TLIC Psalms. June 9. Upon You I Have Leaned.

Read Psalm 71:1-6.  ¹In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! ²In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! ³Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. ⁴Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. ⁵For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. ⁶Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

Psalm 71 is the song of an aging person looking back over their life. What do they see? A God that has been faithful over and over, even from before their birth. They see a righteous God. A rescuing God. But how can a righteous God also rescue sinners like us? Who amongst us on our death bed won’t feel the weight of a wayward life? A life that failed more than it succeeded. How can a God of holiness deliver such a life?

Only when that life is joined to the life of Christ. Only by our union with Christ can we also look back at the end and pray in this way – In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me!

It is not difficult to place these words on Jesus’ lips at the cross. He alone could pray against the shame. He alone continually went to the Rock of refuge. He alone leaned on the Father’s side from before his birth. He alone continually praised the Father, even in his dark night of the soul.

Now, in Christ, this prayer is ours for the taking. We can boldly stand against shame and claim the rescue of Christ. We can look back and see the faithful hand of God upon us, even from before birth, for we were in Christ in eternity past. We can continually run into the refuge of his love and mercy. We can to live is Christ. 

You: Do you fear dying? Do you fear living a life that didn’t mean anything?

You in Christ: How does union with Christ remove the fear of dying from our souls?

Christ in you: Where can you look back and see God’s faithfulness in your life?

Prayer. Father, help me to claim this prayer as my own, especially as I grow older and face the journey into eternity. Amen.