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Psalms 71

Chapter Text

A Prayer in Old Age

Summary

Psalm 71 is the prayer of an aged believer who has trusted God from youth and now faces the vulnerabilities of old age. The psalmist asks God not to cast him off in the time of old age or forsake him when his strength fails. His enemies say God has forsaken him and plot to seize him.

Yet he declares he will hope continually and praise God more and more. From youth God has taught him, and he still declares God's wondrous works. He asks God not to forsake him until he has shown God's strength to the next generation. The psalm ends with joyful praise and testimony of redemption.

Meaning

This psalm addresses the spiritual challenges of aging with both honesty and faith. The fear of abandonment in old age is met with the testimony of a lifetime of God's faithfulness. The past becomes evidence for the future.

The desire to declare God's strength to the next generation reveals a profound understanding of spiritual legacy. The aging believer's purpose is not merely to endure but to transmit the knowledge of God's mighty acts to those who will come after.

Background

This psalm bears no superscription, though its language and themes strongly echo David's psalms. Some scholars attribute it to David in old age, while others consider it anonymous.

Its phrases borrow from several other psalms, particularly Psalms 22, 31, and 40, weaving them into a new composition that speaks specifically to the experience of aging in faith.

Chapter Outline

  1. vv. 1-4A Plea for Refuge and Deliverance
  2. vv. 5-8Lifelong Trust from the Womb
  3. vv. 9-13Prayer Against Forsaking in Old Age
  4. vv. 14-16Renewed Hope and Continual Praise
  5. vv. 17-21Testimony to the Next Generation
  6. vv. 22-24Vow of Praise with Music and Song

Key Verses

“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.”— 71:9

One of Scripture's most poignant prayers of the aging believer, frequently quoted in pastoral care and devotional literature on growing old in faith.

“Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.”— 71:18

A defining verse on intergenerational discipleship, expressing the elder saint's longing to transmit testimony of God's power to those who follow.

“For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth.”— 71:5

Encapsulates lifelong covenant faithfulness, linking youthful trust to mature hope and grounding the entire psalm's theology of perseverance.

“Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”— 71:20

Read by early Christian interpreters as foreshadowing resurrection, affirming God's power to revive even from the grave.

People & Places

People

  • The Holy One of Israel — A reverent title for the LORD invoked in verse 22, emphasizing God's covenant relationship with his people.

Prophecy & Fulfillment

Verse 20's confidence that God will 'quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth' has long been read as a foreshadowing of resurrection hope, anticipating the fuller revelation of bodily resurrection in later Scripture. The psalmist's trust 'from the womb' (v.6) and lifelong vindication also typologically prefigure Christ, whose entire life from conception was set apart for the Father's purposes. Verse 11's taunt, 'God hath forsaken him: persecute and take him,' echoes the mockery directed at Jesus on the cross (Matthew 27:43).

Devotional

Psalm 71 is the prayer of a believer who has walked long with God and refuses to let age silence praise. The psalmist does not pretend troubles have vanished — enemies still whisper, strength still fades — yet hope grows louder, not quieter, with the years.

There is a quiet courage here for anyone facing decline, loneliness, or the fear of being forgotten. God who held you from the womb will not drop you in old age. And there is a calling: to tell the next generation what God has done, so that faith outlives the one who carried it.

Literary Style

Hebrew lyric poetry — an individual lament shading into thanksgiving, marked by parallelism, direct address to God, and a movement from petition to confident praise. Distinctive for its sustained meditation on aging and its rich intertextual borrowing from Psalms 22, 31, and 35.