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A LESSON FOR YOUTH AND OLD AGE (Psalm 71)

Life is a funny thing — and a fleeting thing.

One day, you are young, and then suddenly, you are old. In your old age, you think back to your youth. It’s like life is a blur. According to James 4:14, “It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

Psalm 71 is the psalm of youth and old age. The psalmist wrote it while reflecting on his whole life.

Verses 5-6: “For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.”

Verse 17: “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.”

Listen up, young people. Here are some great truths about youth.

God created you. He is the One who took you out of your “mother’s bowels.”

God is your hope. That does not happen when you get old. It starts when you are young. For the psalmist, He was “my trust from my youth.” Do not wait until you are old to start living a life of faith. Do it as early as possible.

God wants to teach you. The psalmist noted that this began for him in his youth as well. Young person, God wants to work in your life right now. If you let Him work in your youth, you can give Him the rest of your life so that one day you can say, “… hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.” You can declare to others what God taught you at that stage of life.

At this point in Psalm 71, we see the switch to old age. Verse 18: “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.”

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

It seems evident that the psalmist was living at the latter end of life, having seen both sides. He was closer to the end than the beginning.

The closer you get to eternity, the more life makes sense. It is almost as if by the time you get to the point where you have learned how to live, it is nearly time to die. We spend so much time learning certain things, and anyone who is older reading this would wholeheartedly encourage younger people to listen to the words of Psalm 71.

God gave you life. Trust Him now. Get close to Him now. It will make the rest of your life better.

I love the fact that even when the psalmist was old and grey-headed, he was not finished. More importantly, he knew that God was not finished with him.

To those closer to the finish line than the starting blocks, I want you to know that if you are still breathing, God is not done with you. He is with you right where you are. The psalmist knew that the Lord would not forsake him in that hour. God will not forsake you.

My pastor used to say that the prime of life is any time in life when you are in the center of God’s will. You never know exactly when He will do His greatest work in your life.

Think about the great men of the Bible and how many of them were greatly used by God near the end of their lives. Could it be that your greatest work is still ahead of you?

The psalmist did not lose purpose, and I want to encourage you not to. Do not quit until God is finished with you. Do not die until you die.

In verse 18, the writer acknowledges that he still has a responsibility. After living much of his life, learning some lessons, and growing in the faith, it was his privilege and glorious responsibility to pass that on to the generation behind him.

It is not just about your living. It is also about you leaving something behind. The more advanced age, the more you should ask yourself what you will leave behind.

I would encourage you to read all 24 verses of this psalm, but right now, I want to share a very practical application with you. There is something here he says both to the old and the young. It is something we all must consider.

Verse 15: “My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.”

No matter your age, there is one thing you do not know: how many days you have left to live.

We measure life in years, but God measures it in days. You can count how many days you have been alive; I did that one time with the help of a calculator. The answer was a number that amazed me. Then I read an article that cited how many days the average American male lives, and I got discouraged because I realized how many days I had already used up.

There is a problem with that exercise. You can figure out how many days you have lived but can never determine how many days you have left. Your life is in God’s hands; the issues of life and death belong to Him. So even if a doctor tells you that you have two weeks to live, that is not 100 percent sure. Only God knows that number.

In verse 4 of Psalm 39, we read this plea: “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.” Notice that he asked not for a specific number of days but the measure of them. The measure of your life is not in its length but in what you do with the time you have.

Enoch is more blessed in memory than Methuselah, who lived longer than anyone in history at 969 years. Enoch “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).

What is your goal? Do you just want to live a long life, or do you want it to be everything God wants it to be?

There is both a certainty and an uncertainty about life in youth and old age. What should we do with our days, starting with this day and continuing until we see Jesus?

We are given the answer to that question three times in Psalm 71.

Verse 8: “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.”

Verse 15: “My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day.”

Verse 24: “My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long.”

Whatever your age, there is something you should do every single day for the remainder of your life. You should give God praise and glory, and you should talk to others about the goodness of God.

Do you want to make every day count? Do you want all of the days you have left to matter the most for eternity? Then do this:

Talk about God’s goodness and salvation, His righteousness and mercy, and His faithfulness in your life. This is something all of us can do. It is a lesson for youth and old age.