June 3, 2025 - Psalm 71-75

or you, O Lord, are my hope,

      my trust, O LORD, from my youth.

Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;

      you are he who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,

      but you are my strong refuge.

My mouth is filled with your praise,

      and with your glory all the day.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;

      forsake me not when my strength is spent (71:5-9).

The psalmists continue to praise God and to express their joy because of his faithfulness.  The child of God can testify, with the psalmist, that the Lord is with him from birth to the grave.  When he prays “Do not cast me off in the time of old age,” he can pray with absolute confidence that God will not cast him off for he has experienced God’s faithfulness all through his life.  An old Puritan (I cannot remember who.) was on his deathbed and filled with anxiety.  A faithful pastor asked him, “Has God walked with you through life?”  The man answered, “Yes, of course!”  The pastor then encouraged, “Surely, the God who has walked with you through life will walk with you through death.”  And the man was comforted.

In Thee I put my steadfast trust . . .

Be thou my strong abiding-place,

To which I may resort:

Thy promise, Lord, is my defense,

Thou art my Rock and Fort.

My steadfast and unchanging hope

Shall on Thy power depend;

And I in grateful songs of praise

My time to come will spend.   –Anonymous (1754)