Prayer of an Old Man for Deliverance.
71 In You, O Lord, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed.
2 In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
Incline Your ear to me and save me.
3 Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come;
You have given commandment to save me,
For You are my [a]rock and my fortress.
4 Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the [b]grasp of the wrongdoer and ruthless man,
5 For You are my hope;
O Lord [c]God, You are my confidence from my youth.
6 [d]By You I have been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb;
My praise is continually [e]of You.7 I have become a marvel to many,
For You are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all day long.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies have spoken [f]against me;
And those who watch for my [g]life have consulted together,
11 Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”12 O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, hasten to my help!
13 Let those who are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek [h]to injure me.
14 But as for me, I will hope continually,
And will [i]praise You yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your salvation all day long;
For I do not know the [j]sum of them.
16 I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord [k]God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.
As David was growing older, it seems there were those who were just waiting for an opportunity to seize the throne. For that matter, this could have been written when his own son Absalom tried to do that very thing. David’s eldest sons were no doubt anxious to take the reigns, especially if they knew that David intended to pass the crown to Solomon who was not the oldest.
And so we find David in a precarious situation, or so it would seem. He’s getting older, he is less able to defend himself, and perhaps his enemies thought no one would come to the aid of a king who is on his way out. Yet David knew something they did not, as God had sustained him from his very birth. Rather than rely on his own (waning) strength, David put his trust in God as his “rock and fortress”.
Ultimately, if there was to be any rescue, it would be by God himself. David knew God’s protection and faithfulness, as he emphasizes in verse 16. Now in his weakness, he knew even more that God’s strength was the only thing dependable.
Though God is always with us, it is when we are weak that we know it best. As Paul told the church at Corinth, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Again, not that it isn’t already perfect, but we see it most clearly when we cannot accomplish the task in our own strength. Like David, we need to depend on God instead of human strength or wisdom.
Then we will “never be ashamed” as we see God work miracles despite our shortcomings, and we can “tell of His righteousness and salvation all day long.” Though our strength and vigor and very breath will run out on this earth, there is no end to his “mighty deeds” and we cannot count the “sum of them”. The ultimate accomplishment is that He will be with us forever, death is no longer the end, but instead the gateway to glory and life eternal.