Psalms that Connect Us with God – Part 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. As we head towards the end of the week, let’s not forget to keep God involved in our lives. Every weekday morning at this time, we stop. We take some time with God by reading the Bible, listening to Him, letting Him shape our lives. It really is a relationship that we have with God.

And all this week we’ve been looking at a different Psalm from the Bible each day, and King David’s relationship with God expressed in these Psalms. Many of these Psalms are just prayers, but he talks about his relationship with God, and we’re learning from that today. We’re looking at Psalm 71, and really.

Here’s a Psalm written in old age, and many of us are getting older, and here’s a Psalm that expresses David’s heart to God at this time. He says, “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. Be 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. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.”

All his life David has been trusting in God.

He says, “Upon you I have leaned from before my birth. You are he who took me from my mother’s womb”.

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“My praise is continually about you.

“I have been as a portent to many”, he says.

Lots of people look at my life and say there’s a lesson of what not to do.

Then he goes on to say, “but you are my strong refuge”.

“My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age.

“Forsake me not when my strength is spent.

“As your years come late in life.

“You can still look at this purpose of God. My mouth is filled with your praise.

“Forsake me not when my strength is spent, and are you feeling like a lot of your strength isn’t there that used to be there?

“That’s not a time when God can no longer use you, no longer meet with you. It’s not a time to despair and say, I’m useless now. No, God will not forsake you. He still has a purpose through you in this world.

“For my enemies speak concerning me. Those who watch for my life consult together and say, God has forsaken him. Pursue and seek Him, for there is none to deliver him.

“Oh God, be not far from me. Oh my God, make haste to help me. May my accusers be put to shame and consumed with scorn and disgrace. May they be covered who seek my hurt.

“But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more.”

What a great statement: “In old age. I’m going to praise you more now than ever before in my life. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts. When I talk to my kids, when I talk to my grandkids, I’m going to tell them all the ways that you have been involved in my life, all the ways you’ve answered prayer”.

“Of your deeds and salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.

“With the mighty deeds of the Lord God, I will come. I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone, O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me until I proclaim your might to another generation, Your power to all those who come.

“Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you.

“You have made me see many troubles and calamities and will revive me again from the depths of the earth. You will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.

“I will 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. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you, my soul also, which you have redeemed, and 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.”

I’m John North.

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