he’ll do it again

Psalm 71:22-24 (JDV)

Psalm 71:22 That is why I will praise you with a harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing to you with a lyre, Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 71:23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.
Psalm 71:24 That is why my tongue will proclaim your righteousness all day long, for those who intend to harm me will be disgraced and confounded.

he’ll do it again

His enemies are plotting his destruction. Life is falling apart around him. What does this man of God do with his shame and discomfort? He turns them against his enemies, by praising God while he waits for him to respond to his prayer!

Many commentators think that verse 23 reflects a transition in the psalm where the psalmist informs his readers that God has already come through. I don’t think that is a correct conclusion for this context. The psalmist is not saying that his crisis is over. Instead, he is remembering back to his conversion. He points to God’s redemption when he came to faith as reason to praise him, anticipating his second “spiritual resurrection” to come.

The psalmist is not out of the woods yet, but he is confident that there is a way out. His enemies are not yet disgraced and confounded by God’s intervention, but they will be. God is consistent; he is faithful. He has raised this psalmist from death before, and he will do it again. In fact, he will do it again twice. He will rescue the psalmist from his current crisis, and he will bring him up from the depths of the ground on resurrection day.