You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
Parallel Translations
-
You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
-
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.
-
Thou, who hast made me to see many and sore troubles, wilt quicken me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to Psalms 71:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 138:7 Though I walk in the middle of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand will save me.
- Hosea 6:1-2 “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.
- Psalms 60:3 You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
- Psalms 86:13 For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
- Ezekiel 37:12-13 Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. You will know that I am Yahweh, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people.
- Psalms 40:1-3 I waited patiently for Yahweh. He turned to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, and gave me a firm place to stand. He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.
- Psalms 80:18 So we will not turn away from you. Revive us, and we will call on your name.
- Psalms 119:25 My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!
- Jonah 2:6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, Yahweh my God.
- Psalms 16:10 For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
- Psalms 88:6-18 You have laid me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape. My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you. Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Is your loving kindness declared in the grave? Or your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders made known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you. Yahweh, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off. They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me. You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness.
- Isaiah 26:19 Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.
- 2 Samuel 12:11 “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
- Psalms 66:10-12 For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined. You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs. You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance.
- Psalms 85:6 Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?
- Isaiah 38:17 Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
- Mark 14:33-34 He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch.”
- Mark 15:34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
- Acts 2:24 whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it.
- Ephesians 4:9 Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
- Revelation 7:14 I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb’s blood.
- Acts 2:32-34 This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand
- 2 Corinthians 11:23-31 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forever more, knows that I don’t lie.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 20. Thou hast made me to see great and…
20. Thou hast made me to see great and sore troubles. The verb to see among the Hebrews, as is well known, is applied to the other senses also. Accordingly, when David complains that calamities had been shown to him, he means that he had suffered them. And as he attributes to God the praise of the deliverances which he had obtained, so he, on the other hand, acknowledges that whatever adversities he had endured were inflicted on him according to the counsel and will of God. But we must first consider the object which David has in view, which is to render by comparison the grace of God the more illustrious, in the way of recounting how hardly he had been dealt with. Had he always enjoyed a uniform course of prosperity, he would no doubt have had good reason to rejoice; but in that case he would not have experienced what it is to be delivered from destruction by the stupendous power of God. We must be brought down even to the gates of death before God can be seen to be our deliverer. As we are born without thought and understanding, our minds, during the earlier part of our life, are not sufficiently impressed with a sense of the Author of our existence; but when God comes to our help, as we are lying in a state of despair, this resurrection is to us a bright mirror from which is seen reflected his grace. In this way David amplifies the goodness of God, declaring, that though plunged in a bottomless abyss, he was nevertheless drawn out by the divine hand, and restored to the light. And he boasts not only of having been preserved perfectly safe by the grace of God, but of having also been advanced to higher honor — a change which was, as it were, the crowning of his restoration, and was as if he had been lifted out of hell, even up to heaven. What he repeats the third time, with respect to God’s turning, goes to the commendation of Divine Providence; the idea which he intends to be conveyed being, that no adversity happened to him by chance, as was evident from the fact that his condition was reversed as soon as the favor of God shone upon him.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain As he confesseth that God is the only author…
As he confesseth that God is the only author of his deliverance: so he acknowledgeth that these evils were sent unto him by God’s providence.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and…
Psa 71:20 [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.
Ver. 20. Thou which hast showed me great and sore troubles] Angustias magnas et malas, and hast thereby taught me, Psa 71:17, Quae nocent, docent.
Read full note →
Shall quicken me again] And this is one singular height of thy righteousness, that thou carriest tby people through so many deaths, and causest them to ascend from the lowest ebb of affliction to the highest pitch of comfort. Stoics ascribe such occurrences to fate, epicures to fortune, but David to God alone.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain i.e. From the grave; for I was like one…
i.e. From the grave; for I was like one dead and buried, and past all hope of deliverance, without thy almighty assistance.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles,....…
Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles,.... Or, "made him to see" (g); 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;
Read full note →
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 Psa 130:1. Could the psalm be understood of Christ, this and the preceding clause might be applied to his resurrection from the dead; see Eph 4:9; and to the resurrection of the saints; on which the faith of Christ and his people is exercised,
(g) "fecisti me videre", Vatablus, Cocceius, Gejerus; "videre et experiri fecisti nos", Michaelis.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Bring me - From the grave.
Bring me - From the grave.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. Thou, which hast showed me great and…
Verse 20. Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles] Multiplied straits and difficulties. And thou hast only showed them. Hadst thou permitted them to have fallen upon me with all their own energy and natural consequences, they would have destroyed me. As it was, I was nearly buried under them.
Shalt quicken me again] Shalt revive me - put new life in me. This has been applied to the passion of our Lord, and his resurrection; for it is added, Thou
Read full note →
Shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.] Death shall not prey upon my body; thy Holy One can see no corruption. As applicable to David, it might mean his being almost overwhelmed with afflictions; and his deliverance was like a life from the dead.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 71:20-21. Thou, who hast showed me great and…
Psa 71:20-21. Thou, who hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again — I never was in such straits and distresses, (and yet I have been in such as were very great and sore,) but I found relief in thee; and therefore I doubt not but thou wilt now revive and restore me, though all men give me up for lost. And shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth — That is, from the grave; for I am like one dead and buried, and past all hope of deliverance, without thy almighty help. Or, rather, it is an allusion to men who are fallen into a deep pit of water; and the meaning is, Thou shalt draw me out of the extreme danger in which I am plunged, and wherein I should perish without thy aid. Thou shalt increase my greatness — Nay, thou wilt not only restore me to my former greatness, but much augment the splendour of it; and comfort me on every side — And though I now seem forsaken by thee, thou wilt return again, and so surround me by thy favour, that my future comforts shall far exceed my present troubles.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles…
Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles - Or rather, who hast caused us to see or experience great trials. The psalmist here, by a change from the singular to the plural, connects himself with his friends and followers, meaning that he had suffered with them and through them. It was not merely a personal affliction, but others connected with him had been identified with him, and his personal sorrows had been increased by the trials which had come upon them also. Our severest trials often are those which affect our friends.
Shalt quicken me again - literally, “Shalt return and make us live.” The word “quicken” in the Scriptures has always this sense of “making to live again.” See the notes at Joh 5:21; compare Rom 4:17; 1Co 15:36; Eph 2:1. The plural form should have been retained here as in the former member of the sentence. The authors of the Masoretic punctuation have pointed this as if it were to be read in the singular, but the plural is undoubtedly the true reading. Alike in his affliction, and in his hope of the returning mercy of God, he connects himself here with those who had suffered with him. The language expresses firm confidence in the goodness of God - an assurance that these troubles would pass away, and that he would see a brighter day.
Read full note →
And shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth - As if he had been sunk in the waters, or in the mire. See Psa 130:1. The word here used means commonly “wave, billow, surge;” then, a mass of waters, “a flood,” the deep; then, a gulf, an abyss. The idea here is, that, instead of being on the mountain top, in a place of security, he had sunk down to the lowest point; he had, as it were, sunk “into” the very earth. Yet from that low estate he felt assured that God would raise him up, and place him in a condition of happiness and safety. This is one of the many instances which we have in the Psalms, where the psalmist in great trouble expresses the most entire confidence that God would interpose in his behalf.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. Thou… hast showed me—Literally, Caused me to see;…
20. Thou… hast showed me—Literally, Caused me to see; that is, to experience. He stumbles not at secondary causes, but refers his sufferings, no less than his deliverances, to the will of God. The Keri (Hebrew marginal reading) gives a plural suffix to this pronoun, and to the verb rendered quicken. It would then read, Thou who hast caused us to see distresses… shalt quicken us again. This shows that David’s troubles are identical with those of his people, in whose name, and as whose representative, he speaks. But this also is implied in the use of the singular pronoun, and is to be commonly understood in the interpretation of the psalms.
Great and sore troubles—The descriptions following show that his distresses were such as to put deliverance completely beyond human power.
Read full note →
Depths of the earth—Hebrew, abysses of the earth, equal to the lowest grave. The word abyss, or depth, here, is the same as is translated deep, Gen_1:2, where, as in other places, it means the unfathomed waters of the ocean. Similar are the figures “deep waters,” “lower parts of the earth,” (but on this see an exception, Psa_63:9,) “gates of death,” etc., terms equivalent to the grave. Psa_69:2; Psa_69:14; Psa_63:9; Psa_9:13; also Eph_4:9. In all such imagery the difficulty of saving is supposed to be equal to a resurrection from the dead, the idea of which is implied and was familiar to the Hebrews. Comp. Gen_22:9-12; Heb_11:19; Rom_4:17
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. Thou which haat shewed us many and sore…
20. Thou which haat shewed us many and sore troubles,
Shalt quicken us again,
Read full note →
And shalt bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
So R.V., with marg. note, ‘Another reading is, me.’ The Kthîbh or written text (p. lxvii) has us; but the Qrç, or accepted reading of the Jewish textual tradition, is me. The latter reading is supported in the first line by all the Versions except Aquila: in the second and third lines the LXX and Syr. read me, Targ. and Jer. us. The plural, whether it is the original reading or not, points to the correct interpretation. The Psalmist’s hopes are not merely personal; he speaks on behalf of the nation whose representative he is; he looks for its restoration from its present state of humiliation. It is as it were dead and sunk in the depths of Sheol, but God can and will recall it to life. Cp. Hos_6:1-2; Eze_37:12 ff.; Psa_80:18 : Psa_85:6. Again hardly expresses the full meaning: lit. thou wilt turn, or, return (and) quicken us. Cp. Psa_6:4; Psa_80:14; Psa_85:4; Isa_63:17.
the depths of the earth] The ‘depths’ denote (1) the vast masses of water stored away in the earth (Psa_33:7), and hence (2) the subterranean abysses where Sheol was supposed to be situated. Cp. “the lower parts of the earth” (Psa_63:9), and Job_26:5-6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) Quicken me.—According to the written text, quicken us,…
(20) Quicken me.—According to the written text, quicken us, an indication that the psalm is a hymn for congregational use. As for the change from singular to plural, that is common enough.
Depths . . .—Abysses, properly of water. (See Psa_33:7.) Perhaps here with thought of the waters on which the earth was supposed to rest. If so, the image is the common one of a “sea of trouble.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles,…
Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again; or, according to another reading, which hast showed us shalt deliver us. The change of number may be ascribed to the desire of the psalmist to unite his people with himself in the hopes of deliverance which he is expressing. And shalt bring me up again (rather, shalt bring us up again) from the depths of the earth. "The "depths of the earth" is a metaphor for the extreme of misery and depression. (comp. Psa_88:6 Psa_130:1)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 20. Thou, which hast shewed me great and…
Ver. 20. Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again. Here is faith's inference from the infinite greatness of the Lord. He has been strong to smite; he will be also strong to save. He has shown me many heavy and severe trials, and he will also show me many and precious mercies. He has almost killed me, he will speedily revive me; and though I have been almost dead and buried, he will give me a resurrection, and
bring me up again from the depths of the earth. However low the Lord may permit us to sink, he will fix a limit to the descent, and in due time will bring us up again. Even when we are laid low in the tomb, the mercy is that we can go no lower, but shall retrace our steps and mount to better lands; and all this, because the Lord is ever mighty to save. A little God would fail us, but not Jehovah the Omnipotent. It is safe to lean on him, since he bears up the pillars both of heaven and earth.
Read full note →
Ver. 20. Thou shalt quicken me again, etc. Here Jerome triumphs over the Jews, challenging them when this was ever verified in David, for he was never dead and quickened again; and, therefore, this must needs be expounded of him as that in Psalm 16: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave; "and to "the depths of the earth, "here, answer those words, Eph 4:9, "Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?" Yet, this may also be applied to David, being figuratively understood, as a like speech of Hannah, 1 Samuel 2. John Mayer.
Ver. 20. And thou shalt bring me up, etc. This is an allusion to men who are unhappily fallen into a deep pit of water. The meaning is, Thou shalt draw me out of the extreme danger into which I am plunged, and wherein I shall perish without thy help. Thomas Fenton.
Ver. 20.
I. The future benefit of present trials: "Hereafter, "
said Aneas to his shipwrecked companions. "It will
delight us to think of these things."
II. The present benefit of future mercies: "Glory to thee
for all the grace we have not tasted yet."
Psalms 71:21*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles…
Psa_71:20
Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Read full note →
Divine help in times of trouble
This is a psalm of experience: it begins with trusting and ends with praise, which is the usual ending for such beginning.
I. The fact recognized, that troubles are often sent by God. If David were the author, then he might have remembered the troubles which arose--
1. From Sauls jealousy. See the history, and learn, that advancement in social life is no security against trouble; and that the more we may do for anothers good, the greater, oftentimes, shall be the ingratitude we shall receive.
2. From the accusings of conscience. The conscience of a man who is not an habitual sinner! a great source of trouble.
3. From the rebellion of his son.
4. The being forsaken by his friend.
5. The jeers of the ungodly (Psa_71:10-11).
6. But the greatest trouble of all was when he thought God had left him.
7. We, today, may know some of all those things.
II. These troubles are always sent for a good purpose. To admonish, to purify, etc.
III. Rightly received they shall issue in joy. (A. F. Barfield.)
From winter to spring
What a lamentable change has taken place in my condition, said the frozen brook. Only a short time ago I ran along, a lively stream, glistening in the sunshine, dancing in the shade, and doing my work with joyous pleasure; but now, alas! I am cold and motionless--what a melancholy change has come over me, and oh, what if I should never recover from this torpor--never flow again. A sturdy oak that had outlived a hundred winters, and now also stood bare and comparatively leafless, overhearing, tried to comfort it. Dont despair, said the oak; these changes are common, and affect you now so powerfully because you are so shallow. As long as streams have been exposed to climates of this nature, they have endured what you now suffer. But the glorious sun retains his power in the heavens; and depend upon it that by and by we shall both again feel his quickening influence--myself to put on a new dress of foliage, and you to flow with freedom and freshness. The old oak was not mistaken. In due time the sun poured forth bright beams from the sky, the air became soft and balmy, and the little rivulet burst its icy bonds and coursed again through the meadows. The Christian has his wintry season, when cold and lifeless, as it were, and lamenting the absence of former spiritual enjoyments, he cries, Quicken me in Thy way. Thou who hast showed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again. (W. Bowden.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 71:20 lift me up from the depths: The psalmist…
71:20 lift me up from the depths: The psalmist hopes for the renewal of an abundant earthly life. This later became grounds for belief in the resurrection of the dead.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.