Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 71:20
[Thou], which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
20. Thou which haat shewed us many and sore troubles,
Shalt quicken us again,
And shalt bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
So R.V., with marg. note, ‘Another reading is, me.’ The Kthbh or written text (p. lxvii) has us; but the Qr, 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. From the grave; for I was like one dead and buried, and past all hope of deliverance, without thy almighty assistance.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. depths of the earthdebased,low condition.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[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;
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 Ps 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
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
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 71:20. And shalt bring me up again, &c. This is an allusion to men who are fallen into a deep pit of water. The meaning is, “Thou shalt draw me out of the extreme danger in which I am plunged, and wherein I shall perish without thy help.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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.
Shall quicken me again
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
quicken me again = make me alive again.
bring me up again: i.e. in resurrection.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 71:20
Psa 71:20
A PROPHECY OF THE RESURRECTION
“Thou, who hast showed us many and sore troubles,
Will quicken us again,
And will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.”
Some ancient manuscripts have plural pronouns for “us” as rendered in this verse, and this has been the basis upon which some interpreters have understood this verse as a metaphor of the depressed nation of Israel with a pledge of their future blessing.
However, the RSV has corrected the error, properly rendering the verse as follows:
“Thou who hast made me see many sore troubles wilt revive me again;
From the depths of the earth, thou wilt bring me up again.”
This correction eliminates the application of the passage to some kind of a revival of the downcast Israel and reveals the passage for what it is, a glorious promise of the resurrection of the dead.
As Taylor observed, “`Thou … wilt revive me again'” (Psa 71:20) means `thou wilt restore me to life.’
“From the depths of the earth” (Psa 71:20). Rawlinson called this, “A metaphor for the extreme misery and depression of the nation of Israel, but we cannot accept this. “The depths of the earth” is a reference to Sheol, or to the grave; and Paul used exactly this same figure in speaking of the grave of Jesus (Eph 4:9). McCaw also noted that, “The meaning of the passage is `deliverance from the gates of death.’
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 71:20. God showed David these great troubles in that he allowed him to be exposed to them as a test of his faith. Depths of the earth refers to the depression that was caused by the afflictions mentioned above.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
which: Psa 40:1-3, Psa 60:3, Psa 66:10-12, Psa 88:6-18, Psa 138:7, 2Sa 12:11, Mar 14:33, Mar 14:34, Mar 15:34, 2Co 11:23-31, Rev 7:14
quicken: Psa 80:18, Isa 26:19, Hos 6:1, Hos 6:2, Act 2:24, Act 2:32-34
shalt bring: Psa 16:10, Psa 40:2, Psa 86:13, Isa 38:17, Eze 37:12, Eze 37:13, Jon 2:6, Eph 4:9
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:19 – the Lord 2Ch 32:22 – guided Psa 30:3 – brought Psa 31:7 – for Psa 34:19 – Many Psa 66:16 – and I will Psa 86:17 – thou Psa 119:25 – quicken Psa 130:1 – Out of Ecc 12:2 – nor Isa 33:18 – heart Isa 38:16 – General Lam 3:1 – the man Dan 4:3 – great Hos 13:14 – ransom Mar 16:6 – he is risen Rom 12:12 – Rejoicing Col 2:13 – he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and {p} sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
(p) As he confesses that God is the only author of his deliverance, so he acknowledges that these evils were sent to him by God’s providence.