The Prayer of an Aging Saint
"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." Psalm 71-17-18
I have learned, and the scriptures bear this out, that the most effective way to pray is to pray the word of God (John 15:7; Matthew 6:9-13; Act 4:24-31). Within the word of God, you’ll also find the prayers of the faithful by which we can also learn to pray effectively. The Psalms, for example, are full of great prayers. It’s been said that the Psalms help us to interpret our feelings and put those feelings into words that we can pray to God.
In Psalm 71 we find the prayer of an aging saint. We don’t know who he was for sure. Tradition says that Palm 71 was a prayer of King David in his later years when Absalom His son sought to overthrow him. But the chapter itself does not explicitly state that this is a Psalm of David. What we do know for sure is that it was the prayer of a gray-haired saint. Through the prayer of this senior saint, we learn about what he thought about God, the challenges that he faced, and the desires of his hearts. We not only learn what he prayed to be rescued from, but about the “so that” of his prayers. In other words, from his prayers we learn about the bigger picture behind his prayers for God to sustain him in his old age. Do you know that what we pray for says much about our view of God and the ultimate desire of our hearts?
Throughout the prayer of this aging saint, he expressed his high view of God. Although he appears to be going through some challenging times, he speaks of God as his Rock, his refuge, his fortress, and praises God for His faithfulness (Psalm 71:3, 22). The more trouble he faced from his enemies, the more he praises God. After praying about his enemies, the Psalmist writes, “But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more” (Psalm 71:14). If you study the prayers of the great saints in the scripture, you will find that they talked to God about God (Nehemiah 1; Daniel 2, 9, Acts 4). This is true because most of the problems and concerns in life are solved when we get a right conception of God (Philippians 4:6-7). I’ve heard it said that praise to our God gives the soul in affliction an anchor in distress. Jesus came so that through the hope that we find in him we can exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garments of praise (Isaiah 61:1-3).
In addition to being God-centered, this prayer was purpose driven; which is a response to a right conception of God. “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” This prayer not only positively acknowledges that from a youth he had been taught by God, but also his desire in his old age to teach the younger generation about wondrous deeds and power of God. In addition to knowing God for ourselves, isn’t making God known in Christ to others, especially to the younger generation coming behind us, the worthiest goal and purpose in life? In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). If knowing God, which is the essence of eternal life, was the prayer of Jesus, shouldn’t it be our constant prayer for others and shouldn’t we seek to be instruments of God so that this prayer is answered in the lives of others? The older we are and the closer we get to seeing Jesus face to face, shouldn’t our passion for others to know Christ be growing?
Commenting on Psalm 61:17-18, G. Campbell Morgan noted, “There is nothing more pitiful or else more beautiful than old age. It is pitiful when its pessimism cools the ardors (passion) of youth. It is beautiful when its witness stimulates the visions and inspires the heroism of the young.” What fuels our passion for God and keeps us from becoming grumpy and disgruntled souls? The Psalmist acknowledges that as He grows older he’s getting weaker. But his increasing weakness is not a reason for him to retire to Florida to collect sea shells on the seashore, as John Piper would say. As he grew older, his increasing frailty was a reason to lean more on God (Psalm 71:6) and seek His presence and power to fulfill his ministry for God, which is a third element in the prayers of this silver headed saint.
What are some of the lesson we learn from Psalm 71:17-18? The prayer of the aging saint was God-centered, purpose driven, and sought God’s power to fulfill God’s purpose, namely to make God’s glory known to the next generation. Do you know that we’ve been given access to God by the blood of Jesus to first and foremost know Him? And the more you know Him through Christ, the more you want to make Him known? (2 Corinthians 4:5-6). Do you know that all believers are given gifts and are called to ministry (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12;7), and there are no age restrictions? Your ministry may change as the seasons of life change but there will never be a time where God does not have a divine assignment for you to fulfill. In an article on Psalm 71, John Piper asked a soul-searching question: “How would you finish the Psalmist prayer in verse 18: “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until__________?” How you finish that prayer will be influenced by your conception of God. This is why it’s essential that we make reverence an integral element of our prayers to God.
Teaching on our need to have a right conception of God, Martyn Lloyd Jones explained, “When the disciples came to our Lord and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples,” He replied, “When ye pray say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” (Luke 11:1-2). You must start, said our Lord, with a right conception of God. Now is this not where we all tend to go astray? So often our initial error and trouble is that our ideas of God are so loose…Now what our Lord tells us at the beginning is, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’ (Exodus 3:5). Can you imagine God, can you picture Him? God is utterly and absolutely holy, so much so that we cannot imagine Him, eternal in His holiness and His absolute perfection. That is what our Lord taught about God, and we must start there. We have to realize that if to know God is the first essential thing in rest and peace, we must begin by knowing something of His nature and character, and that is what our Lord always taught about Him.”
May the prayer of the aging saint inspire us to pray God-centered prayers that are kingdom driven and seek the power of the Spirit to fulfill His purpose, namely to make Christ’s glory known to the next generation.
In your service,
Pastor Marco
I have learned, and the scriptures bear this out, that the most effective way to pray is to pray the word of God (John 15:7; Matthew 6:9-13; Act 4:24-31). Within the word of God, you’ll also find the prayers of the faithful by which we can also learn to pray effectively. The Psalms, for example, are full of great prayers. It’s been said that the Psalms help us to interpret our feelings and put those feelings into words that we can pray to God.
In Psalm 71 we find the prayer of an aging saint. We don’t know who he was for sure. Tradition says that Palm 71 was a prayer of King David in his later years when Absalom His son sought to overthrow him. But the chapter itself does not explicitly state that this is a Psalm of David. What we do know for sure is that it was the prayer of a gray-haired saint. Through the prayer of this senior saint, we learn about what he thought about God, the challenges that he faced, and the desires of his hearts. We not only learn what he prayed to be rescued from, but about the “so that” of his prayers. In other words, from his prayers we learn about the bigger picture behind his prayers for God to sustain him in his old age. Do you know that what we pray for says much about our view of God and the ultimate desire of our hearts?
Throughout the prayer of this aging saint, he expressed his high view of God. Although he appears to be going through some challenging times, he speaks of God as his Rock, his refuge, his fortress, and praises God for His faithfulness (Psalm 71:3, 22). The more trouble he faced from his enemies, the more he praises God. After praying about his enemies, the Psalmist writes, “But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more” (Psalm 71:14). If you study the prayers of the great saints in the scripture, you will find that they talked to God about God (Nehemiah 1; Daniel 2, 9, Acts 4). This is true because most of the problems and concerns in life are solved when we get a right conception of God (Philippians 4:6-7). I’ve heard it said that praise to our God gives the soul in affliction an anchor in distress. Jesus came so that through the hope that we find in him we can exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garments of praise (Isaiah 61:1-3).
In addition to being God-centered, this prayer was purpose driven; which is a response to a right conception of God. “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come” This prayer not only positively acknowledges that from a youth he had been taught by God, but also his desire in his old age to teach the younger generation about wondrous deeds and power of God. In addition to knowing God for ourselves, isn’t making God known in Christ to others, especially to the younger generation coming behind us, the worthiest goal and purpose in life? In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). If knowing God, which is the essence of eternal life, was the prayer of Jesus, shouldn’t it be our constant prayer for others and shouldn’t we seek to be instruments of God so that this prayer is answered in the lives of others? The older we are and the closer we get to seeing Jesus face to face, shouldn’t our passion for others to know Christ be growing?
Commenting on Psalm 61:17-18, G. Campbell Morgan noted, “There is nothing more pitiful or else more beautiful than old age. It is pitiful when its pessimism cools the ardors (passion) of youth. It is beautiful when its witness stimulates the visions and inspires the heroism of the young.” What fuels our passion for God and keeps us from becoming grumpy and disgruntled souls? The Psalmist acknowledges that as He grows older he’s getting weaker. But his increasing weakness is not a reason for him to retire to Florida to collect sea shells on the seashore, as John Piper would say. As he grew older, his increasing frailty was a reason to lean more on God (Psalm 71:6) and seek His presence and power to fulfill his ministry for God, which is a third element in the prayers of this silver headed saint.
What are some of the lesson we learn from Psalm 71:17-18? The prayer of the aging saint was God-centered, purpose driven, and sought God’s power to fulfill God’s purpose, namely to make God’s glory known to the next generation. Do you know that we’ve been given access to God by the blood of Jesus to first and foremost know Him? And the more you know Him through Christ, the more you want to make Him known? (2 Corinthians 4:5-6). Do you know that all believers are given gifts and are called to ministry (1 Peter 4:10; 1 Corinthians 12;7), and there are no age restrictions? Your ministry may change as the seasons of life change but there will never be a time where God does not have a divine assignment for you to fulfill. In an article on Psalm 71, John Piper asked a soul-searching question: “How would you finish the Psalmist prayer in verse 18: “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until__________?” How you finish that prayer will be influenced by your conception of God. This is why it’s essential that we make reverence an integral element of our prayers to God.
Teaching on our need to have a right conception of God, Martyn Lloyd Jones explained, “When the disciples came to our Lord and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples,” He replied, “When ye pray say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” (Luke 11:1-2). You must start, said our Lord, with a right conception of God. Now is this not where we all tend to go astray? So often our initial error and trouble is that our ideas of God are so loose…Now what our Lord tells us at the beginning is, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground’ (Exodus 3:5). Can you imagine God, can you picture Him? God is utterly and absolutely holy, so much so that we cannot imagine Him, eternal in His holiness and His absolute perfection. That is what our Lord taught about God, and we must start there. We have to realize that if to know God is the first essential thing in rest and peace, we must begin by knowing something of His nature and character, and that is what our Lord always taught about Him.”
May the prayer of the aging saint inspire us to pray God-centered prayers that are kingdom driven and seek the power of the Spirit to fulfill His purpose, namely to make Christ’s glory known to the next generation.
In your service,
Pastor Marco