Sunday School Lesson 7: Continual Proclamation, Psalm 71:12-21, July 14, 2024.
Key Text: I will hope continually, And will yet praise thee more and more (Psalm 71:14).
Psalms 71:12 expresses the concerns of David at the time when he thinks he should be exempt from certain kinds of troubles. His enemies conclude that God has abandoned him. However, the psalmist is confident that God will remain faithful and prays, “O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help” v 12. The psalmist here turns to “hope in God” as he has since his youth. David, a man after God’s own heart, was frequently oppressed and troubled. Nonetheless, his resolve was “Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honor all the day” v 10. The aged saint asked that his enemies be confounded and consumed” v 13 as well as covered with reproach and dishonor.
David knew the sweetness of his salvation; he knew the glory of the days in which he walked with the Lord; but he did not know how many days remained for him to do so v 15. The psalmist does not reduce his praise of God and he realizes his comings and goings are in the Lord’s strength v 18.
The psalmist uses the “depths of the earth” metaphor to express his desperation. He feels as though he were in the realm of the dead, casted down beyond the grave. But this aged saint was confident that God “shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Even in old age, David remained true and faithful, praising God’s greatness, and comfort His stature and consolation would only increase.
The psalmist is not a bitter old man; rather, he is seeking new ways to praise the “Holy One of Israel…My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long,” v 24 from morning till night. We are safe to say, David imagined that his prayer was already heard and the problem already rectified. AMEN!
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