Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.
Psalm 71 is widely believed to be the prayer of an elderly person looking back on a long life of faith and forward into a new season of vulnerability. The writer has faced enemies and hardship but has trusted God consistently through it all. The phrase 'once again' carries enormous weight — it is not wishful thinking, but memory talking. The writer has experienced God's comfort and honor before and is anchoring their hope in that history. 'Increase my honor' in this context likely means restoration after shame or defeat — being seen, vindicated, not forgotten or discarded.
God, you have met me before in the low places, and I am asking you to meet me there again. Where I have lost my sense of worth, restore it. Where I need comfort, bring it — not eventually, but now. I trust you because I have already seen you come through. Amen.
'Once again' — two small words that carry a whole life inside them. The person praying this is not young and untested. They have been through enough to know that God came through before. This is not blind optimism or a first prayer from someone who has never suffered. This is a person with scars saying: I have seen you do this. Do it once more. That kind of prayer takes more faith than the first one, because now you know exactly what it costs and how long it can take. Maybe something has stripped away your sense of worth lately — a diagnosis that reframed everything, a relationship that unraveled, a career that collapsed, the slow erosion of feeling seen by anyone. The psalmist does not pray for circumstances to change. He prays for honor and comfort — two deeply human needs that go straight to the soul. You can pray that too. Not as desperation but as trust built on evidence: God has done this before. Ask him, without apology, to do it once again.
What do you think 'increase my honor' meant for the psalm's writer — and how does that differ from how our culture thinks about status or reputation?
Can you name a specific time when God comforted you or restored your sense of dignity? How does remembering that moment shape how you pray today?
Is it hard for you to ask God for personal comfort or restored worth? Do those feel like too small or too self-centered a request — and why?
Who in your community has had their confidence or dignity quietly eroded? How could you actively participate in restoring their sense of honor this week?
What would it look like for you to pray 'once again' prayers intentionally — naming past faithfulness out loud as the foundation for a current request you have been hesitant to bring?
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
Psalms 138:7
Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
2 Corinthians 1:4
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
2 Corinthians 2:14
And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
Isaiah 12:1
Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
Psalms 86:17
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:5
Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.
Psalms 18:35
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4
May You increase my greatness (honor) And turn to comfort me.
AMP
You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.
ESV
May You increase my greatness And turn [to] comfort me.
NASB
You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.
NIV
You shall increase my greatness, And comfort me on every side.
NKJV
You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again.
NLT
streaming with honors; turn to me, be tender to me,
MSG