Psalm 71:20 means that the psalmist trusts God to keep him alive through severe suffering and to lift him back up from the lowest point of his life. He is speaking to the Lord, recalling years of hardship that God has allowed and expecting that the same God will bring him through them again. The words come from an aging worshiper who has known much trouble and chooses to look to God for the next season.
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.
Psalm 71:20 (WEB)
What Psalm 71:20 Means
The verse opens with a direct address, “You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles.” The psalmist does not pretend his difficulties were small or imaginary. He names them as real and bitter, and he admits that God was involved in allowing them. This honesty is part of the prayer’s strength, because faith here does not require denying pain.
The middle phrase, “you will let me live,” shifts from the past to a confident expectation about the future. The psalmist is asking God to preserve his life and not let him be destroyed by what he has endured. The language is one of personal trust rather than a general statement about every believer’s life.
The final phrase, “bring us up again from the depths of the earth,” uses the image of a grave or a deep pit, a place of death, despair, or complete loss. To be raised from there is to be restored from a condition that seemed hopeless. The verse does not promise that a believer will never face such depths, but it expresses confidence that God can bring a person back out of them.
The Context of Psalm 71:20
Psalm 71 belongs to the book of Psalms, the collection of Hebrew songs and prayers that Israel used in worship and that Christians have long read for guidance in prayer. The psalm is anonymous, and its voice is that of an older person looking back over a lifetime of God’s faithfulness. Verse 18 mentions his gray hair, so the speaker is an elderly worshiper who wants to be remembered as one who declared God’s strength to the next generation.
The verses just before and after 20 strengthen this reading. In verses 17 to 19 the psalmist recalls that God taught him from youth and asks not to be forsaken in old age, so verse 20 sits in the middle of a longer story of trust across decades. Verses 21 to 23 move from request into praise, with the psalmist promising to sing to God. Read in this setting, verse 20 is a turning point where past suffering becomes the ground for present hope.
Key Phrases in Psalm 71:20
Psalm 30:5
For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
(WEB)
This verse speaks of weeping that may last through the night while joy comes in the morning. It parallels Psalm 71:20 by holding together real sorrow and the confidence that God brings a turn toward restoration.
Psalm 40:2
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.
(WEB)
Here the psalmist describes being lifted out of a pit and set on a rock. The image of rescue from a deep and miry place closely matches the restoration language in Psalm 71:20.
A Short Prayer From Psalm 71:20
Lord, you know the troubles I have carried, some of them bitter and some of them long. I bring them to you honestly, without pretending they were small. I ask you to keep me alive and to be faithful to me in the days ahead. Where I feel I am in the depths, lift me up again by your strength and your care. Help me to remember how you have led me in the past so that I can trust you with what comes next. Amen.
