Younger people don’t tend to think of old age too often. Though they hope to reach a ripe old age, they don’t want to think of being old. In addition to waning strength and frequently poorer health, old age can often bring loneliness. As we get older, our parents, and then our siblings and friends start to die off. Children might not come around or call that often, as they are busy with their own lives. And poor health can keep one housebound. Alone, poor health, mounting problems that one can’t handle due to age and infirmity, one can fear that even God has abandoned them. Our psalmist today was older, and had many problems surrounding him. His psalm is a prayer that God would not abandon or forget him in his old age.
Though now an older man, probably in his senior years, our unknown psalmist had been a believer and follower of the Lord God since his youth (vs. 5-6). He believed that the Lord had been with him ever since he was born, so many years earlier, and praised Him for His care all throughout his life. From his mother’s womb the Lord drew the psalmist into the light of day. From his youth up, Yahweh was his trust. Now he is an older man of faith, who reacts to his troubles with implicit trust in God. Here in his old age, he has one last request - please do not forsake me, Lord! (vs. 9, 18).
As we get older, are approaching or are in our senior years, we recognize that God has been our constant help in the past. This is what our psalmist recognized and remembered. Whenever he had a trial in his life, the Lord was there to help him through. Remembering this, he knew that he could rely on God to help him through his remaining days.
Psalm 71 is abounding with expressions of trust and communion with God. Because we know that God has helped us in the past, we know we can trust Him. Especially with those who have known the Lord as Savior since childhood, they can surely recount countless times of His care. Now, with the problems that we face today, we know that we can have hope that He will be with us today (vs. 5-6). God is our strong refuge, and is worthy of our praise and honor (vs. 7-8).
As the psalmist discovered we can either hope in God, putting our faith and trust in Him, or we can trust and hope in other men. We cannot place faith, trust and hope in both. By the time we reach old age, we can undoubtedly recall many times when other people have failed us, even turned against us when we needed their help. However, that is never the case with the Lord. As we look back, we see that God has been our constant help from childhood to old age. We can turn to Him at any time for anything. He is always there for us. We can trust Him, as God has continually been faithful.
Remembering God’s lifetime of blessings will help us see the consistency of His grace throughout the years. It will show us that we have all good reason to trust Him for the future. As our strength and physical abilities wane over the years, we need God even more. As more gray hairs come, we can know that He will be our constant help.
As believers, our lives are a testimony of what God has done for us. We should seek to leave a Christian legacy. Just as our psalmist was, we can be known to others as one who continually trusted in the Lord, in good days and in bad, from the beginning to the end of our life. We can leave one last plea to God - Dear Lord, forsake me not in my old age! Let my legacy be that I trusted You until my very last breath.
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