A Song for the Ages

A Reflection on the Psalm for February 3rd, 2019:
​Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

PSALM 71

For You O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth        

1.  In You ,O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
2 . In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
     Incline Your ear to me and save me.

For You O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth        

3.  Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me;
     For You are my rock and my fortress.
4.  Rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
     from the grasp of the unjust and cruel

For You O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth        

5.  For You are my Hope, my Trust O Lord, from my youth.
6.  Upon You, I have leaned from my birth;
     it was You who took me from my mother's womb,
     My praise is continually of You.

For You O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth        

15. My mouth will tell of Your righteous acts,
      Of Your deeds of  salvation day by day.
17. O God, from my youth You have taught me,
      and I still proclaim Your wondrous deeds.

For You O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth        
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As I was checking an alternate translation for Psalm 71, I noticed a caption in the margin which read, “… a Prayer for Help in Old Age”, and Line 18 in the Psalm refers to “old age and grey hairs”! Ah-ha! I think this Psalm might be meant for such as me! Sensing a commonality with the Psalmist, I have decided to refer to the Psalmist as 'her'! 

As I read/sang/prayed this Psalm over many times, I had the sense the prayer could have been composed recently. The message is so simple, yet timeless. The Psalmist prays, “upon Thee I have leaned since my birth… from my youth Thou hast taught me". She sees God throughout all the phases of her life; good times and bad. Her prayer for help from God speaks perhaps to her awareness of past failings and loneliness of aging. When she fails, she humbly repents and she returns to "praising God… and telling of His deeds of Salvation". One can only trust what one loves with their might. Her love for God, her Creator, is evident in her prayer of hope and trust. "O God do not forsake me… Thou wilt bring me up again and comfort me".

"One can only trust what one loves with their might."

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Does not the prayer of this Psalm encapsulate all that we strive for daily—to know God, and to love Him and to have Him as the Center of our lives? Its message continues through the New Testament. In Luke 2:22, two other 'seniors' in the persons of Simeon and Anna proclaimed with joy and thanksgiving, “for my eyes have seen Your Salvation”. Again we are called to evangelize, “to tell of God's righteous deeds of Salvation”. The Psalmist also prays, “till I proclaim Thy might for all generations to come”. Eternity is timeless and she still sings “My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to Thee” (23).

But I wonder if she ever imagined that her simple prayer would continue to instruct us and inspire us in the 21st century.

​Lynda Tyler

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