Biblion Bible Commentary
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Don't Cast Me Off in Old Age
Psalms 71:1-24
1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. · WEB
An old man, watched by people waiting for him to fail, asks for time to tell one more generation.
In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed Psalms 71:1.
The psalm has no heading and is stitched together from lines found elsewhere in the collection — the opening verses are nearly identical to the thirty-first psalm. An old man is praying in the words he has used all his life.
For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth. I have relied on you from the womb Psalms 71:5–6.
The argument of the whole psalm is length of service. He is not claiming merit; he is pointing out that the relationship is long, and that God started it.
Don't reject me in my old age. Don't forsake me when my strength fails Psalms 71:9.
The fear named is being discarded once he has stopped being useful, and it is the specific fear of the old. The psalm does not treat it as unworthy.
For my enemies talk about me... saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him" Psalms 71:10–11.
His opponents have concluded from his decline that heaven has finished with him, and are moving accordingly. The reasoning is the same one used against the man in the third psalm and against Job. Weakness is read as verdict.
But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise Psalms 71:14.
The most quietly determined line in the psalm. He will add to the praise — a man with a long record of it deciding that the total is not final.
My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don't know its full measure Psalms 71:15.
He declares what he has not finished understanding. The admission is unusual and it removes the excuse that one should wait until one has it straight.
Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don't forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to come Psalms 71:18.
The request is given a purpose, and the purpose is not comfort. He asks for more time in order to hand something over. It is the same instinct as the seventy-eighth psalm and the forty-eighth: whatever this generation has seen has to reach the next one, and an old man is the only person who can carry it that far.
You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth Psalms 71:20.
The troubles are attributed to God without complaint and the same sentence expects revival from him. The depths of the earth is the language of the grave, and the psalm expects to be brought up out of it.
My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you! Psalms 71:23. An old man planning to be loud.
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