And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Thy strength to this generation,Thy power to all who are to come.
For Thy righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens,
Thou who hast done great things; O God, who is like Thee?
Thou, who hast shown me many troubles and distresses,
Wilt revive me again, And wilt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Mayest Thou increase my greatness, And turn to comfort me.
I will also praise Thee with a stringed instrument, Even Thy truth, O my God;
To Thee I will sing praises with the stringed instrument, O Thou Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Thee; And my soul, which Thou hast redeemed.
My tongue also will utter Thy righteousness all day long;
For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated, who seek my hurt.
– Psalm 71:18-24
When the Psalmist reached old age, and the Lord had shown him many troubles and distresses in his lifetime, he knew that the Lord would revive him again. He knew that the “God of all comfort” would comfort him again. It was out of these experiences during his lifetime, that the Psalmist gave us all the Psalms. And being a musician, he was able to put into song, songs of praise, songs of hope and songs of deliverance by the Spirit. What a blessed book, is the book of Psalms. In his old age, his heart was to be able to declare to the next generation, what God had done for him.
Yesterday I spoke with a dear friend whom I have known for many, many years. We are both musicians and worship leaders. I was sharing this Psalm with him, and how at our “old age” we are still leading worship and being used of the Lord to help a new generation of worship leaders and musicians. There is something about old age and our life experience in the Lord. It is by the Spirit that those things are now ingrained in our hearts. Psalm 71 :9 says, “Do not cast me off in the time of old age, do not forsake me when my strength fails”.
Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to still by used to “declare Thy strength to this generation,Thy power to all who are to come”.
Niels Prip - Blog 