Psalms 71:20 — Meaning and Application

Heart Emotional Intelligence

You’re allowed to feel the weight of this verse. “Great and sore troubles” isn’t an exaggeration—it's the language of someone who has been through more than they thought they could bear. If that’s where you are, God is not offended by your exhaustion, confusion, or even your questions. This verse names the pain honestly: God has *allowed* deep suffering. But it doesn’t end there. Notice the shift: “shalt quicken me again… shalt bring me up again.” That word “again” is important. This isn’t your first valley, and God has not forgotten how to raise you. The psalmist is looking at a history of rescue and saying, “You did it before. You can do it again.” From “the depths of the earth” describes that place where you feel buried—by grief, depression, shame, or fear. The promise isn’t that you’ll crawl out by your own strength, but that God Himself will lift you. You don’t have to see how He’ll do it yet. It’s enough, for now, to whisper: “God, I am this low. Will You bring me up again?” He hears that prayer.

Mind Theological Wisdom

In Psalm 71:20, the psalmist holds two seemingly opposite realities together: “You have shown me great and sore troubles” and “You shall quicken me again.” He does not soften the language of suffering—“great and sore” acknowledges deep, prolonged affliction. Notice he ascribes even these troubles to God’s sovereign hand: “You who have shown me…” Not that God is cruel, but that nothing in his pain is outside God’s wise, fatherly rule. “Quicken me again” is resurrection language. In Hebrew, it pictures being made alive where life has ebbed away. “From the depths of the earth” may describe extreme humiliation, near death, or the grave itself. Either way, the psalmist looks beyond present darkness to God’s power to reverse his condition completely. For you, this verse teaches that God’s past allowance of suffering does not cancel his future purpose to restore. The same God who led you through “great and sore troubles” reserves the right to write the last chapter. In Christ, this hope is intensified: even if your path goes down to literal death, you are not beyond the reach of the God who raises the dead and brings his people up “from the depths” into renewed life.

Life Practical Living

You need this verse when life has knocked the breath out of you—marriage strain, a prodigal child, job loss, betrayal, or a failure you can’t undo. The psalmist is realistic: “great and sore troubles” are not accidents; God has *shown* them to him. That means your pain is not random or unseen. It’s on God’s radar. But don’t miss the second half: “Thou…shalt quicken me again.” That is resurrection language in everyday life. God doesn’t just watch you suffer; He plans a “again” for you—strength again, joy again, purpose again. Practically, this means: - Don’t make permanent decisions in temporary depths. God is not done writing. - Pray with expectation, not just survival: “Lord, don’t only get me through this—revive me in this.” - Look for where He wants to grow your character: humility, patience, dependence, wisdom. - Take one obedient step in each key area: one honest conversation, one act of integrity at work, one moment of restraint in conflict, one wise financial choice. You may feel buried, but in God’s hands, “depths of the earth” is not your grave; it’s the soil He uses to grow you and raise you.

Soul Eternal Perspective

You have walked through shadows that felt like the end of your story. This verse names that reality without denial: God Himself has “shown” you great and sore troubles. Your pain is not an accident unnoticed in heaven; it is something God has allowed into your path and woven into your eternal narrative. But notice the movement: the same God who led you into deep waters pledges to “quicken” you again—to make you alive where you feel dead, numb, or buried. “From the depths of the earth” is the language of the grave, of finality. Yet for the child of God, even the grave is only a passage, never a destination. This is resurrection language, both for your present and your eternity. What you call “over” God calls “seed”—sown in tears, raised in glory. The parts of your story that feel most irreparable are precisely where He intends to display His power to raise, restore, and renew. Bring Him your “depths” honestly. Do not edit your despair. Hold this verse like a promise: the God who permitted your troubles will not abandon you in them. He intends to bring you up again. Eternity guarantees it; faith receives it now.