Don't Cast Me Off in Old Age
1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed. 2 Deliver me in your righteousness, and rescue me. Turn your ear to me, and save me. 3 Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go. Give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 4 Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5 For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth. 6 I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you. 7 I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge. 8 My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long. 9 Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails. 10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, 11 saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.” 12 God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me. 13 Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me. 14 But I will always hope, and will add to all of your praise. 15 My mouth will tell about your righteousness, and of your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure. 16 I will come with the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of your righteousness, even of yours alone. 17 God, you have taught me from my youth. Until now, I have declared your wondrous works. 18 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. 19 God, your righteousness also reaches to the heavens. You have done great things. God, who is like you? 20 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. 21 Increase my honor and comfort me again. 22 I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel. 23 My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which you have redeemed, sings praises to you! 24 My tongue will also talk about your righteousness all day long, for they are disappointed, and they are confounded, who want to harm me.
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.
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.
5 For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh, my confidence from my youth. 6 I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother’s womb. I will always praise you.
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.
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.
10 For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, 11 saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
An old man planning to be loud.
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