Psalm 71
All right, let’s hear from God’s
word. This is Psalm 71. It does not say it’s a Psalm
of David, but there are a number of other Psalms where the verses
are exactly the same. And so we kind of think that
Psalm 71 is of David. It says, in you, O Lord, do I
take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness, deliver me and rescue me, incline your
ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, to
which I may continually come. You have given the command to
save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O
God, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp
of the unjust and cruel man. For you, O Lord, are my hope,
my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you have I leaned from before
my birth. You are he who took me from my
mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your
praise and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in
the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
is spent. For my enemies speak concerning
me. Those who watch for my life consult together, and they say
God has forsaken him. Pursue and seize him, for there
is none to deliver him. Oh God, be not far from me. Oh
my God, make haste to help me. May my accusers be put to shame
and consumed. With scorn and disgrace, may
they be covered who seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and
I will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your
righteous acts and of your deeds of salvation all the day for
their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the
Lord God, I will come. I will remind them of your righteousness,
yours alone. Oh God, from my youth you have
taught me and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even
to old age and gray hairs, oh God, do not forsake me until
I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all
those to come. Your righteousness, oh God, reaches
the high heavens. You who have done great things,
oh God, who is like you? You who have made me see many
troubles and calamities will revive me again. From the depths
of the earth, you will bring me up again. You will increase
my greatness and comfort me again. I will also praise you with a
harp for your faithfulness, oh my God. I will sing praises to
you with a lyre, oh holy one of Israel. My lips will shout
for joy when I sing praises to you, my soul also, which you
have redeemed. And my tongue will talk of your
righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame
and disappointed who sought to do me hurt. How old is old? That’s a good question, isn’t
it? It can be defined by life expectancy. Men and women are
living into their 80s now by average. Old is always older
than we are. I think of my grandmother. When
my wife and I were first married, we used to eat with my grandparents
a good bit, and we used to go to the Mayflower at four o’clock. And my grandmother used to say
that’s when the old people ate. She was 80 and she did not believe
she was old. And she used to fuss about having
to go at four o’clock when the old people ate. We’re living
in a time now where we don’t want to get old. We want to relive
or capture our youth. You see people on television
now and they have their hair all done to make them look younger.
They have it added back if it has departed. They wear clothes
to make them look like teenagers and all the rest. You know, we
put teeth back when they fall out. We don’t like getting old. Well, if you are old, this is
a psalm for you. And I know some of you are old
because we’ve got about three of you that are about to retire
or should retire, right? Yeah, one, two, three, there
we go. So it must be somewhere in the 50s range, I’m guessing.
I’m not there yet, so good for me. But this is a psalm for you,
whoever you are. A couple of thoughts about old
age. One we find in verse nine. It says, do not cast me off in
the time of old age, or forsake me when my strength is spent. There was a country song when
I was a teenager. It used to come on the radio
and it was something like this. I ain’t as good as I once was. Yep, some of you have heard it.
And that’s what verse nine seems to teach us. Don’t cast me off
in the time of old age or forsake me not when my strength is spent. Another thought about old age
pops up in verse 10. It says, for my enemies speak
concerning me. Those who watch for my life consult
together. It speaks of living life in a
fallen world. Somehow we get it in our minds
that as we get older, life will get better. And maybe there are
some truths to that. As my mother so well says, the
golden years aren’t so golden. But life will come at you, whether
you are young, whether you are old, or in between. Another thought about old age
comes in verse 11. God has forsaken him. Pursue
and seize him, for there is none to deliver him. A lot of times
old age is alone. It’s lonely. You’re by yourself. Those who were around you are
gone. And so these couple of thoughts
show us that old age is not so rosy. But as we make our way
through the psalm, we see that old age is not so bad. Old age
is an opportunity. And one of the things we have
to think about as we look at this psalm is that no matter what
stage of life, no matter what age we are, all is from the good
hand of God. Every moment, every day is under
the sovereignty of God. So look for just a few moments
with if you will, at this psalm. We’ll look at the past, we’ll
look at the future, and then look at the present. Think for
a few moments with me about the past. Sometimes this time of
year as school is getting out or we have a birthday or an anniversary,
we watch a video. Maybe some of you who are more
technologically advanced, you know, you have your photos off
your phone in a photo stream and every once in a while you
get one of these emails that say, hey a year ago this is what
you were doing and it’ll show you a set of photos from a year
ago. It’s kind of neat to go down memory lane. We go to funerals
sometimes and we see a video or a slideshow of some of the
moments of the deceased’s life. It’s wonderful to look back,
and King David here, the psalmist, takes some time to get some perspective
and to look back. And what does he look back on?
He looks back on God at work. He looks back at the work of
God, the hand of God in life. Notice in verses five and six,
he says, for you, O Lord, are my hope. You are my trust, O
Lord, from my youth. Upon you have I leaned from before
my birth. You are he who took me from my
mother’s womb, and my praise is continually of you. I was told the other day that
in a class on pastoral counseling and psychology that was taught
some years ago, the professor would begin every class by handing
the students a blank sheet of paper, and they had to spend
the next hour writing their epitaph. Or not just their epitaph, their
obituary. And so that exercise, as morbid
as it sounds, is very helpful. Isn’t it interesting to think
about your life all in one little bird’s eye view? I mean, I look
back over today and it’s kind of overwhelming. I got up and
did my day and did all the things I had to do on Sunday, and that’s
overwhelming enough. But to think back over your whole
life, your birth, your childhood, your upbringing, your school
years, your job training years, the work that you did, the children
that you raised, the encounters you had in life. Think about
King David. He’s speaking of here his birth,
his childhood, and we pick up the story with David maybe somewhere
in his youth when he’s a shepherd boy. He’s killing bears and wolves
and tending the sheep, and he’s the ruddy one of the bunch. He’s not the one that is picked
for king by men, but God chooses him, and Samuel anoints him,
and we pick up on the story, and as we’ve studied the Psalms
over these last A couple of years, we’ve seen that David has been
through a lot before he even gets to the throne of Israel. And yet God has been faithful
to him. He’s protected him from wild
beast. He’s protected him from beast like King Saul. He’s made
him king over Israel. He’s enlarged his borders and
stretched them to the farthest reaches that Israel had seen
to its day. And then in verse seven, He says
of his own life, I have been as a portent, whatever a portent
is, to many. He’s been an example. He’s been
one that others could look to. He is one of those, we like to
say, a man for all seasons. There aren’t many like King David,
but God in his wisdom raised him up. and in some extra special
providence, he’s placed him before our eyes, and we can look at
David, and we can see that God is a faithful God. Now he looks
back at the past, back at the span of his life, and God has
been good to him. Sometimes, you know, we think
others are special. You think about that. If you’re a basketball
player, you say, well, I just know Michael Jordan. Or if you’re
in some profession, you say, well, I was no fill in the blank
for whoever was the greatest. But you know, God has made every
one of us. He’s made every one of us unique. We’re made in his
image and he has placed us. He has, as we like to say, he
has dropped us in as a special ops. force person into the unique
place in life. He gave you as a mother to your
children. He gave you as a father to your
children. He puts you in your workplace. He puts you in your
specialty with your brain power, your skills, with your abilities,
with your good looks or the lack thereof, whatever may be the
case, but God has put you in your place in life. And sometimes
we can look up to David or we can look up to people like Michael
Jordan or the president or whoever and say, I wish I was like he.
I know a lot of ministers in the past when we’ve celebrated
the life of Billy Graham, they’ve lamented that they weren’t like
him. They didn’t reach as many. They didn’t preach like him.
But God only made one Billy Graham. God only made one King David.
And he has only made one like you. And as we look over the
span of our lives, we can’t help but see that God has been at
work. And so there’s a glimpse of the
past. God has been good. There’s a glance at the future.
That’s the second thing. And this is maybe a little bit
counterintuitive for some who are getting older you think as
you get older that you’re going to slow down you think that as
you get older you’ve done all there is to do and maybe it’s
time for a little bit of quieter life and maybe that’s the case
with energy level and abilities but there is a future and David
speaks of it you know we often think of aging and retiring as a time to ease things down and
maybe to have some regrets, maybe to be fearful, maybe to wonder
what lies beyond, but it really in the Bible is an age of opportunity.
There’s work to be done. Verse 17 and 18 tell us that,
Oh God, from my youth, you have taught me and I still proclaim
your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs,
oh God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another
generation, your power to all those who come. This summer,
if the Lord is willing and we make our way out to Tennessee
to see Mandy’s family, her grandmother will be 102. Quite amazing. And she sits in
her chair. It’s where she spends most of
her days and she prays. She knows our church. She knows
my children, her grandchildren, or her great-grandchildren. She
keeps an eye on things. And I wonder sometimes, Mandy
and I both wonder sometimes, if our successes in life are
not simply because she’s alive and praying. She desires for
the next generation to know the Lord. This past week, about 50
of us spent time with Sinclair Ferguson in Greenville, South
Carolina. And in a conversation with him, I said, Dr. Ferguson, don’t you get tired
of traveling? He’s 70 years old. He lives in Scotland now. He
could stay home. But he came all the way over
to be with his brothers in the Associate Reform Presbyterian
Church. And he told us it was because he loves us. We’re brothers
with him. We’re fellow ministers. His ordination
is still in our denomination. And I thought, what a perspective.
You know, he had a little cough this week and he related that
it was from some travels back in the fall from a long airplane
ride. And he has that perspective.
I’m still of use to the Lord and where he calls, I will go
where he sends, I’ll obey. And so old age is an age of opportunity. It’s an age where there is still
work to be done. And you know, I think we’re blessed
as a congregation. We have young and old and in
between. You look out over our congregation, particularly on
Sunday morning, and you look out over the span of ages and
the lion’s share of the work of our church is done. It’s done
by older people. It’s done by older people who
have that perspective that God is still using them. And one
of our desires as a church to grow And to be around at year
100, or just what, past 53 years, I think, it’s going to take some
work on our part to make sure our church is still here at year
100. I think I calculated one time I’ll be about 88 if my wife
hadn’t done me in yet, or other things. That’s a joke, right? Yeah. You know, Billy Graham’s
wife said, divorce never, murder yes. But it will take very hard work
for us now to ensure that our church is here and thriving at
year 100. And so we must think, as we get
older, about the next generation. You know, we’re living in a time
where young people, they don’t wanna have children, because
they’re hard work. You know, they cry at night,
they eat, they need diapers changed, they have to be taught, they
have to be trained, it’s difficult work. But where will the next
generation come from Those who have advanced in years do not
serve. But what’s our duty to the next
generation? It’s to teach the generation to come who is the
Lord, what he has done, and what he has promised to do, and that
our God is a great God and a savior. One of the great opportunities
I think the church has, particularly for those who are older in the
church, is to make sure that our children know their catechism,
know their Bibles, know their hymns. And not only to set the
example, but maybe to sit down face to face with them and say,
tell me your catechism. Tell me your Bible verses. Let
me hear what’s in your little heart. And then to pray for them
during the week. So there’s a little of the past,
a little of the future. How about the present? had a
neighbor when we lived down in the Charlotte way. His name is
Banks Miller. And he was retired. He was a
retired school teacher. He retired at about age 53. And every day,
Banks would walk the neighborhood. And every morning, about 5, 36
o’clock, I would get up and take my walk. And there would be Banks
walking. And I’d say, good morning, Banks. How are you? And he’d
say, I’m vertical. And he was just beginning his
day. He was always going fishing.
He was always doing yard work. Toting grandchildren around he
was always into something and from sunup to sundown. He was
at work serving other people In fact when we moved into the
neighborhood, he knocked on the door He handed us one of his wife’s
famous pies and he said we intend to be good neighbors and they
sure were in fact when Patrick was born and we needed a middle-of-the-night
babysitter. We called their house at 2 30
and he answered and I said you told me and If ever I need you
to give you a call, so I’m calling. And they were over in two or
three minutes and they kept caroling while Patrick was born. And they were wonderful gifts
to us. But if alive, if vertical, if able, we can look at the righteousness
and the faithfulness of God. It comes to us at the end of
Psalm 71. If you look at verses 19 through
21, you see God’s faithful or God’s righteousness. And then
22 to 24, you see his faithfulness. He says, starting in 19, your
righteousness. Oh God reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things. Oh God, who is like you. You have made me see many troubles
and calamities, and you will revive me again from the depths
of the earth. You will bring me up again. You
will increase my greatness and my comfort. And so even as we
face old age in the present, we can know of the righteousness
of God. Now this isn’t the righteousness of God that is imputed to us,
that’s received by faith, that’s our standing before God, our
justification, though that is important. This is just simply
noting, just simply observing that everything God does is right. He never does wrong. We have
a heavenly father. And as his children, if we ask
him for fish, he gives us fish and not a serpent. He’s a good
God to us. He’s a righteous God. Everything
he does is right. But he’s also a faithful God.
Verse 22 says, I will praise you with the harp. For your faithfulness,
O my God, I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O holy
one of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when
I sing praises to you. My soul also, which you have
redeemed. and my tongue will talk of your
righteous help all the day long for they have been put to shame
and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.” This is our present
view of God. This is David’s present view
of God. Though the world is chaotic around
us, the world is falling apart, the earth teeters and shakes
and there’s war and rumors of war and all those sorts of things.
we can rest in the righteousness and faithfulness of God. So how
do we think about these things? How do we think of the past,
the present, the future? How do we think about old age? Well,
first, think about old age as being useful. You can never retire
from usefulness to Almighty God. Think of yourself as having a
job and a task. We say in Romans chapter 10,
how will the people know of the gospel if they don’t have a preacher,
right? We need a preacher to preach
the gospel. Well, how will the next generation know about God? He does it through older people,
and he lets us live to proclaim yet to another generation the
greatness, the faithfulness, and the righteousness of God.
And so with our aches and our pains and our our struggles of old age, one
of the things we must remember is there is a generation that
needs to hear it from us. Pray with me if you will. Our
Lord and God, we thank you so much for reminding us of how
good you are, how wonderful of God and Savior and Redeemer you
are. We thank you for making known to us your faithfulness,
your righteousness, and even our calling and duty in this
world. Help us to remember Help us to have faith and zeal to
serve others, to serve the next generation. Even with our aches
and pains and our struggles, give us the energy to proclaim
to yet another generation that you are God. Hear our prayers
and bless us in this way we do ask in Christ’s name, amen.