Psalms 71:20

20 How great tribulations, many and evil, hast thou showed to me; and thou converted, hast quickened me, and hast again-brought me again from the depths of earth. (What great troubles, many and evil, thou hast sent me! and then turned, thou hast granted me life, and hast brought me up again from the watery depths of the earth/and hast brought me up again from the grave.)

Psalms 71:20 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 71:20

[Thou], which hast showed me great and sore troubles
Or, "made [him] to see" F7; 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 following, a "Keri" and a "Cetib"; according to the "Cetib", or writing in the text, it is, "who hast showed us"; and so the Targum renders it: but according to the "Keri" in the margin, and the points, it is as we read; so it is in the Septuagint and Oriental versions, and both may be retained; for David's troubles, and those of other saints, are much the same;

shalt quicken me again;
either raise him from so great a death of afflictions, in which he seemed to be as a dead man, both by himself and others, to a more comfortable and happy state and condition, in which he might live more free from vexation and trouble: or, in a spiritual sense, quicken him, being dead and lifeless, in the exercise of grace, and discharge of duty; which is usually done by the word and ordinances, and to purpose, by the discoveries of the love of God, which excite grace, and animate to duty. And this is God's work, and may be called a quickening again in distinction from the first quickening, when dead in trespasses and sins;

and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth;
expressive of a very low estate, either of body or mind, into which he had been brought; see ( Psalms 130:1 ) ( 88:6 ) . Could the psalm be understood of Christ, this and the preceding clause might be applied to his resurrection from the dead; see ( Ephesians 4:9 ) ; and to the resurrection of the saints; on which the faith of Christ and his people is exercised,


FOOTNOTES:

F7 (wntyarh) "fecisti me videre", Vatablus, Cocceius, Gejerus; "videre et experiri fecisti nos", Michaelis.

Psalms 71:20 In-Context

18 And till into eld (age)/into oldness, and the last age; God, forsake thou not me. Till I tell thine arm, or power, to each generation that shall come. (And now in my old age, and in the last moments; O God, do not thou desert, or abandon, me. And I shall tell of thy power, or of thy might, to each generation yet to come.)
19 Till I tell (of) thy might, and thy rightfulness, God, till into the highest great deeds which thou hast done; God, who is like thee? (Yea, until I tell of thy might, or of thy power, and thy righteousness, O God; and of the greatest deeds which thou hast done! O God, who is like thee!)
20 How great tribulations, many and evil, hast thou showed to me; and thou converted, hast quickened me, and hast again-brought me again from the depths of earth. (What great troubles, many and evil, thou hast sent me! and then turned, thou hast granted me life, and hast brought me up again from the watery depths of the earth/and hast brought me up again from the grave.)
21 Thou hast multiplied thy great doing; and thou converted (and thou turned), hast comforted me.
22 For why and I shall acknowledge to thee, thou God, thy truth in the instruments of psalm; I shall sing in an harp to thee, that art the holy of Israel. (And I shall praise thee, O God, for thy faithfulness, with the instruments of song; I shall sing to thee on a harp, O Holy One of Israel.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.