Psalms 71 – Cast Me Not Off in the Time of Old Age
A prayer of lifelong trust, prayed from the edge of old age.
This chapter of the Psalms overview is prayed by someone who has trusted God since birth, asking now, in old age, that God not forsake him. It answers the urgent cry of Psalms 70 with a lifetime's worth of accumulated trust.
In thee, O Jehovah, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and rescue me. Bow down thine ear to me, and save me.
Be thou to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually resort. Thou have given commandment to save me, for thou are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of a wicked man, out of the hand of an unrighteous and cruel man.
For thou are my hope, O lord Jehovah, my trust from my youth.
By thee I have been held up from the womb. Thou are he who took me out of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually of thee.
I am as a wonder to many, but thou are my strong refuge.
My mouth shall 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 fails.
For my enemies speak concerning me, and those who watch for my soul take counsel together,
saying, God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver.
O God, be not far from me. O my God, make haste to help me.
Let them be put to shame and consumed who are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor who seek my hurt.
But I will hope continually, and will praise thee yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of thy righteousness, of thy salvation all the day, for I know not the numbers.
I will come with the mighty acts of the lord Jehovah. I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
O God, thou have taught me from my youth, and I have declared thy wondrous works until now.
Yea, even when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not, until I have declared thy strength to a generation, thy might to everyone who is to come.
Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, thou who have done great things. O God, who is like thee?
Thou, who have shown us many and great troubles, will revive us again, and will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.
Increase thou my greatness, and turn again and comfort me.
I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God. To thee I will sing praises with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.
My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises to thee, and my soul, which thou have redeemed.
My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long. For they are put to shame, for they are confounded, who seek my hurt.