Psalm Chapter 71

Psalm 71: The Lifelong Refuge

Here is a prayer written, as it were, in the handwriting of an old man — and what a thing it is to watch. The psalmist has known God since the womb, has been held up by Him from birth, and now, with grey hairs and failing strength, makes one request above all others: do not cast me off in old age. It is not the plea of a man who has forgotten God but of one who has known Him so long that the thought of being without Him is simply unbearable. His enemies whisper that God has abandoned him, and the cruelty of the accusation is that it strikes at the one thing he cannot prove to them — that God is still there. But notice what he does with his fear. He does not collapse into it; he turns it into a vocation. "Until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come." The old man wants more time not for comfort but for testimony. He has, it seems, one more song to sing — and he intends to sing it on the psaltery, the harp, and with whatever breath he has left.

00:00 In Thee Do I Put My Trust
01:00 Cast Me Not Off in Old Age
02:00 Declaring His Wondrous Works
03:00 A Song That Will Not Stop