“Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 71:19 Mean?
"Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!" The psalmist — likely an elderly David, based on the surrounding verses about old age and lifelong faithfulness — is stacking declarations. God's righteousness isn't just present. It's "very high" — the Hebrew (marom) means exalted, lofty, reaching to the heights. It occupies the highest possible position.
Then the evidence: "who hast done great things." The word for "great" (gadol) is the same used for God's acts in the Exodus, the parting of the sea, the deliverance from Egypt. The psalmist isn't speaking abstractly about God's character. He's pointing to a track record. You've done things. Big things. The kind of things that can't be explained by human effort.
The verse climaxes with the rhetorical question that echoes throughout Scripture: "Who is like unto thee!" (mi kamocha). This is the same exclamation Moses sang at the Red Sea (Exodus 15:11). It's not a question expecting an answer. It's a declaration disguised as a question: no one. Nothing. No god, no power, no force compares. The psalmist has lived long enough to be certain of this — not from theology textbooks, but from decades of watching God work.
Reflection Questions
- 1.If you made a list of 'great things' God has done in your life, what would be on it? When was the last time you actually reviewed that list?
- 2.The psalmist's confidence comes from decades of experience. How does the length of your walk with God shape your certainty about who He is?
- 3."Who is like unto thee" — do you actually believe that? Or are there things in your life competing for that position?
- 4.How does looking back at God's track record change the way you face what's in front of you right now?
Devotional
There's a difference between knowing God is great because someone told you and knowing it because you've watched Him work across the years of your life. This verse comes from the second kind of knowing.
The psalmist is old. He's been walking with God long enough to have a catalog of "great things" — moments where God showed up in ways that defied explanation. And from that vantage point, he doesn't just say God is good. He says God's righteousness reaches to the heights. He says no one compares.
If you're young in your faith, this verse is an invitation to keep going. The testimony gets richer with time. The confidence gets deeper — not because life gets easier, but because the evidence accumulates. Every answered prayer, every unexpected provision, every season you survived that you thought would end you — it all builds into a "who is like unto thee" that no one can take from you.
And if you've been walking with God for a while, this verse is a reminder to look back. Not in nostalgia, but in worship. What has He done? Actually done? Name it. Count it. Let the great things He's already accomplished become the foundation for the trust you need today. The God who was very high then hasn't gotten shorter.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high,.... Or, "unto the place on high" (f); it reaches unto heaven, as the mercy,…
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high - See the notes at Psa 36:5. The purpose of the psalmist is to exalt that…
David is here in a holy transport of joy and praise, arising from his faith and hope in God; we have both together Psa…
is very high Lit., (reacheth) unto the height, of heaven. Cp. Psa 36:5; Psa 57:10; Job 11:8.
who hast done&c. It is…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture