Psalm 71 - Growing Old

This psalm is written by an old believer who has been one all his life. In it, he expresses his fears, and perhaps he has found that he now reacts differently from what he would have done when he was younger.

Since the Lord had helped him previously, he deduced that God had given the commandment to save him. Past deliverances encouraged him to pray for and expect current and future help, even from attacks by dangerous people (vv. 1-4). 

In verses 5-8, he reflects on his lifelong relationship to the Lord. His own experience is different from most because he indicates that he was regenerated from the womb. He is aware that others regard him as unique, even special, although some regard him as a threat. Yet he is very thankful for God’s faithful help and praises him on a daily basis for the safety he provides.

Nevertheless, he knows that old age has its problems (vv. 9-13). One of them is that opponents consider him weak and isolated, and that they can move against him, even using religious language to cover their evil intentions. So he brings their threats to the Lord and asks him to deal with those who are threatening him.

Although he is old, he intends to serve God wholeheartedly in the future (vv. 14-18). In addition to his personal expressions of praise, he looks forward to continuing his role as a teacher of God’s people. The focus of his teaching will be to highlight the wonderful things that God has done. He knows that the next generation needs to hear what the Lord did, and that he can show his faithfulness to God by informing them or reminding them of those extraordinary actions. But he needs fresh divine power for him to do so.

Reminding himself of those great divine acts, as well as recalling personal experiences of divine help, made him realise that God could revive him again, even although he was feeling low at that time (vv. 19-21). His God could descend to where he felt he was, even in the depths of the earth. He would be taken from there by the divine hand and not merely to where he had been before. Rather his God could give him more greatness than he previously had had, and more comfort as well.

Therefore, despite his sense of old age, he knew that he could praise and serve God (vv. 22-24). His reference to musical instruments could indicate that he was one of the temple musicians who led the public praise of God there. Not only would he worship by song and instrument, he would also declare loudly and testify to the ongoing divine help that he had received, even about the answered prayer that dealt with recent attacks on him.

Getting older has its challenges. One of them is the sense that one is over the hill or put on the shelf, that the day is over and no role of service is available. The psalmist here deals with his own concerns and circumstances and discovers that God has ways of using him. The importance thing is that he brought the matter to the Lord who then sorted things out.