Psalms 71:8 · Bible study
Psalms 71:8 Commentary: Filled with Praise All Day Long
Hebrew · 8 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore the meaning of Psalm 71:8: the psalmist's commitment to praise God ceaselessly despite old age and persecution.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The psalmist commits to speaking God’s praise and honor ceaselessly, as an overflow of trust and a defiance of despair.
- Key words: יִמָּלֵא (Niphal imperfect “shall be filled”), תְּהִלָּה (“praise,” public acclaim), תִּפְאָרָה (“splendor/honor,” God’s majestic glory), כָּל־הַיּוֹם (“all day,” continuous duration).
- Main debate: Whether the verb is a statement of fact (“shall be filled”) or a prayer (“let it be filled”), both have manuscript and grammatical support.
- Theological theme: God is worthy of constant praise regardless of circumstances; trust fuels testimony.
- Best use: To teach persistent praise as an act of faith, especially in aging, illness, or opposition.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your splendor all day long.
WEB World English Bible 2000
My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long.
KJV King James Version 1769
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
My mouth shall be filled with thy praise, And with thy honor all the day.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Filled is my mouth with Thy praise, All the day with Thy beauty.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
My mouth shall be filled with thy praise, with thy glory, all the day.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Sea llena mi boca de tu alabanza, de tu gloria todo el día.
Minha boca seja cheia de louvores a ti por tua glória o dia todo.
Que ma bouche soit remplie de tes louanges,
Laß meinen Mund deines Ruhmes und deines Preises voll sein täglich.
Laat mijn mond vervuld worden met Uw lof, den gansen dag met Uw heerlijkheid.
Sia la mia bocca ripiena della tua lode, e celebri ogni giorno la tua gloria!
Niechaj będą napełnione usta moje chwałą twoją, przez cały dzień sławą twoją.
он будет обладать от моря до моря и от реки до концов земли;
你的讚美，你的榮耀 終 日 必滿了 我的口。
My mouth will be full of your praise and glory all the day.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Psalms 71:8
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators agree that this verse captures the psalmist's resolute pledge to praise God without interruption. Gill notes the Hebrew verb yimmale (Niphal imperfect, “shall be filled”) implies that his heart is so overwhelmed by God’s goodness that praise must overflow. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” he writes. Barnes describes it as an “appeal to himself” in view of God’s faithfulness. The two Hebrew nouns, tehillah (praise) and tiph’arah (splendor or honor), together cover both the words of praise and the glorious character of God being proclaimed. The phrase “all day long” (kol-hayom) is taken by all as a commitment to continuous praise, not just at designated moments. Keil and Delitzsch see the verse as what the psalmist “firmly expects” because of what he possesses in God. The vow functions as both a response to past deliverance and a weapon against present fear.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The psalmist commits himself to praising God continuously, all day long, as an expression of trust and gratitude despite old age and persecution.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Verb mood | The Hebrew imperfect yimmale expresses a future or modal action, the mouth will be full. | Some (KJV, Geneva) read it as a prayer: 'Let my mouth be filled.' Others (WEB, ASV, Gill) take it as a confident vow: 'My mouth shall be filled.' |
| Old age and the psalmist | The psalmist is clearly elderly (v. 9) and faces enemies who think God has rejected him. | Calvin and many traditional interpreters identify the psalmist as David during Absalom’s revolt. Others see an unnamed later worshiper using Davidic language, as Lange notes the psalm's composite structure. |
| Meaning of 'all day long' | It denotes continuous, habitual praise, not just a single moment. | Some take it literally, every waking hour. Others see it as a poetic idiom for 'constantly' or 'throughout my life.' |
| Relationship to surrounding verses | The vow of praise (v. 8) is followed by a plea for help in old age (v. 9). | Is the praise a condition for deliverance? Or is it a response to confidence that God will help? Commentators lean toward the latter, seeing the vow as an expression of trust rather than a bargain. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Psalm 71 is the prayer of an older man who has trusted God from youth (vv. 5, 6) but now faces enemies who say God has abandoned him (v. 11). Calvin assigns it to David during Absalom’s rebellion, noting the reference to old age fits David’s later years. The psalm is deeply woven from threads of earlier Davidic psalms, especially Psalms 31, 35, 40, and 70, leading Lange to suggest it was composed from older material for a later worshiper. This reuse does not diminish its authenticity; it shows generations of believers adopting David’s language for their own trials.
Verse 8 sits at a key turning point. The psalmist has just said he is “a marvel to many” (v. 7), a spectacle of God’s strange preservation. Immediately after his vow of praise, he pleads not to be cast off in old age (v. 9). So the vow is not naive optimism; it is a deliberate act of trust in the face of potential abandonment. In ancient Israel, praise often happened in public, in the temple courts or community assemblies. “All day long” would mean from morning to night, a lifestyle of blessing rather than a single act. The word tiph’arah (“honor”) is the same used for God’s majestic beauty in Psalm 96:6 (“strength and beauty are in his sanctuary”). By using it, the psalmist stakes his daily speech on the reality that God’s glory is worth declaring even when circumstances scream otherwise.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant textual variants for Psalm 71:8. The Masoretic Text is stable. The Greek Septuagint paraphrases the second half as “all the day long” (τὴν δόξαν σου ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν), but this reflects translation choice rather than a different Hebrew original. The KJV, following the LXX and Vulgate, renders the verb as an imperative (“let my mouth be filled”) while the Hebrew consonantal text supports either reading.
Reception History
This verse has been a staple of Christian prayer and hymnody. The phrase “all day long” appears in hymns such as Frances Ridley Havergal’s “Like a River Glorious” (1874) and older metrical psalms. Church fathers like Augustine saw it as a model of ceaseless praise, a foretaste of heaven. In the Reformation, Geneva and Puritan writers used the verse to encourage believers to turn every moment into an occasion for thanksgiving, not only in church but in daily work. Matthew Henry urged that “we should fill our mouths with praise, as we fill our bodies with food, daily and thankfully.” The verse continues to comfort those who feel too old or too weak to serve, the mouth can still praise even when strength fails.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The source of praise: God’s goodness fills the heart. The psalmist’s mouth is filled because his heart is full (Gill).
- The scope of praise: “All day long”, not only when comfortable, but through every hour, including seasons of old age and opposition.
- The strength for praise: It flows from a lifetime of trust (vv. 5, 6) and an expectation that God will not abandon him (v. 9).
Five-point outline
- A resolution in crisis: The vow comes while enemies plot (vv. 10, 11). Praise is a deliberate choice.
- The connection of heart and mouth: What fills the heart will spill out in speech, the psalmist ensures it is praise.
- Praise as response to God’s faithfulness: He has been faithful from the womb to old age (vv. 5, 6).
- Praise as testimony against enemies: When others say God has forsaken him, he keeps speaking of God’s honor.
- Praise as hope for the future: The psalm moves directly to a request for ongoing strength to declare God’s power to the next generation (v. 18).
Illustration hooks
- The elderly believer who, despite failing health and few visitors, still thanks God each morning for one more day to praise him.
- The person facing gossip or betrayal who consciously chooses to speak about God’s goodness rather than replay the hurt.
- The contrast between a conversation filled with complaints and one filled with gratitude, which one “fills” the mouth?
Questions your congregation is asking
- How can I praise God when I feel abandoned or forgotten?
- Is it possible, or honest, to praise God “all day long” in the middle of hard times?
- What would it take for my mouth to be “filled” with praise instead of worry or grumbling?
Leading a Discussion
Psalm 71:8 is a bold promise to keep praising God no matter what. The psalmist is old, under attack, and tempted to think God has left him. Yet he vows that his mouth will be filled with praise and honor all day long. This verse invites us to examine what fills our own speech, and whom we trust when life gets hard.
Discussion questions
- What do you notice about when the psalmist makes this vow, right before and after what other verses?
- The Hebrew verb “shall be filled” can also be read as a prayer (“let my mouth be filled”). How does that change how you hear the verse?
- Why does the psalmist use two different words: “praise” and “honor/splendor”? What does each capture about God?
- What makes it hard to praise God “all day long”, especially when you are old, afraid, or alone?
- How does the psalmist’s history with God (vv. 5, 6) give weight to his promise in verse 8?
- If you took this verse literally for one day, what might change in how you speak and think?
- What would it mean for your small group to help each other keep the habit of praise through hard seasons?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Psalms 35:28 | My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long. |
| Psalms 51:14 | Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. |
| Psalms 51:15 | Lord, open my lips. My mouth will declare your praise. |
| Psalms 63:5 | My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, |
| Psalms 71:15 | My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. |
| Psalms 71:24 | My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me. |
| Psalms 96:6 | Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. |
| Psalms 104:1 | Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes reads this verse as the writer deliberately exhorting himself to praise God without ceasing, driven by the goodness God has already shown. The praise is not merely words but also any expression that advances God's reputation and makes His honor known to others.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin observes that this psalm closely follows Psalm 31, which David wrote during Saul's persecution. The distinctive feature is that David adapted the earlier prayer to his later crisis by adding references to his old age, showing how faith reuses past expressions of trust for new trials.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentator notes that the phrase "sing of thy glory and honour all the day long" in the Prayer Book Version is derived from the Septuagint and Vulgate, not directly from the Hebrew. This phrasing echoes the praise language found in 1 Chronicles 29:11, where honor and majesty belong to God alone.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva note emphasizes that the psalmist asks for his mouth to be entirely taken up with praising God and proclaiming His glory. This is not a one-time request but a desire for this praise to fill every day, indicating a life of continuous, daily worship.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill sees the mouth filled with praise as evidence of a heart deeply struck by God's goodness. Such praise is plentiful, public, and delighted in, and it should be the believer's constant occupation all day long, because God's mercies are new every morning and endure without end.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil and Delitzsch observe that the poet calls himself a "wonder" in the sense of something wrenched from the normal course, drawing the astonished gaze of onlookers. They note that the grammatical construction throws emphasis onto what God is for the poet, as he prays for continued preservation in the early stages of old age.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange identifies the speaker as an elderly Israelite of high station who prays for deliverance, not as a personification of the nation or church. He notes the psalm's loose structure and heavy borrowing from earlier Davidic psalms, treating it as a later compilation rather than a completely original composition.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry focuses on how David repeatedly professes his trust in God as the very basis for his prayer, not as a mere introduction. His point is that a believer may boldly plead the confidence God himself has given, because God will never put to shame a hope that he himself has raised.