Would you turn to Psalm 71? I think you'll see why as I read
this psalm, but this could be called the psalm of
old age. Let's read this together, Psalm 71. Oh Lord, do I put my trust? Let me never be put to confusion. Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto me and
save me. Be thou my strong habitation. whereunto I may continually resort. Thou hast given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me,
O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of
the unrighteous and cruel man, for thou art my hope. Oh Lord
God, thou art my trust for my youth. By thee have I been holding
up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of thee. For I am as a wonder unto many,
but thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. Cast me not off in the
time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
faileth. For mine enemies speak against
me. And they that lay wait for my
soul take counsel together saying, God hath forsaken him, persecute
him, take him, for there's none to deliver him. Oh God, be not
far from me. Oh my God, make haste for my
help. Let them be confounded and consumed
that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and
yet praise thee more and more. My mouth shall show forth thy
righteousness and thy salvation all the day, for I know not the
numbers thereof. I will go in the strength of
the Lord. I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. O God, thou hast taught me from
my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also,
when I'm an old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not, until
I've showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power
to every one that is to come. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things, O
God? Who is like unto thee? Thou which has showed me great
and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me
up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my
greatness and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee
with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God, unto thee will I sing
with the harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly
rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul which thou hast redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of
thy righteousness all the day long, for they are confounded,
for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
blessed son. How we thank you for the salvation
that's in him. Lord, teach us what it means
to speak of thy righteousness all the day long. Teach us what
it means to make mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Lord, bless this time, speak
to us from your word. enable us to see you as high
and lifted up in our completeness in your son. We pray for the
forgiveness of sins. We pray for cleansing in the
blood of your son. We pray for all your people,
wherever they meet together, that you would be pleased to
meet with them. We ask that you'd accept our thanksgiving. Lord,
we're so grateful for the salvation that's in your son. God bless
us for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen. Now you can see why I titled
this a perhaps a psalm for an old believer because if it was
David speaking, I'm not sure if it was, but if it was David
speaking, he speaks of being old and gray headed and not forsaken. And David was 70 years old when
he died, so it doesn't give a title, but this could be David in his
psalm of old age. And he speaks of thoughts that
can certainly arise from old age. and you'll see that as we
look at this Psalm. Now look in verse 20, thou which
has showed us great and sore trials shall quicken me again
and shall bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Now,
that's Christ speaking. It could also be David looking
forward to his future resurrection, but whatever, it is the Lord
speaking. but we're going to look at it
as the words of an old man. David, or whoever wrote the psalm,
says, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust. Let me never be put
to confusion. Now, I hope I can say the same
thing. In thee, O Lord, have I put my
trust. Not in myself, not in my thoughts,
not in my intentions, not in my works, not in my preaching,
not in anything that has anything to do with me. In thee, oh Lord,
have I put my trust. Now the scriptures that come
to my mind right off the bat, 1 Corinthians 1.30, of him are
you in Christ Jesus. who of God is made into us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. In thee, O Lord,
have I put my trust. Colossians 2.10 says, you are
complete in him. Is that where you put your trust?
He hath made us accepted, Ephesians 1.6. He has made us accepted
in the beloved. All of my hope is in him." Now
that's the desire of a young believer, a newborn believer.
That's the desire of a believer right before he goes to the grave,
however old he is. In thee, oh Lord, have I put
my trust. And then he says something that
almost sounds contradictory. Let me never be put to confusion.
In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust. But don't let me be put
to confusion. Somebody says, well, how can
he trust in the Lord and yet make a statement like that? Well,
here's the way I take it. If the shoe fits, wear it. If
the shoe fits, wear it. In thee, O Lord, have I put my
trust. Let me not be put to confusion. Verse two, deliver me in thy
righteousness and cause me to escape. Incline thine ear unto
me and save me. Now, think of what is being said. Deliver me in thy righteousness. This is one of five times in
this psalm he speaks of thy righteousness. Deliver me in thy Paul said in Romans 1, verses
16 and 17, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it,
the gospel, is the power of God and to salvation to everyone
that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. Now, if you went out on the street
this afternoon or went to an average church or church building
and see the people coming out, and if you'd ask them, what is
the chief attribute of God revealed in the gospel, what would they
say? Love. Love, the love of God. And we
love the love of God. I wouldn't in any way, uh, speak,
of course, I wouldn't speak against the love of God. We love the
love of God, but that's not what God, the Holy spirit says is
the first, uh, chief attribute revealed in the gospel. He says
there in, in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed
now in the gospel. God's righteous character is
revealed. His righteousness, and get this,
His righteousness in the damnation of the sinner. And I say that
with fear and trembling when I even say something like that,
but When you have the gospel revealed to you, gone are your
thoughts of how could it be fair for God to send a man to hell?
Or how could it be unfair for God to send me to hell? No, just
and right is he. And when you understand the gospel,
you understand the righteousness of God in salvation. I'm saved
because the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Jesus
Christ is given to me so that it's my personal righteousness.
My sin became his sin, he punished it, his righteousness becomes
mine, I'm complete, I'm accepted in him. Now notice how he says,
deliver me in thy righteousness. And this is repeated five times
in this psalm. Five is the number of grace.
There is a numerology in the Bible. The tabernacle, everything
was in dimensions of five. The number of grace, five times
he mentions, deliver me in thy righteousness. Cause me to escape. You know, this is something that
ought to become very real to us. We ask the Lord to cause
us to do things, cause things to happen. We're aware of our
own weakness, our own contradictions, our own inconsistencies. Therefore
we say, Lord, don't lead me to my own way. Cause me to escape. Cause me to do thy will. Cause
me to believe. Cause me to repent. Cause me
to persevere. Cause me to escape. Incline thine
ear unto me and save me. Now remember, this is the prayer
of an old believer. It's the prayer of a new believer
as well. But this is a man who has much experience in the grace
of God, and he's still making this prayer, save me, save me. You know, I don't know how, I
wonder how many times I've prayed that prayer. Save me, Lord, save
me. Well, here this old believer
is praying, save me. He says in verse three, Be thou
my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort. I want
to always just be found in Christ, don't you? That's what he's saying. I want to be continually resorting,
living, abiding in you. You is my strong habitation,
my protection. Be thou my strong habitation,
whereunto I may continually resort. Thou has given commandment to
save me. What else could you want? Thou
has given commandment to save me. His commandments are always
obeyed. If he commands my salvation,
guess what? I'm saved. If he gives commandment.
And that's what David is saying. Thou has given commandment to
save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Verse four. Deliver me, O my God, out of
the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and
cruel man. Now he certainly could be speaking
of men who were persecuting him and hating him. Every one of
us have experienced something like that, where someone has
been against us and sought our hurt. But I think as much as
anything else, when he's talking about the cruel and sinful man,
he's talking about himself. And he says, my biggest enemy
is me. Deliver me from me. You know, that's one of the things
when I say, Lord, save me, I say, save me from myself. I'm the
problem. Save me from myself. Deliver
me from the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel
man. For thou art my hope, verse five.
Thou art my hope, Christ our hope. Thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust from my youth.
Now he's speaking as an old man and he says, nothing's changed. You're my trust from my youth. By thee, verse six, have I been
holding up from the womb? Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise should be continually
of thee." Now, eternal grace calls for continual praise, doesn't
it? He said, the Lord's hand's always been on me. When I came
out of the womb, and listen, if you're one of the elect of
God, I hope everybody in here is, do you know God's hand has
been upon you from your womb? When you didn't know him, he
knew you. When you had no consciousness
of him, you were in his hand from the womb. Isn't that wonderful? From the womb. The reason you believe now is
because his hand has always been upon you. I love thinking about
that. Verse seven, he says, I am a
Wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge. A wonder is
a miracle. A miracle. You know, I love that
song, It Took a Miracle. It took a miracle to put the
world in place. It took a miracle to hang the
stars in space. But when he saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole. It took a miracle of love and
grace. I'm a miracle. My salvation is
a miracle. A miracle of God. I'm a wonder
to many. But thou art my strong refuge. I love this verse eight. Let
my mouth be filled with thy praise. I can't stand to hear religious
praise songs. I will praise thee. I will praise. You know, anything that begins
with an I will is going to go to a bad place. I will. Oh, you
will, will you? But I love the way David says,
let my mouth be filled. Who's the one who's filling it?
God is. Let my mouth be filled with thy
praise and with thy honor all the day. Verse nine, he says,
cast me not off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when
my strength fails. Now, old age is difficult. I guess I'm just now entering
the stages of old age. I remember when I was a kid,
I thought, when you're in your 60s, go ahead, you've had a full
life, what difference does it make? Die, you know, I mean,
and I thought, man, you've hit the, but I'm entering the first
stages, I guess, of old age, and your strength fails. Your
strength fails. Right now, every time I walk
from, for instance, That chair I sit in to the pulpit, I'm careful. I don't have good balance. I
think, what if I fall and embarrass myself and break my hip? It feels
like my hip joint's coming out of socket all the time. I think,
it's going to break one of these days. I'm going to fall. I'm
going to be where I can't. I won't have my phone with me,
and I'll be laying there. Help, I can't get up, and I won't
have any of that stuff. You know, there's things that
change with old age. And I hear when you get into,
some of you folks that are in your 70s, you know better than
I do, or your 80s or 90s, things change. Your strength fails. Physical strength, mental strength,
and we can become so insecure. in those times. And that's what
he's talking about. He says, cast me not off in the
time of my old age, forsake me not when my strength fails. And
now one part of me thinks, don't you trust God? Why would you
even think something like that? And I think, well, that's the
thing that I think. And it's once again, if the shoe
fits, wear it. I'm so thankful for the scriptures,
the way they speak. And he speaks with that fear,
verse 10, And before I read these verses
10 and 11, I listened to a message by Henry Mahan on this psalm. And he was 80 years old when
he brought this message on this psalm and he entitled it the
psalm of an old man. And what he said in commenting
on this psalm, let me read these verses, verses 10 and 11. For
my enemies speak evil against me. They that lay weight for
my soul take counsel together, saying, God hath forsaken him,
persecute him, take him, for there is none to deliver him.
Now, Brother Mahan made this comment. He's not talking about
enemies without. He's talking about voices within.
And I really could lay a hold of that and latch on to that.
The insecurities, if you want to call them, the fear, the unbelief. They'll say things like, my enemies speak against me.
You're nothing. I doubt that you're even saved.
What makes you think you're saved? What makes you think you know
God? They speak against me. These enemies that rise up from
within, speaking to me. And Brother Mahan was speaking,
this is an 80-year-old man. He was saying, this is what happens
with me. How do you know you even know God? How do you know
you're even saved? How do you know? What makes you
think you can hope in anything? These are enemies that speak
to us. And how many times do these enemies speak to you? All
the time, don't they? All the time. They lay weight for my soul.
They take counsel together saying God has forsaken him. Have you
ever thought that about yourself? God has forsaken him. Persecute
him and take him for there's none to deliver him. Oh God,
verse 12. Oh God, be not far from me. Oh
my God, make haste to help me until we die. We'll always be
dealing with these enemies within. You know, I was thinking about
heaven and I was thinking heaven would not be heaven if I was
the same as I am now. It wouldn't be heaven. I'd still
be dealing with all these enemies, these voices, these sins. Heaven would not be heaven if
I was not made just like Christ. In heaven, I won't be dealing
with these voices, these sins, these feelings of insecurity
and weakness and fear. I'll be perfectly conformed to
the image of his son. And this is whoever wrote the
Psalm. I don't know if it was David,
he's an old man. He was speaking of the insecurities that come
with old age. And he says in verse 13, let
them be confounded. and consumed that are adversaries
to my soul. And I can't help but thinking
he's talking about his sins, his sins. You know, anybody I
know, I hope I'm not praying that they be consumed and confounded
and sent to hell. I hope with regard to everybody
I know, I'm praying that the Lord would save them and have
mercy on them. But the language he's using, I think he's talking
about these enemies within that are speaking. He says, let them
be confounded and consume their adversaries to my soul. Let them
be covered with reproach and dishonor that seek my hurt. But
I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more. Now, I will hope, and I think
that's the new man speaking, I will hope continually, nonstop,
nonstop. I will praise thee more and more. Verse 15, my mouth shall show
forth, whose righteousness? Thy righteousness. And thy salvation
all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof." Now here's
what I'll speak of, thy righteousness. There's that term again, thy
righteousness. I wish I could say this sufficiently. The only righteousness that I
have is his. Amen. The only righteousness
I have is his. And I'll speak of his salvation,
the salvation of which he is the author, that he's the one
who saves. He did it all. That's all I'm
gonna speak of, David says. Or whoever wrote this psalm,
my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation
all the day, for I know not the numbers thereof. Verse 16, I
don't know the vastness of it. I don't know how long I have.
I don't know the vastness of his salvation, but I will go
on I will go in the strength of the Lord." And then he makes
this statement again, I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. Now look how he just repeats
this same theme over and over in this Psalm of old age. All
I'm going to talk about is his righteousness. Now, hold your
finger there and turn with me to Romans 10. Verse one. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now, there are two things that
come right off the bat about what Paul is saying. These folks
he's praying for are not saved. You got that? Number two, he
wants them to be saved. Let's go on reading. Four, I
bear them record that they have a zeal of God. They're very religious.
And he's talking about the God of the Bible too. They use the
same scriptures we do. They have a zeal for God, very
religious, stand up for what they believe, but not according
to knowledge. Four, they being ignorant of
God's righteousness. You know, that would describe
every unbeliever alive. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
They're ignorant of his righteous character, his righteous law. They're ignorant of his righteousness
in their damnation. They don't think that would be
right. They're ignorant of his righteousness in their salvation,
them being saved by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. So what do they do? They go about
to establish their own righteousness. They go about trying to do something
that they think will obligate God to save them. I've done this. I've done that. I've stopped
doing this. I've changed. and they've never submitted themselves
to God's righteousness. Now here's what it is to submit
to God's righteousness. For Christ, verse four, for Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And this is what David means
when he says, I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine
only. Now, By the grace of God, and only
by the grace of God, I've been preaching this for 40 years,
and you know it's more real to me and precious to me now than
it was when I first believed. It's not just, well, I've already
got that down, Pat. I've already got that doctrine
down. Let's go on to the next. No, this is glorious. His righteousness. I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. Verse 17, O God, thou hast taught
me from my youth. And here's what people do who
have been taught by God from their youth. Hitherto have I
declared thy wondrous works. Now, if God's taught you, you
know what you're going to be declaring? His wondrous works. His wondrous works of creation. Jesus Christ is the creator.
His wondrous works in providence, everything that takes place in
time. He is the first cause of and in control of everything.
You can't leave anything out. If you leave anything out, you're
saying there's something he's not in control of. He controls
everything. And one of the, whenever I say
this, I love to say this, the thoughts going through your mind
right now, he controls them. He's completely sovereign over
the free and uncoerced actions of men. Somebody says, I don't
believe that. He's in control of that too.
He is an app. He he's Lord. We declare his,
but most especially we declare his wondrous works of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man. It's of the
Lord. Verse 18, now when I'm old and
gray-headed, O God, forsake me not until I've showed thy strength
unto this generation and thy power to everyone that's to come. What does he mean? Does he believe
that God, after all these years, will forsake him and let him
go to hell? Well, he said in another place,
I've been young and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous
forsaken. or his seat making for bread. I think what he's
talking about is you, with old age, he's saying, don't put me
on a shelf. Let me declare to everybody,
thy wondrous works. Don't simply put me on a shelf. Let me continue to declare to
everyone, thy wondrous works. And I have showed thy strength
unto this generation, thy power to everyone that's to come. Now
here he is again, verse 19. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Oh, it's so high. It's beyond
our comprehension, his righteousness. It's very high. Who has done
great things, O God? Who is like unto thee? Verse
20. that which thou which has showed
me great and sore troubles shall quicken me again and thou shalt
bring me again from the depths of the earth." Now that obviously
speaks first of all the Lord Jesus Christ and His resurrection
but that's talking about every believer, this is our sure and
certain hope. We are gonna die. We go through this life of great
and sore troubles. We're gonna die. They're gonna
stick us in the ground, but we're going to be raised from the dead
by the power of God, perfectly conformed to the image of his
son. Thou shalt increase, and I think this is speaking of Christ
and those in him, obviously. It's speaking of us, but it's
mainly speaking of Christ. Thou shalt increase my greatness
and comfort me on every side. I will also praise thee with
the psaltery, even thy truth, Oh my God, aren't you thankful
for the truth? Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is
truth. I will also praise thee with
the Psalter, even thy truth, oh my God, unto thee will I sing
with the harp, O thou holy one of Israel. My lips shall greatly
rejoice when I sing unto thee, and my soul, which thou hast
redeemed, Redeemed, I love it when we sing that song, redeemed
how I love to proclaim it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Well, that's what he's singing
at this time. My tongue also shall talk, there it is again,
of thy righteousness all the day long. Here is the subject
of our speech all the day long. His righteousness, his glorious,
righteous character, his righteousness in salvation, his righteousness
in all that he does, for they are confounded, for they are
brought unto shame that seek my hurt. And the verse I thought
of, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? They're
all confounded. They're brought to shame that
seek my hurt. They've been shut up. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather that's risen again. That's a great song, isn't it?
They're all great.