I read an article this week titled “Five Great Things about Growing Older.” I was glad to know there are 5. Number one: You’ll be happier. The article said, “Most grumpy old people used to be grumpy young people.” Two: Wise decisions come more easily. Aging, they now say, does not cause the loss of a significant number of brain cells. We hit our cognitive peak between 40 and 68 years of age. Three: The fashion police will be off your back. Please, if you wear colored socks with short pants, you should be arrested. Four: You’ll know who you are. Good. I’ll be glad when that happens. Five: You’ll have time on your hands. This just goes to show you younger people that you can’t believe everything you read. No, seriously, the point they say is you will have time to share what you have learned. Old people are here to tell you where you’re headed tomorrow in time for you to make changes.
Youth is over-prized in our society and age is under-valued. Youth, however, does not mean incompetence, and age does not mean omni-competence. Some old people never grow up. They simply do not improve with age. Value and worth should not be based on age. Age is not a valid basis for discrimination.
When you are young, people say, You have time. You may proudly think, I have time. When you’re old people say, You don’t have much time. The truth is none of us have as much time as we think we do. Whatever you are going to do, you need to do it.
You can see the values of a society in the way they view aging. The “golden years” in our society are those year where you live to recreate: vacations, spas, resorts, golf, bocce ball, and croquet (sounds like a Cornerstone picnic). We’ve developed tonics, creams, treatments, and augmentations to disguise the effects of aging.
At 86 years of age, John Wesley, wrote: My sight is decayed…My strength is decayed…My memory of the names of persons and places is decayed. What I should be afraid of, if I took thought for the morrow, is my body should weigh down my mind and create either stubbornness [of mind or discontent] by the increase of bodily infirmities. But Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God. (Boice, Psalms, Vol. 2, 594).
Society says to the aging, Think about your life. Live it up. Wesley, the psalmist, and Jesus say, Don’t think about your life. Live for others.
Psalm 71 is unique among the psalms because it is written from the perspective of an old believer who had walked with God for many years. The psalmist reflects on the salvation and righteousness of God throughout his life giving him perspective on his present crisis and confidence in the future outcome.
The psalm is not structured predictably. It resists our attempts to make it behave like we want it to (like we would expect and old man to behave). It is an individual lament, but its pleas are less urgent than other laments, and they are surrounded by hope and praise (like we would expect an old believer to be). Because the themes of the Psalm are repeated throughout, the structure is hard to determine.
The dominate theme of the psalm is the righteousness of God and His saving deeds experienced in the context of the entire life of the psalmist. All the other repeated themes support that dominate theme. Nothing is more important to the believer throughout life than God’s righteousness and saving deeds. This psalms shows us that who God is and what He does is important for all of life.
The habit of the psalmist’s life was to take refuge in God’s righteousness and acts of deliverance. In these verses, the psalmist deals with the idea of God’s righteous acts of deliverance and God as his refuge. He piles up terms for refuge (vv1, 3, 7b) and for acts of deliverance (vv2, 3c, 4). He tells us what he has found the LORD to do and be for him is the foundation of his confidence (vv5-6).
The wording of verse 1a and 3a shows that the psalmist wants the LORD be his refuge. This psalm has a lot of quotes from other psalms. Vv1-3 are almost identical to Psalm 31:1-3a. While there are a few additions and omissions in the wording, Psalm 71:3b uses a different word for refuge than Psalm 31. It can be translated rock of habitation. This change in the text seems intentional in order to communicate the message of Psalm 71. The difference is between a refuge (a shelter) and a home. The line is then added to which I may continually come.
In his youth, perhaps God was a shelter from the occasional storm. Now in his old age, He has simply taken up residence in God. This is like the difference between camping out and living at the house. I camp occasionally. I go home every day. The habit of the psalmist life is to depend on the righteousness and saving acts of God.
The psalmist piles up verbs to describe what he has found the LORD to do for him—v2 In your righteousness deliver, rescue, hear me, save me. V3c You have given the command to save me. V4 Rescue me from the hand of wicked, unjust, and cruel man. God’s righteousness and acts of deliverance are used together often but they are not the same. They are like two sides to the same coin. On the one side, God judges His enemies, and on the other side He rescues His people. Saving His people and judging their enemies reveal the righteousness of God.
How these two concepts work together is seen clearly in this psalm. In verse 3c and d, God’s command to save and His fortressing His people are inseparably related like cause and effect. In the economy of God, it is right to save His people and bring their enemies to unending shame. When you oppose God’s people you oppose God. Saul of Tarsus learned this on the Damascus road when the mighty Lord Jesus knocked him off his horse and said, Saul, Saul, Why are you persecuting me?
To enter God’s refuge is a matter of lifelong practice. In verse 5 and 6, the psalmist explicitly states his lifelong trust in God. The LORD has been his hope and trust from his youth. The idea of his existence, his formation in his mother’s womb, and his birth itself were all beyond his control. His life was God’s idea and depended on God’s faithfulness. The psalmist could not conceive of God not being faithful.
In times of trouble, we are prone to flee to familiar comforters. I had a cat named Trigger who spent most of his short life on the back porch. He accidentally got run-over by a car one day. He ran as fast as he could to the back porch, laid down, and died. In a time of crisis, we will run to familiar comforters. Where do you run in a crisis? Pornography, drugs, anger, food? Away with these miserable comforters. Run to Christ.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred in A.D. 156. On his way to the arena where he would pay homage to Caesar or be torn by lions, the city officials tried to persuade him saying, “What harm is there in saying, ‘Caesar is Lord,’ and burning incense…and saving yourself?” Polycarp replied, “For 86 years, I have been Christ’s slave, and He has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme the King who saved me?” (Boice, Psalms, Vol. 2, 596).
Perhaps when you were first converted, you couldn’t imagine you were going to make it. There is joy and freedom at first, but as the months go by the old ways begin to pull at you. You feel yourself being drawn to your old life. Hold fast to Christ, and after a little while you will not be able to imagine life without Christ. The former you will be like an acquaintance you once knew but know no more. This does not mean you are beyond sin. At this point, you know God and yourself too well for that kind of self-deceit. Yet, Christ has become sweeter to you than this world’s elixir.
In his old age the psalmist was at home with God. That does not mean there are no battles to be fought and fears to be faced as we will see.
This section of the psalm marks the complaint. Apparently, the psalmist was experiencing adversity, and his enemies used it as an occasion to attack him. He complains that he had become a portent to many, but the LORD is his shelter from attack (7). A portent is a sign of divine punishment. The word is generally used of national events, only here with an individual. Here’s the picture. While the psalmist is taking refuge in God, many are interpreting his problems as a sign of divine displeasure. For some the psalmist is a sign of providential care. For many, he is a sign of divine judgment. A sign is subject to the interpretation of the viewer.
I have made it the goal of my life never to be a sign. I remember when I was a kid, and I would ask my parents if I could go swimming with my friends, they would say, “No.” Keep in mind I didn’t swim in chlorinated water until my adult years. I would reply, “Well, everybody’s going.” Inevitably, they would say, “If everybody jumps off a bridge, are you going to?” I hated that. Then they would add, “You remember what happen to Mickey last year. The current in that river would have swept him away if I hadn’t been there to throw him jug. You don’t want to end up like him, do you?” No, kidding folks. We carried empty plastic jugs in our car just in case we ran off a bridge. We could float our way to safety. Mickey was the portent that led my parents to believe I should not go swimming with a group of friends. I felt so misunderstood. I had better sense than to jump into the current and much more than to jump off a bridge.
The psalmist’s enemies saw He was weakening and experiencing trouble. They interpreted that as God’s displeasure and themselves as God’s agents of justice. “God has forsaken him,” they reasoned, “he is ours for the killing.” (11)
This situation is where we get colloquialisms like, Kick’em when they’re down. You’ve seen this in a boxing match. When one boxer is cut, his opponent will incessantly work on the cut. Examples, unfortunately, abound in every area of life. Why people want to attack the weak is beyond me? This is the way of the world. Remember, God has no appointed assassins. If you have to go around and point out the faults of your brothers and sisters, God is against you.
Difficulties and rejection can make us feel God has forsaken us as well. As life ebbs on, we find out that we are not all we thought we were. We start to weaken. We get passed up for promotions. We lose a job in a recession and find that nobody wants to hire anyone over 45. Life can get downright depressing.
The psalmist is fighting to think rightly about God and his own situation. Help me! (12) is not the idea of needing assistance. The language is strong. In English, we might function without help. In Hebrew, we would be dead. (Goldingay, Psalms).
The psalmist fights for faith by affirming that God is for him and against his enemies (13). Often, we need to stop, get in the Word, and get our minds straightened out. Don’t listen to the accusations of your enemies. Encourage yourself in the LORD.
Be people who edify and build others up. If you feel appointed to and justified in being the guy who goes around and gives everybody correctives, you have issues we need to explore. The largest of which is God opposes you. Why this desire to destroy and tear others down? I got a letter one time that consisted of 8 correctives all based on accusations made without my knowledge by accusers whose identity was protected. Number 9 on the list was something to the effect of “we thank you for the good job you are doing.”
Tell me something to tear me down, and I’ll go home and fret about it all day and the rest of the week. Tell me something up-building, and I’ll work harder and with more joy and satisfaction. There is a place for correctives. You shouldn’t assume the role of God’s appointed corrector.
Again the psalmist piles up terms referring to God’s righteousness and saving acts (15, 16, 17, 19, 24). He also piles up terms referring to “telling” of God’s righteousness and saving acts (15, 16, 17, 18, 24). There is little difficulty in determining what the psalmist is communicating. He is communicating the big truths of redemptive history and radically applying them to his own life.
The righteousness of God works to save his people. We tend to think of God’s saving deeds in terms of the big events in redemptive history. The big events are mentioned here. O God, who is like you? refers to the song of Moses after the Egyptians were drowned in the sea. The word redeemed in verse 23 is used 6 times in the OT, and all but one refers to deliverance from Egypt. Deliverance from Egypt is not the only saving act of God. It is an exemplary act. Others include the coverings of skin after the fall, the ark, Babel, Abraham’s battle of the kings, the conquest, the period of the judges, battles of David, the slaying of the Assyrians, etc.
Why all these acts of salvation? The psalmist says, Their number is past my knowledge (15). The psalmist, however, is not talking about those macro acts of national salvation. He has been taught by God (17), that those wondrous deeds of the past are to teach us God will act as powerfully in our lives to save us.
God works powerfully in our lives for our benefit, to be sure, but also for the encouragement of the coming generation. I can of a certainty tell you that you can repent of your sin and place your faith in Christ. You can do whatever God tells you to do. You don’t need to see your way clear. I’ve always thought it interesting that God told Abram, Go from your country…to a land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1). And Abram got up and went. Whatever God has told you to do, go do it.
I don’t want to hold myself up as an example, but I do want to tell you what the LORD has done for me. Early on, I felt like God wanted me to do two things: prepare for ministry and preach. We had a visiting pastor preaching a revival meeting in our church. Seeking confirmation, I told him I was going to leave my job, sell out, and go to school. He said, “How are you going to feed your family?” I was devastated. It had not crossed my mind that God might not feed us. This delayed us a bit, but we went and did not miss a meal. We were going to go to Eastern Europe and a man told me my children would get sick and die. We wouldn’t have any medicine. We are still here.
My point is stop worrying about how God is going to take care of you and do what He has called you to do. He will care for you in ways you cannot imagine and in ways He is not going to tell you about ahead of time. God wants you to go to school? Go. You wants to preach? Preach. You wants to pastor? Pastor. You want to be a missionary? Set your face toward it. You want to be an engineer that does missions? Be an engineer that does missions. You want to be a Christian doctor? Go do it. God will take care of you. He is taking care of you now. Don’t think for one minute that you are taking care of yourself now. That is beyond our pay grade. There has not been a moment of your existence when he has not taken care of you.
God’s righteousness extends to the highest heavens. He parted the Red Sea and drowned Pharaoh and his army to save His people. He is incomparable in all He does. He is able to meet and exceed every adversity we have. The psalmist contrasts God’s righteousness that reached to the highest heaven with our adversity that takes us to the depths of the earth (19, 20).
We are going to have trouble and adversity in this world, but it is not outside the scope of God’s control. It is for our salvation. God parted the Red Sea when it was in front of His people and the Egyptians were behind them. God brings us into crises to save us. The purpose of the Christian life is not to keep ourselves in a position where we don’t need saving. We are those whom God has saved. We know that no matter what happens, God is going to keep on saving us.
The psalmist’s crisis was such that the redemption he prays for is tantamount to the resurrection (20-21). To save his people God will raise the dead. Indeed, He did. He sent His eternal son to become a man, live a perfect life fulfilling His righteousness, die bearing the sin and wrath for those who repent and believe. God raised Him from the dead on the third day to justify all who repent and believe.
The reason the righteousness of God works for our salvation rather than for our condemnation is because Christ satisfied the righteous demands of the Law in His sinless life and satisfied the justice of God’s wrath for sinners in His death. He defeated the condemnation of death in His resurrection for all who repent and believe the gospel. He destroyed our last enemy, death, in His resurrection. We will face death not as condemnation but in expectation of being raised again when Jesus comes.
The psalm is framed by shame (1, 13, 24). There is a progression in the discussion of shame. First, the psalmist pleads to never experience shame (1). Second, his plea is for his accusers to be put to shame (13). Last, he praises God because his accusers have been put to shame. The past tense of verse 24 indicates certain fulfillment. Shame is a discrediting that cannot be overcome. Ultimate shame is the experience of eternal damnation. The psalmist teaches us that God is to be praised because of his righteousness and saving acts. He saves His people, and He judges their enemies.
This is vindication not vindictiveness (Kidner, TOTC, 272). The fact that God will set all wrongs right enables our praise now and is the basis for loving our enemies. It is no contradiction that we take comfort in the present and future justice of God and have compassion on lost sinners. It is no contradiction that we praise God for glimpses of justice in human societies in the present and preach to those in prison. It is no contradiction that in eternity we will praise God for the damnation of our enemies, and we work now for their salvation. We can feel the greatest love and compassion for our enemies because we know their end if they don’t repent.
At no place is the righteousness and saving acts of God more clearly seen than in the death and resurrection of the Son of God for those who repent and believe.