Through All of Life
Bill Pullin
Upon you I have leaned from my birth. Psalm 71:6
Like many of the psalms, Psalm 71 gives us a list of enemies and opponents. There are those who are wicked, unjust, and cruel. There are accusers and those who seek to hurt the psalmist. There are enemies who see the psalmist weakening over time and wait for just the right moment of weakness to pounce and overcome. However, again as in many of the psalms, it is God who gives the psalmist the strength and guidance to prevail against them. God is “a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.”
One distinctive element of Psalm 71 is the theme that not just now, but for all of life the psalmist has been in God’s care, and praises God for that. “It was you who took me from my mother’s womb,” we read, and in verse 9 we read that the psalmist’s strength is now spent. Verse 18 speaks of being in “old age” with “grey hairs.
We have all gone through different phases of life, including phases of our Christian lives. As a typical member of my generation, I remember attending Sunday School, going to Summer Church Camp, earning my God and Country award when in Boy Scouts, writing essays on scripture for my courses in the Philosophy and Religion department at college, etc.
We go through changes, to be sure. Our interests change. Our health changes. The world around us changes. Our friends and relatives come and go. But what does not change is God’s love for us and his inspiration for our faithful lives.
Dear Lord, throughout my life you have been my hope and my joy. I will sing your praises in this life no matter what happens to me. Amen.
Encounters With Christ 