Psalm Chapter 71

Psalm 71: The Long Faithfulness

There is a particular kind of prayer that only an old person can pray, and this is one of them. The psalmist looks back across an entire life — from the womb, where God held him up; through youth, where God was already his trust; to old age, where he now stands, grey-headed, watching his strength fail. And his chief petition is not rescue but continuity: "Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth." He has spent his whole life telling people about God; now he asks to live long enough to tell one more generation. Notice the strange, touching line — "I am as a wonder unto many." He knows he looks odd: an aging man who keeps hoping, who has made God his habit and his home for seventy or eighty years. The world does not quite know what to do with a person whose trust has outlasted their teeth. But such a person is, among all the creatures God has made, perhaps the most convincing argument for God that exists.

00:00 In Thee, O Lord, Do I Trust
01:00 A Wonder Unto Many
02:00 Forsake Me Not When Grey-Headed
03:00 My Tongue Shall Talk of Thy Righteousness