What Does Psalm 71:5 Mean in the King James?

For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.

Psalm 71:5 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Hope here is trust stretched toward what is ahead, grounded in the security already known.

THE MEANING

God is both the expectation ahead of you and the security beneath you. The verse holds this trust as something with history: it reaches back to youth and remains present now.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It loosens the belief that hope begins only after circumstances improve: hope is anchored in God himself.

THE ROOT

תִּקְוָתִי

tiqvāti

GROWS FROM

קוה

To wait for, look toward with expectation.

The Hebrew word for hope belongs to a root that also names waiting and looking toward something. Hope here carries expectation directed toward God, not merely a wish about what may happen.

ALSO GROWS

qāvāh: To wait for, look for, expect.

קָוָה

Psalm 39:7 uses this verb beside the noun for hope, showing expectation as an active turning toward God.

tiqvāh: Expectation, hope.

תִּקְוָה

This is the noun in the verse: the reader’s hope is expectation placed in God.

מִבְטָחִי

mivtaḥi

GROWS FROM

בטח

To trust, rely on, feel secure.

The word translated “trust” is mivtaḥ, a noun of confidence or security from batach, to trust. It gives trust the feel of lived reliance, carried through the years from youth.

ALSO GROWS

bāṭaḥ: To trust, rely on, feel secure.

בָּטַח

The verb behind the noun makes trust an act of reliance, not only an idea held in the mind.

mivṭāḥ: Confidence, security, refuge.

מִבְטָח

This noun is the form used in the verse; God is named as the place of security in which trust rests.

THE PATTERN

Hope takes its shape from the one trusted across the whole span of life.

But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

Psalm 22:9 · KJVThe Hebrew verb translated “hope” comes from batach, the same root as “trust” in Psalm 71:5, and locates that reliance at life’s beginning.

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Psalm 39:7 · KJVWaiting and hope come from the same Hebrew root, and both are directed toward God.

Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

1 Peter 1:21 · KJVThe verse joins trust and hope in God, echoing Psalm 71:5’s pairing of reliance and expectation.

THE THREAD

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Psalm 39:7 · KJV

“Wait” is ⁨קָוָה⁩ (qāvāh), to wait or expect; “hope” is ⁨תִּקְוָה⁩ (tiqvāh), expectation. The shared root reveals waiting as hope directed toward God, the same expectancy named in Psalm 71:5.

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