Today’s Bible Reading:
2 Samuel 17; Psalm 71; Matthew 26
Topic: Hope
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 71
5 For you have
been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. 6 From birth I have relied
on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you.
9 Do not cast
me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone…
14 … I will
always have hope; I will praise you more and more…
17 Since my
youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous
deeds. 18 Even when I am
old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next
generation, your might to all who are to come.
(Ps 71:5-6,
9, 14, 17-18 NIV)
OBSERVATION:
This psalm is the personal profession of faith and prayer of
a devout old man. Authorship of this psalm is not given though it seems likely
to me that it is David. David had come to know relationship with God from his
earliest childhood. His faith had been forged and strengthened as a boy tending
sheep. His hope and trust in the Lord led him to be called and anointed by God
to become the leader of his people Israel . As David aged, and knew
that his prime physically was past, he was also aware that old age was
approaching. He knew that as an old man he would not have the same vitality,
yet his calling and mission in life would not be any less. His heart and his
hope was to serve his Lord well even when he was gray.
APPLICATION:
I identify with David in many respects. Though he was a
warrior and fought many bloody battles and I have never gone to war, it is his
heart that I find similarities with. From an early age I felt a sense of
calling and purpose for my life even if I did not recognize it as from the
Lord. In my youth and young adulthood, while I preferred to daydream my own
path and resisted the urgings of the Holy Spirit to discover or follow God’s
plan for me, the Lord has still redeemed me and I have never been without hope,
even in the darkest hours. Now I am literally gray and I pray like David, “Do
not forsake me now. I still need to pass your truth to the next generation.
Give me strength and ability to fulfill a calling I foolishly delayed in my
youth and sin. I will always have hope. ”
PRAYER:
Lord, redeem my latter days that my children, children’s
children, children’s children’s children and their generations may know and
live in You.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
–AP
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