Forsake Me Not In Old Age

Psalm 71

Forsaken.  That is a very sad and depressing word, bringing thoughts of being abandoned, neglected, and left behind.  That is a fear of some children, and of many people as they grow older. Older people might be afraid that their friends won’t remember them, and that they will be cast aside and forgotten by their family.  Too many elderly are left alone in their homes or in nursing facilities, seemingly forgotten by everyone, so this is not a baseless fear. Our psalmist for today had this fear, particularly that God would forsake him, and there are several appeals throughout the psalm that God not forget him when he is old.

Old age sneaks up on us so quickly.  One day we are young, our bodies can do just about everything we want.  Thoughts of getting older don’t even come into our mind. Then, suddenly it seems, our hair is gray, and we our now seniors. Arthritis comes, the eyesight isn’t as good as before, the memory isn’t as sharp, either. The family is busy with their own lives, and friends have either passed away or have their own infirmities.  They feel useless and forgotten. “God, please don’t forget about me!”, is our psalmist’s prayer (vs. 9, 18). As he grew older he still wanted to be a testimony of God’s faithfulness, and a useful part of God’s work.  He did not want to be cast aside, worn out, or forgotten.

That is a fear that we do not need to have, no matter what our age may be.  God will never forget His children. He has promised that even if family may forget us, He never will (Isaiah 49:15).  God has promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). As believers grow older, we should see that God has been our constant help in the past.  As our bodies grow older, and we cannot do all that we used to, with more aches and pains, we need to realize that God is still our constant help (vs. 14).  Our hope and faith in God will help us to keep going.

God gives us constant help from our childhood through our old age (vs 6).  Our lives should be a testimony of what He has done for us (vs. 7, 18). We never become too old to serve God.  Even when our bodies start breaking down, God can still use us. Moses was an elderly man when God used him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and to the Promised Land.  God used and spoke through many of the prophets into their old age, and He gave the Apostle John the prophetic visions that he wrote in the book of Revelation when an old man. No matter what our age, God has continually been faithful (vs. 3).

As our psalmist looks back over his life, he remembers how he has trusted in God since a child (vs. 5).  This should be an encouragement for Christian parents to be sure that they tell their children about Jesus from an early age, as soon as they are old enough to understand.  If parents don’t tell their children about Jesus early in life, others will come along with their false beliefs and convince them at an early age to follow them. There is a saying, attributed to several different people, that says, “Give me a child until he is seven, and we will have him for life.”  What a child is faithfully taught in their early, tender years, will stay with them for life. It is a Christian parent’s responsibility to instruct their children about Jesus at a very early age.

Another truth that our psalmist teaches in this psalm is that our faith is not meant to be kept quietly to ourselves.  Society has often tried to tell people to keep their faith and religious beliefs to themselves, and not to tell others about salvation through Jesus Christ.  We share with others the things that we love and what gives us joy, such as music, a good book or movie, our hobbies, etc. As believers, the Lord should be our chiefest delight, and we should spread that good news to everyone we meet.  We have the most important message the world has ever known, and we should not keep it to ourselves!