Psalm 71
If you think about a
reflection, it shows some, not all, of you. If you are uncomfortable with a
part of yourself, you rarely allow it to be reflected, whether that’s the
unsightly mole on one side of your face, or a part of your character you
are not happy about. So what are my reflections on this passage? Instead I
thought I’d hold up this passage as if it were mirror and see which parts of myself
are actually reflected in it.
It was actually quite
encouraging, but equally I found a lot of things which I really wished were
true of me, but I knew they weren’t, at least not all the time. How wonderful is it that this psalmist has
had confidence in God since his youth!? What
a witness, the psalmist says he’s relied on God, he’s been taught by God since
his youth, he will always hope in God. The
psalmist declares God’s faithfulness and, though given his past it seems
unnecessary, he asks that God would continue to be faithful even when he is old
and grey. His motive (v18) is not to live long but to tell people about God.
What I was most
challenged by was the amount of proclamations the psalmist makes (v8). I wrote out all the things the psalmist will
say or declare or speak out about God.
That’s a challenge to me, do I do that?
We can do it, even if we don’t fully know how (v15).
(member of the youth
ministry team)