Psalm 71
This is a complex psalm. It would be difficult to structure a brief lesson that covers all of it. Instead, let us focus on one important aspect of it, a matter of tremendous relevance to all of us. It is the statement of verses 17 and 18 that the writer will never retire from praising God. Let us notice four things about this.
God’s goodness
Praise is grounded in appreciation for the Lord’s lifelong guidance. The writer repeatedly indicates this as the basis for his praise. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds” (17).
“For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you” (5-6). “My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge” (15).
Praise and need
We should notice also that praise is the ground of his request for current help. He is saying, in effect, “Deliver me that I may be able to praise you and even pass the knowledge of you on to future generations.” “So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” (18).
Concern for ourselves is always involved in an appeal to God for help. But what is notable in the Bible, and in the Psalms especially, is the connection so often made between deliverance and God’s glory.
Why should I be delivered? We tend to answer in terms of a claim that we deserve or desire it. They answered in those terms at times. But frequently would also claim that their deliverance would work to God’s glory. Psalms 25:11; 31:3, and 106:7-8 are all examples of this.
Why are we unwilling to ask on the basis of God’s glory? Our human desire is to claim that we deserve salvation. But this is deadly. The one who claims to deserve salvation is not justified, according to Jesus (Lk 18:9-14). Perhaps we also sense, even unconsciously, that in asking to be saved in order to glorify God we would imply a willingness to be lost if that would glorify him more (see Romans 9:1-3). Most of us do not want to consider that possibility. Whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to put humans (mainly ourselves) at the heart of our religion.
No retirement
Note what fruit the no retirement attitude of verse 18 could bear today. What would the church be today if every retired Christian over the last 100 years had devoted their retirement years to praising God full-time? What will the church be 30 years from now if every retired Christian looks at their golden years not as a time to do what they want to do, but as a time to do whatever will best glorify the Lord?
Nurture it now
The attitude must be nurtured well before the time comes. No lukewarm Christian wakes up at 65 with a sudden willingness to serve the Lord full-time. Those who serve full-time in their retirement years are naturally those who served as fully as they could earlier in life. Those who developed an appreciation for his guidance and forgiveness in their lives early in life are those who serve. “For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. 6 Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you” (5-6).
The attitude is not, “What is God going to do for me?” The attitude should be, “In view of all he has already done for me, what can I do to glorify him?”
A gathering of people with the first attitude will fail. A church with the second attitude will prosper. An individual with the first attitude likely will be unhappy, spiritually unproductive, and eternally lost. A person with the latter attitude will be spiritually productive, even in difficulties. He will not be understood by the world, but he will know the joy of the Lord and the peace that passes understanding.