The Prayer of an Aged Believer
Most Bible commentators believe this is a psalm of David and is his prayer and trust in God during his later years under the crisis of his son Absalom’s rebellion. Since there is no title and the text of the psalm does not say this, we will not speculate and treat Psalm 71 as if it were written under those circumstances. Instead, we regard it as an anonymous composition. “Charles Spurgeon writes We have here “THE PRAYER OF THE AGED BELIEVER”, who in holy confidence of faith, strengthened by a long and remarkable experience, pleads against his enemies, and asks further blessings for himself.”
Psalm 71 has many similarities to all the Psalms. Psalm 71: 1-3 is quoted almost exactly from Psalm 31 : 1-3. The thoughts of Psalm71: 5 seem to be suggested from Psalm 31:1-3. The thoughts of Psalm 71:5 seem to be suggested by Psalm 22:9-11. Do not be far from me (Psalm 71:12a) echoes Psalm 22:11. My God, make haste to help me! (Psalm 71:12b) takes the thought of Psalm 70:1. Psalm 71:13 is similar to Psalm 35:26. Psalm 71:18 carries the thoughts of Psalm 22:22 and 22:30-31. Psalm 71:19 uses the phrasing of Exodus 15:11. It is obvious to think the author of Psalm 71 made study and meditation upon God’s word a priority through his life.
Verses 1- 3 (The Prayer of an Aged Believer ) Invocation of the Lament
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! 2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me! 3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me,
Verses: 4-6 (Trusting In the Constant Care of God) Complaint of the Lament
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.
5 For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. 6 Upon you I have learned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.
Verses: 7-11 (A Strong Refuge Through a Long Life) Affirmation of Trust of The Lament I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. 8 My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. 9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. 10 For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together 11 and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.”
Verses: 12-16 (Help me by striking my enemies) Petition of the Lament
O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! 13May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.14 But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more 15 My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge.
16 With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt.
Verses: 17-18 (The Strength of God from Youth to Old Age) Statement of Confidence of the Lament
17 O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
18 So even to old age and gray hairs, God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.
Verses:19 – 21 (Revived by the God Who Does Great Things) Statement of Confidence of the Lament
19 Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things,
O God, who is like you? 20 You 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.21 You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.
Verses:22- 24 (The Music of Praise) Vow of Praise of the Lament
22 I 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.23 My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. 24 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.
Five Facts About Lament
From the Teachings of Dr. N. T. Wright
Lament: Is it a Complaint or a Praise?
Old Testament Scholars believe that two thirds of the Psalms are Laments. People mostly believe a Lament is a complaint. The title of these ancient Hebrew writings what we call The Psalms is the Hebrew word “Tehillah”. Tehillah involves music and singing which is vital to the praise and worship of God. So how can a Lament that has so many complaints actually be praises to God?
The Israelites all though they had just been dramatically rescued from Egypt and saved from the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 16 -17). Now wandering in the desert, the Israelites lashed out complaints to God because bread, meat and water were so scarce. They assumed the worst and believed that God was going to kill them. Painting God as a villain, their complaints were a way of putting God on trial and testing Him. In the Psalms you read that Israel ask God to answer according to His unfailing love, because He is a God of justice and righteousness, and in the past God has proven Himself to be faithful in the past.
In the wilderness, Israel complained to God about the lack of bread and meat and water (Exodus 16-17). They assumed the worst about God: He wants to kill us! The people who had been dramatically rescued from Egypt and saved through the Red Sea turned on their Rescuer, painting Him as the villain. Their complaints were actually a way of putting God on trial; they were “testing” God. But in the psalms, Israel asks God to answer according to His unfailing love, because He is a God of justice and righteousness, and because He has been faithful in the past. By contrasting Israel in the wilderness with Israel in worship, we see that a complaint is an accusation against God that maligns His character, but a lament is an appeal to God based on confidence in His character.
Lament is the Proof of a Relationship
Israel brought their lament to God in the psalms on the basis of His covenant with them. Their prayers and songs were not vain attempts to beg a distant deity to notice them. They were not like the priests of Baal dancing and cutting themselves to force a response. These were a people whom Yahweh their sole sovereign creator had called His “firstborn”. The Israelites were asking their Father to act accordingly.
Dr. Russell Moore in his book, “Adopted for Life” describes going to an orphanage in Russia as they were in the process of pursuing adoption. The silence that came from the nursery was eerie. The babies in their cribs never cried. Not because they never needed anything, but because they had learned that no one cared enough to answer. Children who are confident of the love of a parent(s) or caregiver cry. For the Christian, our lament, when taken to our Father in heaven, is the proof of our relationship with God, our attachment to our heavenly Father, our Great Caregiver.
Lament is a Pathway to Intimacy with God
An understanding of the Psychological theory of Attachment explores how people learn to experience and respond to separation and distress in the context of core, close relationships from very early on in their lives.” Drawing on the research of both John Bowlby, the founder of the Theory of Attachment and Mary Ainsworth, a later contributor to the theory discusses that a secure attachment, an anxious-avoidant attachment, or an anxious-ambivalent attachment. From Ainsworth’s research, the “anxious avoidant” child didn’t care when they were separated or reunited with their parents, and only wanted to play alone. The “anxious-ambivalent” child “clung to his or hers parents and were extremely upset when their parents left” and they “were difficult to soothe” even when their parents returned, they seemed to be angry at their parents for leaving writes that research “confirms the tendency to see God as an attachment figure and the tendency to think about one’s relational dynamics with God along the same two dimensions of human attachment: anxiety about abandonment and avoidance of intimacy.”
By laying every emotion and every experience before Yahweh , their covenant God, the psalmist was reinforcing a bond of intimacy, affirming an attachment. Just as God made covenant with Abraham by the breaking apart of animals, Israel embodied the bond of the covenant by breaking open their hearts before God. The Torah was organized into five books of God’s instruction, and His word to His people; the Psalms are organized into five books, guiding us in how to “answer God”. The God who speaks calls us into relationship. Lament is one of the ways we respond to His Call.
Lament is a Prayer for God to Act
Lament in the Bible is not simply an outlet for our frustrations. Although venting has been proven to be beneficial in and of itself, a lament is a form of prayer, and prayer is not passive. Many of the laments in the psalms are calls to action. They plead with God to pay attention to them and to act on their behalf. Many Old Testament scholars identify “petition” as an essential element of a lament psalm. For example, the Hebrew word for “hear”, (shema), appears 79 times, as the psalmist implores God to listen attentively to their cry. The psalmist appeals to God’s character and covenant and asks for His attention and action.
In the New Testament when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He wasn’t giving them something cute to do to pass the time. He was inviting them to participate in the arrival of the Kingdom. In the Apostle Paul’s epistles, his prayers were not the preamble but the premise for his whole letter, embodying his theology. For Paul, prayer is one of the ways God is acting. When we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, then somehow, God is praying within us for the pain we feel and see around us.
Lament is a Participation in the Pain of Others
Lament is not only for the suffering; it is for solidarity with the suffering. We love our neighbor when we allow their experience of pain to become the substance of our prayer. This, after all, is what Jesus did for us. The strange act of asking why God had forsaken Him has been analyzed by scholars and theologians for what it means about our theology of the incarnation or the Trinity. But what we often miss is that Jesus was praying the words of Psalm 22 precisely because that was the prayer of many Jewish martyrs in the first century. Jesus, dying the vile and shameful death on the cross prayed in solidarity with the suffering. Indeed, His death was the ultimate prayer of solidarity. And every prayer of lament which we offer is another “Amen”.
The Lament is not our final prayer. It is a prayer in the meantime. Most of the lament psalms end with a “vow to praise” a promise to return thanksgiving to God for His deliverance. Because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, we know that sorrow is not how the story ends. The song may be in a minor motif now, but one day it will resolve in a major chord. When every tear is wiped away, when death is swallowed up in victory, when heaven and earth are made new and joined as one, when the saints rise in glorious bodies…then we will sing at last a great, “Hallelujah!”
For now, we lift our lament to God as we wait with hope. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
-Jim Katsoudas – learn more about working with Jim here!
All Scripture References are from the English Standard Version (ESV)
