuses and confounds his enemies, so that they all be confounded and consumed together, that the Lord be the One to cover them all with reproach and dishonor who are seeking to hurt him.

Vs. 14-16 ¹⁴But I will hope continually,

And will praise You yet more and more.

¹⁵My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness

And Your salvation all the day,

For I do not know their limits.

¹⁶I will go in the strength of the Lord God;

I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

With every declaration of distress and despair, with every request for deliverance from his enemies, David once again follows them up with words of faith. For I will hope continually and will praise You more and more, is not the declaration of one who stands at the edge of defeat, but of victory! Therefore, as he says:

“My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness

And Your salvation all the day,

For I do not know their limits.”

Therefore in encouraging himself, David now says that he will go in strength of the Lord God, that is he will face his circumstances head on by His Strength, and in doing so he will make mention of the Lord’s righteousness, of His only. This then is a theme throughout this Psalm (vs. 2, 15, 16, 19, 24) and David’s own life (Psalm 5:8; 31:1; 35:24, 28; 36:6, 10; 40:10; 51:14; 72:1; 88:12; 89:16; 119:140, 142; 143:1, 11; 145:7), of trusting and declaring the Lord’s own proven Character. For David knew his own shortfalls, he was well aware of his own sin, therefore he was fully dependent upon God, because only a fool has confidence in himself. No where then will you ever get a sense of self righteousness emanating from him in the Book of Psalms.

Vs. 17-18 ¹⁷O God, You have taught me from my youth;

And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.

¹⁸Now also when I am old and grayheaded,

O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your power to everyone who is to come.

David now recalls God’s faithfulness towards him, how from his youth He has taught him. Guiding him through childhood and his teen years into adulthood and now old age, David has much to reflect upon. Still the angst of being forsaken by God is something that we may never grow out of, and maybe in some ways that is good. David though is not just concerned for himself, but for the generation coming up after him, therefore he wants to declare God’s strength to them, His power to everyone who is to come.

Vs. 19 “Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,

You who have done great things;

O God, who is like You?”

Not only is God’s strength and power unending, but so is His righteousness, for it is by it all that He does great things, especially towards us who believe in Him! Therefore, who is like You, O God? For it is by Your Goodness alone that we are.

Vs. 20 “You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,

Shall revive me again,

And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”

Even though God had show David great and severe troubles, David was still confident in the Lord that He would revive Him again. That He would bring him up from the depths of earth speaks to his confidence in the Lord of His raising him from the dead with Himself.

Vs. 21-24 ²¹You shall increase my greatness,

And comfort me on every side.

²²Also with the lute I will praise You—

And Your faithfulness, O my God!

To You I will sing with the harp,

O Holy One of Israel.

²³My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,

And my soul, which You have redeemed.

²⁴My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;

For they are confounded,

For they are brought to shame

Who seek my hurt.

David’s confidence and joy in the Lord now increases greatly as he now sees a very bright future for himself with the Lord. For the Lord shall increase his greatness (far beyond this earthily sphere), and He shall comfort him on every side. This then will be the legacy of all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, David will praise Him on the lute and the harp the musical instruments as in the days of his youth, and he shall sing songs to Him, greatly rejoicing in Him both now and then. For the Lord has redeemed his soul. Therefore, David will speak of the Lord’s righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded, they are brought to shame who seek my hurt, and your as well, amen. 

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.