Psalms 71:20

"You, who have shown us many and severe troubles, will revive us again, and will bring us up again from the depths of the earth" (v. 20). If we follow the Hebrew text, the psalmist speaks here as "we," not as "I" as in the other verses. This confirms the point made above: the writer stands for the nation, and this will be true of the nation.

I think Psalm 71 gives the sum of all God's ways with Israel from the very start of their history. It shows His faithful care. It also appeals to Him not to leave them now at the last. Its application is to the old age of Israel, whom God will bring up as from the depths of the earth by the faithful grace of the Holy One of Israel.

The severe trials God allowed them to pass through bore witness to His righteousness, which would not pass over evil in His people. His quickening power would show itself in reviving the nation. He would bring them up again from the depths of the earth, where for so long they had lain buried among the nations.

Verses 20 and 21 show something beautiful: faith looks back over Israel's troubled history and takes the deepest trials and chastenings as an assurance of grace and blessing. This is faith in the God of resurrection. What happens here is truly a moral resurrection. Israel has grown old and is about to pass away, yet God brings him up again from the depths of the earth, increases his greatness, and comforts him on every side.

chayah. In the Old Testament this word means 'to revive, or give new life' in a moral sense. So we read "quicken me again." The matching word in the New Testament always means making alive those who are in the state of death, or under its power. So it sometimes stands for resurrection. But it is never used of the wicked dead. It is God's work. The term carries the principle of divine sovereignty. God makes alive according to His will.

They will never forget that God has shown them great and severe troubles because of their own foolish rebellion. But just as He allowed the troubles, so He will send a reviving. He will bring them up from the depths of the earth. That earth had become a kind of grave for a people dead in sins. "What will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" (Rom. 11:15).

The righteousness of God is His own character, shown in His own acts: the death and resurrection of Christ (see also Psalm 71:19-20). God has shown Him great and severe troubles because of man's sin. I look at sin; I look at the dread darkness; I hear the bitter cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ... I look again. I hear a great earthquake. The stone is rolled away from the tomb. The guards become like dead men. I see a holy, spotless One rising from the dead.

If God promises to revive, faith can say confidently with the psalmist: "You, who have shown us many and severe troubles, will revive us again" (Ps. 71:20). The means God uses to revive us is usually His Word: "I will never forget Your precepts: for with them You have quickened me" (Ps. 119:93). This very personal encouragement will deepen our desire that the whole people of God may be revived. So we pray, always aware of our own weakness and failure, "O LORD, revive Your work" (Hab. 3:2).