“A question of timing”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Thursday, March 17, 2022
Psalm 71 (Forward, p. 47) CEV p. 596
I’m not sure whether I have ever noticed this previously with this psalm but timing figures very prominently throughout it. Timing figures in this psalm in all three aspects, past, present and future.
With regards to the past, the psalmist is most definite about how God has been his help and his stay throughout this time:
“I depend on you, and I have trusted you since I was young. I have relied on you from the day I was born. Your brought me safely through birth, and I always praise you” (verses 5-6);
“You have taught me since I was a child, and I never stop telling about your marvellous deeds” (verse 17);
However, in remembering God’s past deeds, His past help, the psalmist pleads with God not to relax or relent in His care for him, not to forget or forsake him in his old age:
“Don’t throw me aside when I am old; don’t desert me when my strength is gone” (verse 9);
“Don’t leave me when I am old and my hair turns gray. Let me tell future generations about your mighty power” (verse 18).
All of this spills over into the psalmist’s present conduct. Not only do we find abundant evidence of his willingness to turn in prayer and trust God to look after him, but we also hear how he wants to continually praise Him:
“I will never give up hope or stop praising you. All day long I will tell the wonderful things you do to save your people” (verses 14-15a);
“All day long I will announce your power to save” (verse 24a).
All in all, our psalmist is more just simply impressed with God and God’s ability and care and has to tell others about Him. “You have done much more than I could possibly know” (verse 15b). “Your deeds of kindness are known in the heavens. No one is like you” (verse 19).
All of this raises a couple of questions for me. Firstly, do we go to God with such specificity and exactness that we would actually know that He had definitely answered our prayer? (This would be true whether it was for help, healing, direction, or anything else.) And secondly, would we have the confidence, and the nerve, to share these answers to prayers with others? My suspicion is that often we do neither, and so it means that, to others at least, our faith—and our God—seem relatively feeble and ineffective. No one our witness isn’t that compelling! And so, my prayer is this: ‘Lord, help me to be more confident and specific in prayer, be more expectant and open to seeing the results, and more willing to appropriately share them with others. Amen.”
Forward notes: “And now that I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, till I make known your strength to this generation and your power to all who are to come” (verse 18).
“I am getting older. Gray is creeping into my hair. Wrinkles are appearing around my eyes and mouth. I think of each gray hair and every wrinkle as my body’s acknowledgment that I have seen great beauty and deep sadness; I have spoken words of love and hurt. I have laughed a lot.
“Today, it is common to see slick marketing campaigns for products that claim to reverse the physical signs of aging. The writer of Psalm 71 seems to accept being old and gray and is more concerned with leaving a legacy of love. Rather than being remembered for being beautiful, the psalmist wants future generations to know the strength and power of God. Priorities.
“As a child, I learned much from my elders about God’s love. As I grow older, I reflect on how I can be an example of God’s love and strength to those who grace my life now and the ones who are yet to come.”
MOVING FORWARD: “If you are young, seek out the company of someone older. If you are older, take time to share some of your hard-won wisdom.”