Today’s Passage: Psalm 71
This psalm gives us no heading and no author’s name, only the voice of a long life speaking to God. It has trusted Him from its youth and leaned on Him since birth, and now it prays as its strength begins to fail: do not discard me, do not forsake me. Keep me, it asks, even when I am ziqnah, pronounced zik-NAH. Strong's H2209, old age, aging. The fear here is a specific one, the fear of being discarded once strength has failed. This is not a general prayer for safety in the abstract. It is the prayer of someone watching his own strength slip away, and asking not to be set aside as it goes. , at least until I have told the next generation of Your power.
As you read, hold this: Do not forsake me. I will proclaim Your power to the next generation.
Context No heading
Unlike the psalms that stand on either side of it, this one names no author and no tune to sing it by. What it names instead is age. You hear it in verse 9 and again in verse 18, the prayer of a life already long, still trusting the God it has always trusted, and still asking to be kept useful to Him.
Psalm 71:1-6 (BSB)
¹ In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame. ² In Your justice, rescue and deliver me; incline Your ear and save me. ³ Be my rock of refuge, where I can always go. Give the command to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress. ⁴ Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and ruthless. ⁵ For You are my hope, O Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth. ⁶ I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother’s womb. My praise is always for You.
From my youth, since birth: this is not some new discovery made late in life, but a lean that has lasted all his days. Be my rock, he prays, the rock I can always go to.
Psalm 71:7-13 (BSB)
⁷ I have become a portent to many, but You are my strong refuge. ⁸ My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your splendor all day long. ⁹ Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails. ¹⁰ For my enemies speak against me, and those who lie in wait for my life conspire, ¹¹ saying, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for there is no one to rescue him.” ¹² Be not far from me, O God. Hurry, O my God, to help me. ¹³ May the accusers of my soul be ashamed and consumed; may those who seek my harm be covered with scorn and disgrace.
His enemies say that God has forsaken him, and he prays the very opposite: do not discard me, hurry to help me, let the accusers be the ones put to shame. Notice the line he will not cross. He does not take revenge into his own hands. He hands the whole matter over to God and leaves the shame with Him.
Psalm 71:14-18 (BSB)
¹⁴ But I will always hope and will praise You more and more. ¹⁵ My mouth will declare Your righteousness and Your salvation all day long, though I cannot know their full measure. ¹⁶ I will come in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will proclaim Your righteousness—Yours alone. ¹⁷ O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds. ¹⁸ Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
He is not asking merely to be kept safe, but to be kept long enough to finish the telling. The righteousness he proclaims is God’s alone, and he wants it carried to the next generation and to all who are still to come.
Psalm 71:19-24 (BSB)
¹⁹ Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You? ²⁰ Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up. ²¹ You will increase my honor and comfort me once again. ²² So I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. ²³ When I sing praise to You my lips will shout for joy, along with my soul, which You have redeemed. ²⁴ My tongue will indeed proclaim Your righteousness all day long, for those who seek my harm are disgraced and confounded.
He does not pretend the troubles were few; there were many of them. Yet he trusts that God will revive him once again, bringing him up even from the depths, and that the soul God has redeemed will keep its tongue busy proclaiming Him.
Study notes He will yet again deliver
Paul names the same pattern. Not one rescue. Many. Each one teaching the next.
"Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us." 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (BSB)
It is the God who raises the dead. He has delivered before, He delivers now, and He will yet again. It is the same gospel this old psalm has been praying all along: do not forsake me, and I will proclaim Your power to the next generation.
Do not forsake me. I will proclaim Your power to the next generation.