Look together at David's psalm
number 71. Now, I don't have the background in some of
these things about when certain psalms and books were written
or the circumstances around which they were written, Some of these
fellows in the past, a long time ago, made a study of things of
this nature, and we can read what they say. I'll give you
three sources about the author of this psalm. You see, it's
not Psalm 71 that says the psalm of David. Psalm 69 is the psalm
of David. Psalm 71, it doesn't say. There's
no title and no author listed. But here's what the fellows way
back yonder say. A publication called The Plain
Commentary says this is a psalm of David. And he wrote it in
his extreme age, perhaps a little while before he died. That's
their opinion. And one of the writers, William
Binney, said this, I agree that David is our author here. And I agree that this is a song
of his old age. It shows the soul of the aged
believer. It shows his consciousness of
his own failures. He was saddened by the sorrows
that had filled his years. But he now finds comfort in his
last days in the mercies of God and the hope of eternal glory.
And Mr. Spurgeon, of whom we thank so
much and have read quite a bit of his writings, he had this
to say about Psalm 71. He said, We have here the prayer
of the aged believer. That's what I call my message,
the prayer of the aged believer, who in holy confidence of faith,
strengthened by a long and blessed walk with the Lord, pleads against
his enemies and asks further blessings for himself and vows
in his remaining days to magnify his Lord. That's good. All right, let's look at it together,
Psalm 71. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Well, my friends, our Lord deserves
our trust. He deserves our confidence. He
deserves that every one of us say with Paul, I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed to him, I've entrusted
into his care. Our Lord deserves our trust because
of who he is, because of what he has done for us, because of
why he did it, that God might be just and justify us, and because
of where he is now. We build on him our rock. We
hide in him our refuge. We rest in him who loves us. and is able to keep us. And notice
the next line. He says, never let me be put
to confusion. Let me never be put to confusion.
Well, if I trust him, I'll never be put to confusion. Be confused,
uncertain, wavering. I'm not going to experience that
if I trust him. Now, if I try to find help, and hope for my salvation in
myself or in anyone else, I'm going to become confused. As
I grow older and I begin to look for some help and hope and assurance
somewhere else besides in him, I'm going to get confused. That's
what leads me to confusion. See, there's no wisdom, no righteousness,
no holiness, no redemption in us. It's all in him. So, Lord,
in thee do I put my trust. all of my trust, confidence,
and hope. And if it stays there, I'll never
be put to confusion. I'll never be uncertain and wavering,
because I'm founded on a rock, in the only refuge. And he says
here in this next verse, he calls on all the attributes of God. David is conscious of his sin,
conscious of his failures, Therefore, he appeals. He appeals to the
attributes of God. He appeals to every attribute
of his Lord. Listen, deliver me. In your sovereign
power, deliver me. That's what we read a while ago
in the office. I am the Lord, and there's none
beside me, so look to me and be your Savior. That's what David
said. Deliver me. You're the only one who can.
You're sovereign. You're able. Deliver me in thy righteousness.
I look to your holiness and to your righteousness and your perfect
obedience. You fulfill for me all that the
law requires. I look to your righteousness.
Cause me to escape. I look to your providence. Work
out everything in my life that will cause me to escape. And
then he looks to God's love and grace. He said, Incline your
ear to me. I'm not worthy. I know that. I turn to you, but would you
lean toward me? Would you incline your ear to
me? And then he says, And save me. I look to the covenant God
to save me. Only God can save me. So Lord,
verse 3, be thou. Don't just make a strong habitation
for me, you be my strong habitation. Let me hide in thee. Rock of
ages, cleft for me, let me hide in thee. Be thou my strong habitation. I know how weak I am, he says.
And I continually need a strong habitation where I may continually
Just once in a while I need to continually resort to that one
strong habitation. Stay there. He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. You don't go in on Sunday morning.
You dwell there. You dwell in the secret place
of the Most High. Be my strong habitation whereunto
I may continually resort. I love this next statement. Thou
hast given commandment to save me." To whom did the Lord God
give commandment to save this sinner? Well, he's given his
angels charge to keep you in all your ways, lest you dash
your foot against a stone. They are ministering spirits
to those who shall be theirs of salvation. He has commanded
his angels, watch out for Frank, take care of Mike, look out for
Cecil. Surround him, hedge him about,
keep him safe. I give you angels charge over
you. He's given commandment to save
me. He's given commandment to his providence, that all things
shall work together for good to them who love God, who are
called according to his purpose. Providence has been served notice
by the Lord of glory to protect his people, provide for them,
and bring them to Christ, bring them to glory. He hedges them
about. He's given orders to the law,
leave him alone. To justice, turn him loose. I found a ransom. That's right. To the law, lift your curse.
He's given commandment. To the angels, to providence,
to the law, to justice, deliver him. Don't lay your hand on him. And to the forces of evil, touch
not mine anointing. Do my prophet no harm. Isn't
that what that's saying? You have given commandment to
all of the powers and forces and providence and attributes
of God Almighty to bring this sheep to glory. Because you are my rock and my
fortress. So deliver me, O my God, out
of the hand of the wicked out of the hand of Satan, out of
the hand of all who were against me, out of the hand of the cruel
and unrighteous man, deliver me, deliver me. You know, that's
another word for salvation, deliverance. Let me just turn over here and
read it to you. When our Lord Jesus came to Nazareth and visited
the synagogue there on the Sabbath day, he The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, he hath sent
me to preach deliverance to the captives. That's what salvation
is, it's deliverance. That's one of the words for salvation.
God Almighty has sent Christ to deliver us. All right, let's
notice the next division. That first division is David's
prayer for help. The second division is his testimony. He says in verse 5, Thou art
my hope, O Lord God, Thou art my trust. How long? From my youth, from the days
of my youth. I've had no other hope and no
other trust but Thee. trust and my hope for my youth. And like Jeremiah, Jeremiah wrote
that the Lord said to him, before I formed thee in the belly, I
knew thee, before you came out of your mother's womb, I sanctified
you, set you apart. Paul said that in Galatians.
He said, God separated me from my mother's womb. Jacob knew
that before the children were born, neither having done any
good or evil that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the
younger. Jacob I loved before he was born. Now, David says
in verse 6, By thee, he joins with Jeremiah, Paul, Jacob, and
makes up this blessed quartet. By thee have I been holden from
the world. He that took me out of my mother's
womb, my mother's bowels, and my praise shall be continually
of thee." The elect of God lay in the bosom of God before
they ever laid upon the bosom of their mothers. Do you believe
that? I don't just believe that, I know that. He says over here
in Psalm 139, Thou hast covered me in my mother's
womb. I praise thee, I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvellous
at thy works, that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was
not hid from thee when I was made in secret, conceived in
the womb, curiously wrought in my mother's womb. You did see
my substance, yet being unperfect, incomplete, and in your book
my memories were written, when as yet They weren't any of them. That's what he said. That's what
he said in Psalm 71. You're my hope, O Lord God. You're my trust from my youth,
in fact, before I was born. You're the one that took me out
of my mother's womb. So my praise will continually be of thee. Verse 7, I'm a wonder. Now, I know that this can be
and is a Messianic psalm, and I know that many of these saints
can relate to our Lord Jesus Christ. They do. I'm a wonder.
But this talks about you, too, and me, believers. I'm a wonder.
I'm a wonder. He said in Revelation, You know,
up there in glory. Who are these and which came
they? You know, these are they that came out of great tribulation
and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. What a wonderful, wonderful congregation. I'm a wonder to
those in glory. I'm a wonder of grace. Yeah,
I'm a wonder. You are too. You are a wonder
of grace that Almighty God should love you and me. Take us from
the dunghill of sin and shame, and wash us in the blood of his
only begotten Son. Sanctify us in him, make us holy,
take us to glory, and make us like Christ. That's a wonder!
Oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me! Oh, what a wonder! He put his great arms under,
and wonder of wonders, he saved me! Think about that, what a
wonder! He took a miracle, put the stars in space, It took a
miracle to hang the Son in place, but when he saved my soul, cleansed
and made me whole, it was a wonder, a wonder, love and grace. I'm
a wonder. I'm a wonder to me. Aren't you
amazed that God would save you? Why me? That's what David said. He went in one day and sat before
the Lord and he said, Who am I that you should show such mercy
to me and my family and my people? Man, amazing grace, John Newton
said. That old slave trader, that old
no-good man that used to couldn't talk without cursing. One time
he got so drunk he fell off the ship and they threw a boat hook
down and pulled him out and tore a hole in his side. He was a captive of an African
slave dealer and made him crawl on his hands and knees and eat
his food like a dog. God found John Newton in the
lowest pit of hell, and that's the reason he wrote Amazing Grace.
How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I was lost,
hopelessly lost, but now I'm found. I'm a wonder! I'm blind,
but now I see. I'm a wonder to me, aren't you?
I'm a wonder to the simple multitude in heaven, and I'm a wonder to
the world. If they don't understand you,
don't expect them to. They don't see what you see,
they don't hear what you hear, they don't believe what you believe.
Don't expect them to. The Lord Jesus said, if you were
of the world, they'd love you, but you're not of the world.
I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you
because they don't understand you. I understand their hatred.
I do. But they don't understand you.
They have no basis on which to build their confidence in you
and me. You're a wonder. I'm a wonder.
I'm a wonder, but you're my strong refuge. Verse 8, Lord, let my
mouth be filled with your praise. Old John Gill said, that's a
blessed mouthful. Filled with his praise, my mouth
filled with his praise. My mother used to tell me, don't
talk with your mouth full. You can with this mouth full.
You go ahead, I'll listen to you. If your mouth's full of
his praise, I'll listen to you. And I'll understand you too.
And secondly, this is a mouthful that'll never upset your stomach.
There's a whole lot of mouthfuls that can tear you up, but not
this mouthful of grace. And if your mouth's filled with
his praise, there won't be any room for griping, boasting, gossiping,
or complaining. If my mouth is plump full of
his praise, I don't have any room for all this other stuff.
Wouldn't that be with something? Wouldn't that be something? Let
my mouth be filled with your praise and with your honor all
day long. And this is true, he said. If
my mouth is filled with his praise, so will my heart be, because
out of the heart the mouth speaks. If my mouth is filled with his
praise, my heart will be too, because that's the fountain.
I mean, that's the source of the fountain. All right, that's
his testimony. Now here in the third section
is his awareness of his foes. And I want you to listen to me
now. I'm old and I don't know what this is talking about. Verse
9, cast me not off in the time of old age, and forsake me not
when my strength faileth. What's he saying? Cast me not
off. Well, no, he's not talking about
going to hell. Don't put me on the shelf. Don't put me on the shelf. Don't
cast me off in my old age and forsake me not when my strength
fails. Don't lead me to my flesh. When
my strength, when my flesh gets old, because my flesh is old,
my strength begins to fail. And like one fellow wrote, this
is an old preacher of the past, June 28, 1789. He entered this
in his diary. This day I enter my 86th year. I'm growing old. My eyesight's
dim. My strength is declining. I walk
more slowly with more difficulty. My hearing is deteriorating.
My memory, whether of places or persons or experiences, my
memory is failing. But also I'm plagued with a decrease
in understanding, comprehension, impatience is troubling me, fretfulness,
irritability. I'm hard to get along with. I
need grace. Don't let me go this way. When
I get old, don't put me on the shelf and make me a nuisance. Keep me in your love and grace
and make me a blessing. See, that's what he's talking
about. Don't put me on the shelf. Cast me off when I get old and
forsake me not from my strength, faithless, because of my enemies.
Now, who are these enemies? Well, they're not folks outside.
Nobody's interested in bothering an old man, an old woman. These
enemies are inside. His enemies are talking to him.
My enemies speak, and they speak against me and against my faith
and against my hope and against my love and against my confidence.
They trouble me. And they lay wait for my soul.
And my enemies take their counsel together. They say, God's forsaken
him. Tell him that. Persecute him. Take him. There's
no one to deliver him. Tell him that. There's no one
to deliver him. These are bosses that speak to me. They're my
enemies in privacy. They're not folks coming down
the road to tell me these things. They're in me. They're unreal. But they're real to me. You see, a wise believer knows
that as he approaches old age, he needs special grace. He needs
special strength to deal with infirmities of age, with the
loneliness of age, with the feelings he's never experienced before.
And these voices come and they say, God's forsaken you. You're
not really saved. Maybe your name's not in the
book of life. Let's take away his hope. That's
what these voices say. Let's take away his hope. Let's
tell him there's none to deliver. God's forsaken him. Just persecute
him. Let's plant doubts in his mind. Tell him to go back and examine
his old experience to see if it's still good. Tell him to
do that. Whisper to him, now go back and
think, when you confess Christ, did you really know him? That'll
make him start doubting, because any time he quits looking at
the Lord, starts looking at his spirits, he's going to doubt.
And then he'll say to him, and this is, I've run into this all
the time, maybe you ought to get baptized again. You're 75,
80, 85 years old, and you're just letting these voices work
on you. You're letting these feelings
work on you. Maybe this, maybe that, maybe something else. You're
not looking to Christ now. You're not reading the Word.
You're not saying, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,
shall never come into condemnation. You're looking at that old experience.
You're going back too far, and you say, well, maybe I ought
to get baptized again. Now, you think that will really
help you. They do, these voices do. You're not as active as you
were. You're not as involved as you
were. You're not as involved as everybody else is. You're
old. You say, well, naturally, I'm not as involved. I'm trying
not to be. And then you turn on the television
and you hear some preacher. And he's got all his different
ways of being saved. It's contrary to the Word of
God. And he makes you doubt. These voices, that's what David
is talking about, my enemies. They're my enemies. Look at verse
10 again. And don't let this happen to
me in my old age. My enemies speak against me,
against my Lord, and they lay in wait for my soul. They take
counsel together and they say, God's forsaken him. He doesn't
have any hope, he doesn't have any assurance. Persecute him,
take him, there's nothing to deliver him. Oh, God. Here is
the place to go. Be not far from me, O my God,
make haste for my help. I want you to turn a minute,
all of you old folks and me too, turn to Galatians chapter 3.
Galatians chapter 3. Here is where our comfort is
right here. Galatians chapter 3. Paul is
writing to that Galatian church, and you know how these works
have entered into that church, how those false preachers have
come and made people doubt the power and sufficiency of Christ. He says, O foolish Galatians,
and I say to us old folks, O foolish old folks, who hath bewitched
you? that you should not obey the
truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set
forth again and again and again and again and again. He's crucified
among you. This only would I learn. I've
got one question to ask you. Did you receive the Spirit by
the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? I've got one
question to ask you. Here's what he's asking in your
mind, your language. Did the blessed Spirit of God
in regeneration, in the new birth, in raising you from the dead,
in saving your souls, did he come to you because of your works,
because of your obedience to the law? Or did he speak peace
to you when you heard the gospel of Christ and believed him? Now,
when was it? I'll tell you when he spoke peace
to my heart. When I heard that preacher tell me who Christ is.
who I am, what Christ did, satisfied the wrath and righteousness of
God, and died for my sins, and I believed him. I believed him. Now, verse 3, Are you so foolish,
now that you are old? Are you so foolish, thinking,
having begun in the Spirit, that you are now perfected with the
flesh? I ask you to not. Now that you and I are old, Are
we so foolish to think that having begun to be children of God by
faith, we are kept by our works, by our baptism, by our experience,
by our good deeds, by our feelings? Having been redeemed by the blood,
now I'm sanctified by the works. Having begun spiritual life by
looking to Christ, now to remain in the family of God, I've got
to look to my righteousness. Having been accepted in the Beloved
by the work of Christ and the person of Christ, having been accepted in the Beloved,
am I now perfected by my works? Well, certainly not. Certainly
not. This can't be. So David over
here in verse... Do you see what I'm saying? I
know you do. I know you see what I'm saying. And I've had so many
folks that just had so much peace and rest and joy all their life.
When they got old and feeble and weaker, these voices began
to talk to them and began to confuse and compound them. That's
right. Don't let that happen. God, don't
let that happen to me. Keep my eyes on Christ. That's
where I started. That's where we go in this journey,
looking to Him. Look in there, finding in him
all I need. Jesus Christ is made to me all I need. Not only as
a young man, but as an old man. All I need. I'm redeemed in him. That's what we read when I was
in Isaiah 53. All right, let's move on here.
So David looks in verse 13. Let my enemies be confounded,
not me. Consume them that are adversaries
of my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my heart. and dishonor my Lord, and rob
him of his glory, rob him of his exaltation, and want me to
look to something else for salvation. You don't let them dishonor my
Lord, you dishonor them. But here he returns to his only
hope. Listen to verse 14. But I will
hope continually. Where? In Christ. And I'll yet
praise thee more and more, and my mouth shall show forth your
righteousness and your salvation all the day. I know not the numbers
thereof." Somebody wrote this about that, I know not the numbers
thereof. David said, what he is saying here is, I know the
sweetness of your salvation. I know the sureness of it. I
know the truth of it. But, O Lord, the full extent
of it, of your righteousness and salvation, the vastness and
glory of it, I can't But I'll be satisfied when I wake with
his likeness. I know not the numbers of his
mercy, innumerable, innumerable. But I'm going to go in the strength
of my Lord God. I'm going to go in the strength
of the Lord. I'll go in and out and find pastures in the strength
of the Lord. I'll go forth to meet my enemies
in the strength of the Lord. I'll go through the valleys of
the shadow of trial and trouble in the strength of the Lord.
I'll go down to the crossing of Jordan in the strength of
the Lord. And I will make mention, only
mention, of thy righteousness, thine only, never mine." I read
an interesting statement by a preacher of the past. David said, I started
in the strength of the Lord and I'll go in the strength of the
Lord. And I'll make mention of thy righteousness, thine only,
Never mind, because my righteousnesses at their best are filthy rags,
and filthy rags are best not mentioned to remain hidden. I'm going to make mention of
thy righteousness. Never mind, because filthy rags
ought to be hidden and not hung out for folks to see, much less
God. Just keep them hidden. Talk about
him. Look to him. That's so. Oh, God, listen to this. Oh,
God, you've taught me from my youth, and hitherto I've declared
your wondrous works. Now, also, when I'm old and gray-headed,
old and gray-headed, Lord, forsake me now. And this is what he's
saying. God's not going to leave his
people. They're not going to perish. He'll have begun a good
work and you'll finish it. But don't lay me aside. Don't
let me lose my effectiveness and my joy and my happiness and
my ability to be a blessing. Because he says, listen, don't
forsake me until I've showed your strength, not mine, your
strength to my generation. What he's saying there is this,
allow me to continue in such a Christ-honoring, Christ-believing
Look in the Christ-only way that I'll be a witness to my generation,
like you prayed tonight. These old fellows around here
are a blessing, these old ladies. I shouldn't have said that. He's
older. You had a meeting with the old
ladies, your granddaughter. But they're such a blessing.
How are they a blessing? When they sit around doubting
God? No. When they sit around talking about whether they're
saved or lost? No. When they magnify the name of the Lord,
they are blessed. That's right. Let me be a blessing
to my generation. Now, watch this next line. And
let me show your strength to my generation and your power
to everyone that is to come. The generations that are not
yet born, my great-grandchildren and their children, leave a testimony. Leave a testimony to your people
that watch you, live with you, walk with you, and talk with
you. As you get older, leave a testimony to them, and leave
a testimony to them that are going to be born down there,
and your sons and daughters will tell them about you. You see
what I'm saying? Tell them about you. But we're
not going to leave that testimony if we start talking about ourselves. It's when we look to him. He'll
never cast you off if you look to him. You can't look to Christ
and not be saved. I guarantee you that. You cannot
look to Christ and not be saved. I've got his word for that. Verse
19, Thy righteousness, O God, is high. who hath done great
things, O God, whose likened to thee. That's what Moses said
in his song over there, Lord, whose likened to thee. Here is his benediction, verse
19, whose likened to thee. Verse 20, Thou which hast shewed
me great and sore troubles shall quicken me again. Someone said
this, The Lord was strong to smite me. Yes, he did. I needed
it. I'll need it some more. But he
who is strong to smite me will be strong to save me. And he
who has shown me great trials has shown me great mercies. And
he who in grace brought me low, in glory he'll exalt me. That's right. He brought you
low so he can exalt you. That's right. And he who will
bury me will raise me. Thou which has shown me great
troubles shall quicken me And you'll bring me up again from
the depths of the earth. He'll raise my body and make
it like his glorious body. And you'll increase my greatness
and comfort me on every side. We're talking about the greatness
of the Lord here. There's no greatness or glory
associated with anything in this world, but it's his greatness. So I'll praise thee with a psaltery,
and I'm going to praise especially three things. See it thou, praise your truth,
O my God, unto thee will I sing with the heart, O thou holy one
of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice
when I sing unto thee in my soul which thou hast redeemed. I sing
about your truth, I sing about your redemption, and my tongue
shall also talk of your righteousness." That pretty well sums up the
three things that we talk about. His truth, his redemption, his
righteousness. That's it. For they are confounded,
for they are brought unto shame that seek my hurt. Isaac Watts
wrote a hymn about this psalm, and this is three verses of it.
My God, my everlasting hope, I live upon thy truth. Thy hands
have held my childhood up and strengthened the days of my youth. Still has my life new wonders
seen. repeated every year. Behold my
days that yet remain. I trust them only to your care. And cast me not off when strength
declines and when snow-white hairs arise. And Lord, round
me let your glory shine when this body dies." It's all Christ,
isn't it? Youth, old age, never at any
time There's any cause to look anywhere else but to Him. I'll
never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Never.