From the Depths to the Heights: The Logic of Gospel Praise Text: Psalm 71:19-24
Introduction: The Grammar of Gratitude
We live in an age that is drowning in sentimentality but is starved of true joy. Our songs, our stories, our entire emotional vocabulary are thin, watery, and self-referential. We want the feeling of happiness without any of the objective reasons for it. We want the emotional high of a victory parade without having fought any battles. We want comfort, but we refuse to acknowledge the troubles that make comfort necessary. This is the spiritual equivalent of eating cotton candy for every meal; it is all fluff and sugar, and it will leave you malnourished and sick.
The book of Psalms is the great corrective to this modern malady. The Psalms are God's inspired prayer book, and they teach us the grammar of a robust and rugged faith. This is a faith that does not shy away from the hard realities of life. It is a faith that looks squarely at troubles, evils, depths, and enemies, and yet, on the other side of that clear-eyed assessment, erupts into joyful, specific, and loud praise. The joy of the Psalms is not a fragile thing that must be protected from reality. It is a joy that has wrestled with reality and won.
In this closing section of Psalm 71, we have an elderly saint, likely David, looking back over a life that has been filled with what he calls "many troubles and evils." He has been to the depths. He has been surrounded by those who seek to do him evil. And yet, the psalm does not end in a minor key. It does not conclude with a whimper of resignation. It builds to a crescendo of confident, declarative praise. The psalmist is not praising God in spite of his troubles, but in a very real sense, because of them. The troubles have become the dark velvet on which the diamond of God's righteousness shines all the more brightly.
This is the logic of the gospel. The cross is the ultimate "many troubles and evils." The tomb is the ultimate "depths of the earth." But without the cross and the tomb, there is no resurrection. Without the trouble, there is no comfort. Without the battle, there is no victory. This passage teaches us how to praise God, not by ignoring our circumstances, but by interpreting them through the grid of God's sovereign, righteous, and redemptive character. It teaches us that true praise is not based on the absence of trouble, but on the presence of God in the midst of it.
The Text
For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?
You, who have shown me many troubles and evils, Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
May You increase my greatness And turn to comfort me.
I will also praise You with a harp, Even Your truth, O my God; To You I will sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will sing for joy when I sing praises to You; And my soul, which You have redeemed.
My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long; For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek to do me evil.
(Psalm 71:19-24 LSB)
The Unsurpassed Righteousness of God (v. 19)
The psalmist begins his concluding anthem by fixing his gaze on the character of God.
"For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?" (Psalm 71:19)
Everything begins here. Before he recounts his troubles or anticipates his deliverance, he establishes the foundation: God's righteousness. This is not a small, localized righteousness. It is a righteousness that "reaches to the heavens." It is cosmic. It is the ultimate standard of reality. This is the objective truth that anchors the psalmist's hope. His deliverance is not a matter of luck or wishful thinking; it is grounded in the very nature of who God is. God is righteous, and therefore He must act righteously on behalf of His people.
This righteousness is not an abstract philosophical concept. It is demonstrated in action: "You who have done great things." God's righteousness has a track record. The psalmist can look back at creation, at the exodus, at the history of Israel, and at his own life, and see a consistent pattern of God's powerful, righteous intervention. Faith is not a leap in the dark; it is a step into the light of God's revealed character and past faithfulness.
This leads to the only logical conclusion, which is a rhetorical question that is also an act of worship: "O God, who is like You?" This is the death of all idolatry. Every other god, every other source of hope, every other foundation for life is, by comparison, pathetic. Who is like Yahweh? Who can create by speaking? Who can deliver from the depths? Who can turn troubles and evils into a platform for displaying His glory? The answer is, of course, no one. This is the bedrock of our praise. We worship Him because He is utterly unique, transcendent, and incomparable.
From the Depths to Revival (v. 20-21)
Having established God's character, the psalmist now interprets his own life story through that lens.
"You, who have shown me many troubles and evils, Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth. May You increase my greatness And turn to comfort me." (Psalm 71:20-21)
Notice the breathtaking honesty and the profound theology packed into this one sentence. "You, who have shown me many troubles and evils." He does not say, "Satan showed me troubles," or "My enemies showed me troubles," or "Bad luck showed me troubles." He says, "You," addressing God directly. This is a robust doctrine of sovereignty. The psalmist understands that nothing comes into his life apart from the permissive and providential will of God. This is not fatalism; it is faith. Because God is the one who showed him the troubles, God is also the one who can, and will, bring him out of them.
If your troubles are random, then your hope is random. But if your troubles are sovereignly appointed by a righteous God, then your deliverance is certain. The same God who leads you down into the valley is the God who will lead you up the mountain. And so, the psalmist declares with confidence, "You...Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth." The "depths of the earth" is a powerful metaphor for utter despair, ruin, and even the grave itself. This is a proto-resurrection hope. The God who brought him low will be the God who raises him up.
And the restoration is not just a return to the status quo. Verse 21 is a prayer born of faith: "May You increase my greatness And turn to comfort me." The experience of suffering in the hands of a good God is never just for nothing. It is a prelude to greater blessing, greater honor, and greater comfort. The comfort God gives is not a cheap pat on the back; it is a comfort that corresponds to the depth of the sorrow. God's intention is not merely to restore, but to elevate. This is the pattern we see in Job, in Joseph, and supremely in Christ, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross and is now seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The Instruments and Content of Praise (v. 22)
This confident hope in future vindication naturally overflows into present worship.
"I will also praise You with a harp, Even Your truth, O my God; To You I will sing praises with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel." (Genesis 71:22)
The praise here is not silent or merely internal. It is audible, musical, and instrumental. The psalmist promises to praise God "with a harp" and "with the lyre." This is a reminder that our bodies, our skills, and the material things of creation are all to be enlisted in the service of worship. God is not a Gnostic deity who is honored only by disembodied thoughts. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and He is to be praised with wood and string and breath and voice.
But notice the content of the praise. He will praise God for "Your truth." The Hebrew word here is emeth, which carries the idea of faithfulness, reliability, and trustworthiness. He is praising God because God keeps His promises. His worship is not based on a fleeting feeling but on the objective, unchanging reality of God's covenant faithfulness. God said He would deliver, and He will deliver. Therefore, I will praise Him.
He addresses God with two intimate and covenantal names: "O my God" and "O Holy One of Israel." The first is personal possession; this great God is my God. The second is corporate and historical; this is the God who set Israel apart for Himself, the God who is utterly distinct from the corrupt and impotent idols of the nations. Our worship should always contain this dual focus: the deeply personal relationship we have with God in Christ, and the grand, sweeping story of His redemptive work in history.
The Source and Subject of Joyful Song (v. 23-24)
The psalm concludes by describing the all-encompassing nature of this praise and the ultimate reason for it.
"My lips will sing for joy when I sing praises to You; And my soul, which You have redeemed. My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long; For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek to do me evil." (Psalm 71:23-24)
The praise involves the whole person. "My lips will sing for joy... And my soul." This is not the perfunctory mumbling of a hymn; it is an eruption of joy from the very core of his being. And why? Because of the central act of God: "my soul, which You have redeemed." Redemption is the foundation of all true Christian worship. To redeem is to buy back, to ransom from slavery. The psalmist knows he does not belong to himself. He has been purchased by God. This is the ultimate reason for joy. Whatever troubles he faces, his ultimate status is secure. He is a redeemed man.
And this praise is not confined to the Sabbath service. "My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long." This is a picture of a life saturated with the gospel. His conversation, his moment-by-moment thoughts, are shaped by the reality of God's righteousness. It becomes the constant theme of his life. We are to be people who cannot shut up about the goodness and righteousness of our God.
The final clause provides the capstone. Why can he be so confident? Why can he praise God in advance of the final deliverance? "For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek to do me evil." This is not wishful thinking. It is a statement of fact, declared from the standpoint of faith. Because God is righteous, and because the psalmist is His redeemed servant, the ultimate defeat of God's enemies is a theological certainty. He sees their end from his beginning. Their shame and humiliation are as good as done. The victory of God in Christ is so certain that the saints can begin singing the victory song even while the battle still rages.
Conclusion: Redeemed Tongues
This psalm is a roadmap for every Christian. We will all face "many troubles and evils." We will all experience the "depths of the earth" in one form or another. The world, the flesh, and the devil will seek to do us evil. The question is not whether we will face these things, but how we will respond.
Will we adopt the whiny, self-pitying tone of our therapeutic age? Or will we learn the grammar of gratitude that this psalm teaches? The path is laid out for us. We begin with the character of God, His high and heavenly righteousness. We interpret our sufferings through the grid of His loving sovereignty. We look forward with resurrection confidence to the day when He will not just restore us, but increase our greatness and comfort us.
And because of this, we praise Him now. We praise Him with instruments and voices. We praise Him with our lips and our souls. We praise Him all day long. We do this because our souls have been redeemed. In the cross of Jesus Christ, God descended into the ultimate "depths of the earth." He endured the ultimate trouble and evil. And on the third day, God revived Him and brought Him up again, increasing His greatness and seating Him at His own right hand.
Because He was redeemed from the grave, we who are in Him are redeemed from sin and death. Because His enemies were ashamed and humiliated at the empty tomb, our enemies will ultimately be put to shame. Therefore, let us take up our harps and lyres. Let our lips and souls sing for joy. Let our tongues utter His righteousness all day long. For our God is a redeeming God, and His truth endures forever.