Psalm 71 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Psalm 71 Short Summary:

The author of Psalm 71 was growing old, and his strength was fading. He wrote this psalm to express his trust in God to help him fight his battles. He had trusted God since his youth and God had never disappointed him. While he didn’t have strength to fight anymore, he was ready to use the strength he still had to worship and teach others about God.

Psalm 71 Summary

AUTHOR:

• The author of Psalm 71 is unknown.

NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES:

• No Known New Testament References.

THEMES:

• Trusting God from birth to old age.  

• Teaching the next generation about God.

DEFINITIONS:

• Portent (71:7) – A foreshadowing or warning of something to come, often something bad; Something that sparks wonder or causes people to marvel.

OUTLINE:

• THE GOD OF MY OLD AGE (71:1-24):

  • The author of Psalm 71 was getting old, and He wrote from the perspective of an old man who needed God’s help.

  • He prayed that God would be a refuge for him. He needed a fortress because of cruel and unjust men.

  • The psalmist wrote that God had been his hope in the years of his youth, and God was still his hope as he aged (71:5).

  • “Upon 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” (71:6).

  • The writer asked God not to forsake him in his old age. The psalmist had been strong in his youth, but his strength was spent through years of life (71:9).

  • His enemies assumed God’s strength was no longer with him, and now that he was weak, they could pounce and take him down.

  • He asked God to fight for him. While God fought, he would apply his remaining strength to worship and to telling others about God greatness.

  • “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” (71:24).

  • The psalm writer looked forward to being able to share his knowledge of God with the next generation.

  • “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So 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” (71:17-18).

APPLICATION:

• One thing we can learn from the Psalms is that faith is not just for the old.

• We’ve read psalms from old weak men expressing their trust in God, and we’ve read many more Psalms from strong young men (especially David) expressing their trust in God.

• As is clearly expressed in Psalm 71, it is right and good for older people to place their confidence in God, and perhaps this gets easier as people age because they become acutely aware of their weakness.

• But the Psalms are absolutely clear that faith in God is also for the young. The only reason a person wouldn’t rely on God as much when they’re young as when they’re old is either pride or stupidity.

• When we are young, our physical strength and mental acumen can tempt us to believe we can win our battles on our own.

• Is that true?

• Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 that our battles are “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

• You aren’t winning that battle without God’s help. A whole army of strong young men won’t win that battle.

• Better to have an army of 1,000 old men who fight in the strength of God than 100,000 young men who fight under the delusion of youthful strength.