Psalm 71 - A Prayer fo the Aged
INTRODUCTION:
Interest:
This morning our sermon is a bit unique. It is primarily for those who have more gray hair than non-gray hair. I noticed this week that at least on my chin, I am now quite solidly in that category. Fortunately, the ratio of gray/non-gray on my head allows me to still think of myself as not quite in the target group yet. Of course, if you have more skin than hair on your head, you might be in the target category for this sermon. Also, if you would have more gray hair on your head were it not for some magical chemicals that come out of a bottle to hide that fact, you too are still in the target category of this sermon.
This sermon, as I’m sure you have figured out, is specifically for long-time believers. I know that not every senior saint has been a long-time believer. By God’s providence, some of you have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ later in life; so, while your years may be long, your length of time as a believer is still relatively short. Others, by God’s grace, began our lives of faith early on so our years as a believer have accumulated at about the same rate as our years that have grayed our heads.
Now, I certainly don’t want all of you who still fit the youthful category to check out and not listen to this sermon…by God’s grace you should anticipate that you will be an aged believer someday.
Involvement:
By and large, though, our psalm this morning speaks to the aged. Sometimes I think as age accumulates the temptation is there to think that your time of service to God is over, that there is nothing left that you are still able to do. This psalm will show you…and all who are younger than you…that such is not the case.
Context:
Our psalm, Psalm 71, doesn’t give any indication as to who wrote it. What is clear, though, is that it is written by someone from the perspective of age. It is also written by someone who has been a long-time believer
This believer has been heavily influenced by the words of Scripture during his life. I promise that I will not take the time to dive into the details at the level needed to point out how many of the phrases in this psalm are borrowed from other psalms, but there are a lot of borrowed phrases. For example, almost all of verses 1-3 of our psalm come from the first three verses of Psalm 31. If you have a Bible with cross-references, you will find a lot of references to other psalms listed here. Our writer knows his Bible well and uses the words of Scripture to express himself.
Preview:
What we have in this psalm is a writer who has enjoyed a life of faith for many years. He has had many experiences with God’s care over the years and has enjoyed communing with and worshipping his God. He is now near the end of his life. Yet the end of his life is not ease and comfort. Instead, he is facing ongoing torment by enemies, people who are still out to get him. These enemies have driven him to prayer, a prayer that he has recorded for us, a prayer that shows us that aged believers have an important role in the life of the community of faith. We learn that Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.
Listen up! Especially if you are an aged saint, a long-time believer. You have a special duty to the church. Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.
There are multiple ways that we could break this psalm down this morning, I am going to break it into three sections that each teach a principle about this privileged responsibility that long-time believers have.
Transition from introduction to body:
Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness. In the first 6 verses we find that…
BODY:
I. Long experience builds confidence, vv. 1–6
Let’s go ahead and read the verses 1-6 of Psalm 71…<read Ps 71:1–6>.
In these verses our psalmist refers to the confidence that he has in God as a place of refuge whenever he is under attack.
Illustration
The confidence that our writer has makes me think of Finley my granddaughter. Over the past few months, I have tried not to tell too many Finley stories. I guess you might get tired of hearing about her if she makes too many sermon appearances, although I can’t really see why since she is virtually perfect. Today Finley will make an appearance, though. In the past couple of weeks, she has begun walking. Grace and I have warned David and Katie that their lives are about to change drastically once again. Finley is at that normal baby stage of walking around a bit like Frankenstein—arms up in the air, spastic tilting back and forth over her center of gravity, all while staggering forward. Still, every day she is becoming more confident in her ability to walk. By the time that she hits her teen years, I’m pretty sure that she won’t give to much thought at all to keeping her balance as she walks. Long-experience will make walking a natural habit long before that giving her great confidence in her ability to get up and walk.
Well, our writer has long experience in seeking out God as a refuge, years of practice in fact. And those years have developed confidence within our writer, confidence in God.
Transition:
Looking at the verses that we read a few minutes ago, there are a least two aspects of confidence that we can detect in our psalmist. First, there is…
A. Confidence in God’s ability
Looking back over his life, our psalmist can recognize that God has sustained him throughout, from his birth, from his mother’s womb as he says in verse 6. God has been his “confidence” from his “youth,” verse 5. God has become his constant “rock and fortress,” verse 3. In other words, our writer is expressing in words that are familiar from many psalms that he has learned time and again that God is able to deliver him from dangers and enemies. He can continually come to God for refuge.
Illustration
Since Daniel, our son, moved out of our house and into his own house, there have been several times when he has called me up to ask advice on various projects. He is working on something and hit a snag. He calls expecting that I will have had experience with a similar situation and will be able to help him. He has increased confidence to tackle the problem after discussing it with me. I well remember asking my dad many similar questions along the way to gaining the experiences that Daniel is now tapping.
Application
In a similar fashion, the senior saints among us can help all of us learn to trust in God’s ability to help in times of problems. When we hit snags in life, we can talk to them and learn how they have relied on God as their refuge. We can hear of their experiences and gain confidence through them of God’s ability.
Transition:
Long experience builds confidence. The first aspect of that confidence is in God’s ability. The second is…
B. Confidence in God’s presence
In the first six verses we see the psalmist addressing God. He is confident that God is there because he has been communing with God continually since his youth. He has come to God continually and is comfortable in His presence, knowing there is safety and security in God.
Illustration
This is a bit like the way a child naturally goes to his mother for comfort and security when he is scared or hurt. He is not hesitant to seek out mom. Rather, he crawls right up onto mom’s lap and cuddles, finding confidence being in her presence.
Application
Long years of communing with God creates similar confidence with Him. Long-term saints do not wonder if they can turn to God, they naturally do so. I love to be with those who are so comfortable in God’s presence that their confidence in God is obvious. I gain confidence from them. Senior saints, that is one reason that we need your presence in our church’s prayer services. We need your confidence in God’s presence over your years of experience to rub off on the rest of us.
Transition:
Long experience builds confidence, confidence in God’s ability. Confidence is a benefit that comes through long experience, a benefit that can be passed along. Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.
In the next large section of the psalm, verses 7–18 we see that…
II. New challenges create opportunities, vv. 7–18
Let’s read these verses…<read Ps 71:7–18>.
Our psalmist is facing new challenges. Verse 10 makes it clear that he has enemies who are out to get him. They are speaking poorly of him and are watching for a chance to condemn him to death. Apparently the psalmist also is rather down and out as the enemies conclude that God has forsaken him. For that reason, they feel justified in hounding him and seeking to harm him. Of course, the mocking line that “God has forsaken him” is also an attack on the faith of the psalmist. He is known to believe in God, but they claim that his faith is of no avail to him when he really needs God’s help.
Application
Do you ever feel like troubles just keep piling up in your life? Do you feel like those who hate God and those who hate you and all you stand for are gaining the upper hand? Do you know what it is like to have people talking about you, making you a joke in their stories? Do you know people who despise you and your faith? If so, then the psalmist should resonate with you.
Except, remember that our psalmist is old as well. Not all of you can relate to being old yet. I’m sure that our writer would love to have had an easy retirement where he could indulge himself with golf every other day, but that is not what God gave him. Yet, rather than complain about his lot in life, our psalmist sees the new challenges that have come into his life as generating opportunities.
When life gets hard do you look at the hardships as opportunities or as justification for a Grumbly Gus attitude?
Transition:
There are a couple of specific opportunities that our aged writer grabs ahold of through the new challenges the problems bring into his life. We can learn to see challenges in our lives as creating both opportunities as well. First, new challenges create…
A. Opportunities to call to God for help.
This entire psalm is a prayer to God and there are several verses in this section that specifically call out to God for help. Look at verse 12 as one example, “O God, do not be far from me; O my God, hasten to my help.”
Our writer is showing that this is how he is going to respond to his problems; he is going to call to God for help. He is not going to get discouraged. He is not going to get grumpy. He is not going to become angry. He is not going to try to solve the problems through his own efforts or wisdom. What he is going to do is to call out to God for help.
A key observation for us, is to observe that our writer is responding this way because this is the pattern that he has developed over the course of his entire life. He is no stranger to problems, and he has learned to turn to God when they arrive.
Application
Senior saint, let me ask you, is this your experience? Have you learned to turn to God when problems come up in your life? When things happen now, what do the other people in your life see happening? Do they see discouragement and anger? Do they see stress and frantic efforts? Or do they see you calling out to God for help? Do people see you grasping the newest problem that has come into your live as an opportunity to call to God for help?
Younger saints, are you developing a pattern in your life now of calling to God for help. If we want to become the kind of aged saint that sets the right example, we need to be developing the right pattern now.
Transition:
New challenges create opportunities to call to God for help. New challenges also create…
B. Opportunities to tell of God’s character.
Verse 8, “my mouth is filled with Your praise And with Your glory all day long.” Verse 15, “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And of Your salvation all day long.” Verse 16, “I will make mention of Your righteousness.” Verse 17, “I still declare Your wondrous deeds.” Verse 18, “Do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation.”
Application
It should always be our desire to share God’s character, but the example of our psalmist places an extra duty to do so on the shoulders the aged. You have the years of experience that comes with your gray hair. You have the confidence that we discussed earlier developed through those experiences. You have the credibility generated by those years to demonstrate what faith in God looks like.
So, are you? Are you using the challenges that God brings into your life to demonstrate what steadfast faith looks like, a faith that openly and freely shares the character of God in the midst of hard times? God brings challenges into your life to give you the opportunities that they create to tell other people about Him. Let me urge you to grab every opportunity that God gives you.
And let me urge those of us you are less than “aged” to listen to those who are pointing us to God. Let us learn to echo their responses and tell others of God’s character.
Transition:
New challenges create opportunities to tell of God’s character. Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness. New challenges create opportunities. Opportunities to call to God for help and to tell of God’s character.
In the last verses of the psalm, we see one further principle that supports our idea that Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.
III. Long experience causes unwavering praise, vv. 19–24
Let’s read the final verses of our psalm, picking up on verse 19…<read Ps 71:19–24>.
We see our psalmist end this psalm with words of praise. As verse 20 makes clear, this is not his first rodeo, God has allowed “many troubles and distresses” into his life. From those experiences he has learned to give unwavering praise to God.
Transition:
I would like us to observe two aspects about the unwavering praise displayed in these final verses. First, it is…
A. Praise to God while suffering
Our psalmist is still in the middle of his problems, his difficulties have not ended sometime between verse 1 and verse 19. But those problems do not have any direct bearing on his offering praise to God. He still joins with the believing community participating in public worship, singing praise to the “Holy One of Israel” (verse 22). He praises God simply for being God, a God who does great things (verse 19). His present problems do not impact his praise. He still has a lifetime of reasons to praise God.
Application
Seniors, one of the greatest things that you can do to bring glory to our God is to simply be here in public worship when it is hard for you to be here. The rest of us are watching you. Even when your problems become so severe that you cannot join us publicly, we are watching your response. We know of your problems; we know of your challenges. But your presence here singing with us and praising God speaks to us louder than you know of your love for God. When we see you praising God while suffering, we learn that God has given you over your life reasons to worship that nothing can take away from you. We see your love for Christ on display. We see that when you have nothing else to hold on to, you are holding on to Him.
Of course, all of us who know Jesus as our Savior have the same reasons to praise God. We can always hold on to Christ, just as we see our senior saints do. We too can praise God while suffering.
Transition:
Long experience causes unwavering praise. Praise to God while suffering displays unwavering praise as we see in the end of our psalm. A second aspect displayed in the final verses of unwavering praise is…
B. Praise in anticipation of deliverance
While the psalmist is currently suffering, he is clearly anticipating deliverance. Verse 20, “You…Will revive me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” The writer is talking about deliverance from his trials, not resurrection from the grave here. Actually, the original Hebrew has “us” instead of “me” in this verse. The psalmist can reflect on the disasters and revivals that God has given Israel over the centuries and anticipate that he will experience similar deliverance in his own personal situation. In fact, he anticipates it so strongly that he speaks of it in the past tense in the final line of this psalm. His enemies “are ashamed…they are humiliated.” This hasn’t happened yet, but it will. It is certain.
Application
Frankly, this is the confidence that every believer should display. We should all, as we have discussed many times, live our lives in a manner that demonstrates that we are on the winning team. Our Lord has conquered sin and death. Our Lord is coming again. We can anticipate His deliverance, regardless of what problems we might face.
Illustration
Still, there is a reason that young people start many projects that never succeed; they don’t know the effort that is really required. They are naïve about how life really works.
In a similar fashion, words anticipating deliverance from the mouth of a young person might be chalked up to gullibility Such is not the case, though, when the same words come from the mouth of an elderly person who has seen time and time again how difficult things really are in this world. When you, aged saint, anticipate God’s deliverance through Jesus Christ in the face of current hardships, your testimony rings powerfully. Are you sharing your confidence in your Savior when life is hard? Do your family members and neighbors see you praising God because you know Jesus? You have the credibility of age. Don’t squander it.
Transition from body to conclusion:
Long experience causes unwavering praise. Praise in anticipation of deliverance is the second aspect we see in our psalm of this unwavering praise.
CONCLUSION
As I said at the outset, this is primarily a sermon for the aged, the long-time believers in our church. Of course, regardless of our age, we are all heading toward the aged category so we can all learn from these verses as well as from those whom God has placed around us in that aged category. Today God has had a special word for those who are well progressed in the experience of life. Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.
Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness. That has been the overall idea that we have extracted from Psalm 71. We have also seen three principles that support this privileged responsibility. First, long experience build confidence. Second, new challenges create opportunities. Third, long experience causes unwavering praise.
If God has given you years of life knowing Him, recognize the privileged responsibility that you have. Long-time believers have a privileged responsibility to tell others of God’s faithfulness.