Read Psalm 71:17-24. 17O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 18So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. 19Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? 20You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. 21You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. 22I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. 23My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. 24And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.
Looking back over his life David sees both the good and the bad. The wondrous deeds of God and the troubles and calamities God has allowed. But David’s retrospective is far less about himself than it is about God. God is mighty. God is righteous. God is faithful. And God will revive the King, and bring him up from the depths of the earth.
Cannot all that grow old in Christ say the same about our day of resurrection?
But will we say the same about our lives up until that resurrection day? Like David will we refuse to go silently into the next life? Will we continue to proclaim, praise, sing, shout, and talk? Or will we coast? Retire? Retreat? Will the next generation be our commitment or our complaint? Will our lives be an open book, a living lesson in dependence on God? Or will we hide away in our own shame and disappointment?
To live is Christ is the only cure for old age, both physically and spiritually. We can face another tomorrow with increasing dedication to Christ and to the discipleship of the next generation, knowing that Christ alone holds our eternity in his hand.
You: In what ways you been spiritually coasting into your older age?
You in Christ: How does your future in Christ allow you to face tomorrow with hope and peace?
Christ in you: What would increased dedication to God in Christ look like for you at your age?
Pray: Father, revive me again. Daily in this life and one day by your resurrection power into the next. And may I not grow silent on this journey to eternity, but ever tell of your wondrous love for me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 