Psalms 71:14 - Meaning and Application

David is here filled with holy joy and praise, rising from his faith and hope in God. In verse 14, his voice changes suddenly and clearly. His fears are quiet, his hope is stronger, and his prayers have turned into thanksgiving. He is saying, in effect, “Let my enemies say what they want to push me toward despair. I will keep hoping, in every condition, even on the darkest day. I will live by hope, and I will hope until the end.”

Because we hope in One who will never fail us, our hope in him should not fail either. Then we will praise him more and more. The more others insult us, the more tightly we should hold to God. We should praise him more fully and more faithfully than before. The longer we live, the more skilled we should become at praising God, and the more we should do it. After all we have said in praise of God’s grace, there is still more to say. This subject can never be exhausted, so we should never grow tired of it.

Now notice, in these verses, how his heart is steadied in faith and hope. That is a good and precious thing.

He hopes in the power of God: “I will go in the strength of the Lord God” (Psalm 71:16). He will not sink into despair. He will stir himself up, work, and keep going forward in his duty and in his spiritual battle. He will not rely on any strength of his own, but on God’s strength alone, giving up his own claims and trusting God as the One who is fully able. He means the strength of God’s providence, that is, God’s wise care over all things, and the strength of his grace, his help that changes and supports us. We must always do God’s work in his strength, looking to him to work in us both the desire and the power to do it.

He also hopes in the promise of God: “I will make mention of your righteousness.” This means God’s faithfulness to every word he has spoken, the rightness of all his dealings, and his kindness to those who trust him. David will use this as his plea in prayer for mercy. We may also rightly think of this as pointing to the righteousness of Christ, the right standing God gives by faith, which the law and the prophets bear witness to. We must depend on God’s strength for help and on Christ’s righteousness for acceptance. “In the Lord,” Scripture says, “I have righteousness and strength” (Isaiah 45:24).

He then says what he hopes God will do for him. First, he trusts that God will not leave him in old age, but will remain the same to him until the end, as he has always been. “You have taught me from my youth” (Psalm 71:17). David gives God thanks for the good teaching and instruction he received when he was young. It is a blessed thing to be taught by God from childhood, to know the holy Scriptures early, and we should bless God for it.

Then he reflects on what he had done for God in middle age. He had declared all God’s wondrous works. Those who do not begin well when they are young should still do good when they are grown and keep passing on what they have received. We must admit that all God’s acts of kindness to us are wonderful. He is so generous to people who do not deserve it. We should make it our work to speak of those works, to honor God and help others.

Now that he is old, he asks, “Do not forsake me” (Psalm 71:18). He is old and gray-headed, leaving this world and drawing near to another. This is his earnest desire and confident hope. Those who have been taught by God from youth, and who have spent their lives honoring him, may trust that he will not leave them in old age. He will not abandon them helpless or comfortless. Instead, he can make the hard days of old age their best days.

He also plans to keep serving God in old age. He wants not only to show God’s strength from his own experience to the present generation, but also to leave his observations on record for those who come after. As long as we live, we should keep trying to glorify God and help one another. Those who have known God’s goodness longest have a special duty to use that experience for the good of others. Older disciples of Christ owe it to later generations to leave behind a serious witness to the power, joy, and benefit of religion, and to the truth of God’s promises.

He also hopes that God will revive him and raise him up from his present low and sad condition. “You who have made me see many and bitter troubles, will quicken me again” (Psalm 71:20). Even the best of God’s saints and servants sometimes go through great and bitter troubles in this world. We should see God’s hand in all the troubles of his people, and that helps make those troubles seem lighter. David does not say, “You have burdened me with trouble,” but, “You have shown me trouble,” as a gentle father shows a child the rod to keep him in awe.

Even when God’s people are brought very low, he can bring them back to life and raise them up again. Are they as good as dead? He can make them live. Are they buried, like people forgotten? He can lift them up from the depths of the earth, cheer the most discouraged spirit, and restore the most failing cause. If we rightly regard God’s hand in our troubles, we may expect deliverance in due time. Our present troubles, though great and bitter, will not stop our joyful rising from the depths of the earth. Christ himself gives witness to this. His Father let him see great and bitter troubles, but then quickened him and brought him up from the grave.

He also hopes that God will do more than deliver him from trouble. He believes God will raise his honor and joy even higher than before. “You shall not only restore me, but increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side” (Psalm 71:21). That means he expects not only to be brought back to former honor, but to have a better standing after this shock than before it. He expects comfort on every side, with nothing dark or threatening surrounding him. Sometimes God uses his people’s troubles to increase their greatness, and their light shines brighter after the cloud passes. If he uses trouble to increase their goodness, that will also increase their greatness in the end, because it adds to their glory. If he comforts them on every side, in proportion to how he has afflicted them on every side, they will have no reason to complain. When our Lord Jesus was made alive again and brought back from the depths of the earth, his greatness was increased, and he entered into the joy set before him.

He also hopes that all his enemies will be put to shame (Psalm 71:24).

He speaks with complete confidence as if it has already happened, and he celebrates it that way: “They are ashamed and disgraced who seek my hurt.” Their failure would be his honor, and their trouble would become his comfort.

Now we see how his heart grows in joy and praise, how he rejoices in hope and sings in hope, for we are saved by hope. He will speak of God’s righteousness and salvation as great things, things he knows well and deeply feels, things he wants God to receive glory for and others to know as comfort. “My mouth will tell of your righteousness and your salvation,” and again, “My tongue will speak of your righteousness all day long” (Psalm 71:15, 24). Here God’s righteousness includes much: the rightness of his character, the fairness of his rule in providence, the righteous laws he has given us, the righteous promises he calls us to trust, and the lasting righteousness his Son has brought in for our justification, that is, for making us right with God.

God’s righteousness and his salvation are joined together here. No one should try to separate them, or expect salvation without righteousness (Psalm 50:23). If we desire these two things, then we should speak of them all day, because they are never used up. David also speaks with wonder, as one amazed at the height and depth, the length and breadth, of God’s love and grace. “I know not the numbers of them” (Psalm 71:15). He cannot give a full account of God’s favors, because they are so many and so great. If he tried to count them, they would be more than the sand (Psalm 40:5), yet because they are beyond counting, he will keep speaking of them, since he always finds fresh matter in them (Psalm 71:19).

God’s righteousness is very high, and what he does for his people is very great. Put those together, and we must say, “O God, who is like you?” This is how we praise God, by admitting that his perfection and his works are beyond our understanding. They are so high that we cannot fully grasp them, and so great that we cannot fully comprehend them. They have no equal. No one in heaven or on earth is like him, no angel, no king. God is unmatched, and we do not truly praise him unless we own that.

He will also speak of God with joy and gladness (Psalm 71:22, 23). Notice how he looks at God while praising him. He praises him as a faithful God. “I will praise you, even your truth.” God makes himself known by his word, so when we praise his word and its truth, we praise him. By faith, we set our seal to this, that God is true, and in that way we praise his truth. He also praises God as the God of his covenant, the God he has accepted and claimed as his own. As in prayer, so in praise, we must look up to God as our God and honor the relationship we have with him.

He also praises him as the Holy One of Israel, Israel’s God in a special way, glorious in holiness among that people and faithful to his covenant with them. It is God’s honor that he is holy, and it is his people’s honor that he is the Holy One of Israel. David will express his joy both with his hand and with his lips. With his hand, he will use sacred music, the psaltery and the harp, in which he excelled, and he will use his best skill to help others feel God’s praise. With his lips, he will sing to God’s honor and with a desire to be accepted by him. His lips will greatly rejoice when he sings, because he knows they cannot be better used.

Yet he joins heart and voice together. “My soul shall rejoice, which you have redeemed.” Holy joy is the heart and life of thankful praise. We do not truly make music to the Lord if we sing his praise without our hearts. Lip service, however polished, is wasted in God’s worship if that is all it is. The soul must be at work, and with all that is within us we must bless his holy name, or else all that is outward means little. Redeemed people, above all others, should be joyful and thankful. The work of redemption should be celebrated in our praise more than any other work of God. The Lamb who was slain and has redeemed us to God is worthy of all blessing and praise.