O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. Psalm 71: 17, 18, NKJV.
Blessed LORD, how much we need You – in the morning of our lives as well as when the shadows fall. Please keep ever before us, that even though we are changing, You are the same yesterday, today, and forevermore! In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, we humbly pray. Amen!
Psalm 71 is a “one of a kind” psalm, in my humble opinion. I love this psalm! In my imagination, I see David clinging to God, for dear life! He is reminding God of past deliverance, and of how faithful God has always been to him. Notice phrases and sentences such as: “Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually” (3a). “You are my trust from my youth” (5b). “By You I have been upheld from birth . . . My praise shall be continually of You” (6a, c). “Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day” (8). “But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more” (14). “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day” (15). “O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. “You . . . Shall revive me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth” (20). “You shall increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side” (21). “My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long” (24).
“Continually,” “again,” “all the day,” “from my youth,” “on every side,” “from birth,” “and to this day;” speak of God’s faithfulness throughout the psalmist’s life! “Be my strong refuge,” “I may resort,” “my trust,” “upheld,” “I will hope,”
“yet more and more,” “You have taught me,” “revive,” “bring me up,” “increase my greatness,” “comfort me,” all speak of the quality of the care God gives to His children. From his mother’s womb, until he had reached “old age,” at no time did the faithfulness (quantity), or quality, of God’s care for the psalmist decline! The God of his youth was the God of His old age and he could trust Him! So can we!
One of the peculiarities I dare say, of the majority of human beings, is that we tend to create a god in our own “image and likeness” (I have said this before). We have never succeeded in wrapping our minds around the proven fact, that God is God – and we are not! Our tendency is to believe that, if I cannot do it, neither can God! Let me just remind us, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19: 26)! Our way of thinking is, If I change, then surely, God must change too! Again a reminder of His words, “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3: 6). We reason, If I feel this way, then, of course, God feels the same way (please read Isaiah 55: 8)!
As we age, oftentimes some interesting changes take place in us – some good, some, not so good. There is a tendency to become very vulnerable. Our strength sometimes fail us. Some individuals even begin to perceive themselves as less than they used to be. What a blessing it would prove to be, if at these times, we could recognize that this is one of the greatest differences between us and the Creator of the universe – we are the ones who change, not God! T believe we would not fear for the future. We would remember that, the God who took care of us in our youth, will take care of us in our old age, because He is the same God, and He changes not!