Psalm 71--Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

Psalm 71
English Standard Version

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent
71 In you, O LORD, do 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!
3 Be to me a rock of refuge,
    to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope,
    my trust, O LORD, from my youth.
6 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.

7 I have been as a portent to many,
    but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
    and with your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
    forsake me not when my strength is spent.
10 For my enemies speak concerning me;
    those who watch for my life consult together
11 and say, “God has forsaken him;
    pursue and seize him,
    for there is none to deliver him.”

12 O God, be not far from me;
    O my God, make haste to help me!
13 May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;
    with scorn and disgrace may they be covered
    who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually
    and will praise you yet more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
    of your deeds of salvation all the day,
    for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;
    I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

17 O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 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.
19 Your righteousness, O God,
    reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
    O God, who is like you?
20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
    will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will bring me up again.
21 You will increase my greatness
    and comfort me again.

22 I will also praise you with the harp
    for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praises to you with the lyre,
    O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy,
    when I sing praises to you;
    my soul also, which you have redeemed.
24 And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long,
for they have been put to shame and disappointed
    who sought to do me hurt.

---

David sings to the LORD to be his Rock and his Refuge and for the LORD in His righteousness to deliver David.  David asks to be rescued from the hand of the wicked--from those who are cruel and unjust.  David says that he has had to depend completely on the LORD since before he was even born, and so it is now that he trusts in the LORD to send the command from heaven that David is once again to be saved.

David's enemies think that God has forsaken David in his old age, but David knows that the LORD is still with him today like He was in his youth.  David says he will continually praise the LORD for who He is and what He has done.  David just prays that in his old age that the LORD will not forsake him, because David knows that there is not one day that has gone by (even since he was in his mother's womb) that David didn't need the LORD's help.

No matter what happens, David will praise the LORD, but David hopes that his enemies hear David's rejoicing as the LORD defeats them so that they will realize that the LORD does not desert those who He has made a covenant with.  The LORD saves and the LORD is faithful (even when we are not always faithful).  Let those who mock and plot see the LORD in action and maybe be captivated by wonder and drawn to His offer of salvation for them.  Let them know and experience his "lovingkindness" and "steadfast love" that David writes so much about in the Psalms.  Let them cry out to the LORD for mercy and salvation to cleanse them from their wickedness and iniquity and they too may be saved from their greatest enemies--sin and death.