Sermon Notes from a sermon preached by Elder Marcus Young of Grace Community Baptist Church in Elgin Texas on 8/9/2026
Lessons from an Old Saint
Psalm 71 gives us a portrait of an aging saint—someone who has lived long enough to experience both the faithfulness of God and the frailty of man.
The psalm does not identify its author. Many commentators have suggested David, perhaps during the rebellion of his son Absalom, and there is certainly a Davidic character to the psalm. Psalm 71 also seems closely connected with Psalm 70, which is attributed to David. Still, Scripture does not tell us with certainty who wrote it.
What matters most is not the identity of the psalmist, but the God in whom he trusts.
If this old saint could stand before us, perhaps he would say, “It is not about me. It is about my God.”
He is not presented as a perfect man. Rather, he is a faithful man who has learned, through a lifetime of walking with God, something about living well and finishing well.
Psalm 71 gives us three important lessons:
Continual trust.
Continual grace.
Continual praise.
These three lessons form the pattern of a faithful Christian life from youth to old age.
Continual Trust
The psalm begins:
“In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
Let me never be ashamed.
In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
Incline Your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come;
You have given commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.”
The first thing we learn about this old saint is that he has taken refuge in God.
Throughout Scripture, God is described as the refuge of His people. He is a fortress, a rock of safety and strength. When His people are weak, He is strong.
Proverbs gives us an interesting picture of this kind of wisdom. Among the small creatures described as “exceedingly wise” are the shephanim, or rock badgers:
“The shephanim are not mighty people,
Yet they make their houses in the rocks.”
These small animals do not possess great strength. Their wisdom is found in knowing where to seek shelter. They make their homes in the rocks, where the cliffs and crevices provide protection.
There is a lesson in that for us.
Wisdom does not always consist in being strong enough to defeat every danger. Sometimes wisdom is knowing where to run when danger comes.
The psalmist knows where to run.
His God is his refuge.
God Our Rock, Fortress, and Shield
Psalm 18 gives us similar language:
“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Each image tells us something about God.
A rock is solid, firm, and immovable. It is something upon which we can depend.
A refuge is a place of protection. Imagine being caught outdoors in a sudden thunderstorm as hail begins to fall. You immediately begin looking for shelter. You want someplace safe beneath which you can escape the storm.
God is that shelter for His people.
He is also a shield, protecting His people from the weapons of the enemy.
Scripture also calls Him the horn of salvation. In the Bible, a horn frequently represents power and strength. God is not merely a passive shelter. He possesses the power to protect and the power to deliver.
Therefore, He is a stronghold—a strong tower to which His people can run and find safety.
Taking Refuge Is an Action
There is another important detail in Psalm 71:1.
The Hebrew word translated “refuge” is expressed as a verb. That matters because a verb describes action.
God is not merely a safe place that exists.
He is a safe place to which we must go.
The psalmist says:
“In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge.”
He has acted upon what he knows about God.
He has gone to the place of safety.
And this is not something he has done once. In verse 3 he speaks of God as:
“A rock of habitation to which I may continually come.”
That is a remarkable description.
God is not merely a place the psalmist visits occasionally when trouble becomes unbearable. He is the psalmist’s dwelling place.
He lives in the presence and care of God.
He continually comes to Him.
Let Me Never Be Ashamed
The psalmist also prays:
“Let me never be ashamed.”
Psalm 25 helps explain what he means:
“O my God, in You I trust,
Do not let me be ashamed;
Do not let my enemies exult over me.
Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed.”
The psalmist is not primarily speaking about embarrassment.
He is asking that his trust in God never be shown to have been misplaced.
His enemies are saying exactly that:
“God has forsaken him;
Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”
They are looking at the psalmist’s circumstances and concluding that God has abandoned him.
The psalmist is praying, in effect:
“Lord, never let it be shown that I was foolish to trust You. Do not allow my enemies to say that my God failed me.”
He can pray this way because he has witnessed God’s delivering power throughout his life.
God has shown Himself not only powerful to save, but faithful to save.
Trusting God’s Righteousness
The psalmist continues:
“In Your righteousness deliver me and rescue me.”
Notice what he does not say.
He does not say, “Deliver me because I deserve it.”
He does not appeal to his own righteousness.
He appeals to God’s righteousness.
He has learned through long experience that God can always be trusted because God’s character never changes.
God is holy.
God is just.
Everything He does is perfect.
The psalmist therefore rests his hope upon the character of God rather than upon his own merit.
That is an important distinction for every believer.
Our confidence is never finally in ourselves.
It is in Him.
A Rock of Habitation
Perhaps one of the most beautiful expressions in the psalm is:
“Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come.”
God is both the psalmist’s refuge and his home.
He does not merely run to God during emergencies.
He dwells with Him.
And the extraordinary thing is that the holy God has made a way for His people to come continually into His presence.
Through Jesus Christ, believers have access to the throne of grace.
God does not say, “You came yesterday. That is enough.”
He welcomes His people again.
And again.
And again.
The psalmist has cultivated a habit of coming continually into the presence of God.
That is something every Christian should cultivate.
Christianity is not simply coming to worship on Sunday and then forgetting God for the remainder of the week.
That is not how relationships work.
If we value a relationship, we cultivate it.
How much more should we cultivate our relationship with the living God, who has given us access to Himself through His Son?
Confidence from Youth
The psalmist says:
“For You are my hope;
O Lord GOD, You are my confidence from my youth.”
This trust did not begin when he became old.
He has been trusting God throughout his life.
If the psalmist is David, we can imagine him looking backward over his years.
He remembers tending sheep and being delivered from the lion and the bear.
He remembers standing before Goliath.
He remembers times when God rescued him from enemies who were stronger than he was.
Again and again, he learned the same lesson:
His confidence could not be in his own strength.
His confidence had to be in God.
Human strength lasts only for a season.
Human beings disappoint us.
Our abilities eventually fail.
But God possesses infinite power and infinite strength.
He is mighty to save.
The Blessing of Knowing God While Young
There is a tremendous blessing in coming to know God at a young age.
A young believer has an entire lifetime before him in which to glorify God and testify to His grace.
That blessing should not be squandered.
Stay in God’s Word.
Continue in His grace.
Trust Him.
Make it a habit to come continually before Him.
Draw near to God.
Those who are saved young have the opportunity to build habits of faith that may sustain them for decades.
They can spend their strength serving God rather than wasting years pursuing things that cannot satisfy.
Redeeming the Time
Others come to Christ later in life.
For them, there can be another temptation: looking backward with regret.
It is difficult not to think about past sins, foolish decisions, wasted opportunities, and years lived apart from God.
But believers must not spend the remainder of their lives staring backward.
Christ has given them new life.
If you are in Christ, you are a new creature.
You have new desires.
New ambitions.
A new purpose.
So redeem the time.
Make the most of whatever time God has given you.
Live for His glory now.
Trust Him continually.
Let Him be your refuge.
Sustained from Birth
The psalmist says:
“By You I have been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb;
My praise is continually of You.”
He recognizes that God’s care preceded even his ability to understand it.
God sustained him from birth.
Elsewhere Scripture describes God knitting His people together in the womb.
Birth itself is a remarkable testimony to God’s sustaining providence.
Looking backward over our lives, many of us can identify moments when we wonder:
“How did I survive that?”
“How did I get through that?”
“How was I preserved through those circumstances?”
The believer ultimately recognizes God’s hand.
God sustained us.
God protected us.
God brought us through one trial after another.
And when the psalmist considers God’s faithfulness, his response is natural:
“My praise is continually of You.”
Remembering God’s works leads to praising God.
A Marvel to Many
The psalmist says:
“I have become a marvel to many,
For You are my strong refuge.”
Some translations use words such as “sign” or “portent.”
Charles Spurgeon observed that the faithful believer can appear to be an enigma to the unbelieving world.
There is something puzzling about the righteous sufferer.
Here is a man who trusts God—and yet he still suffers.
Enemies conspire against him.
His physical strength fades.
He experiences the infirmities of old age.
The unbelieving world may look at him and say:
“He trusts God? Then let his God save him.”
Yet the believer continues trusting.
That persistence makes him a sign.
His life points beyond himself to the God who sustains him.
The world may not understand it, but the believer’s steadfastness bears testimony to the reality of God’s grace.
And once again, the psalmist turns attention away from himself:
“You are my strong refuge.”
He does not focus upon his weakness.
He focuses upon God’s strength.
Continual Grace
The second great lesson of Psalm 71 is our continual need for grace.
The psalmist prays:
“Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.”
If the Lord tarries and we live long enough, all of us will eventually experience the effects of aging.
The psalmist expresses both the reality of old age and the fears that often accompany it.
Our hair turns gray.
Our eyes grow dim.
We begin needing reading glasses.
Our hair recedes—or disappears entirely.
Energy declines.
We get tired more easily.
We discover that we can no longer do things that once seemed simple.
That realization can be difficult.
I remember being in a prayer group when someone asked how the group could pray for me.
I answered, “I can’t do the things I used to do.”
An older and wiser man immediately laughed.
“Oh, you can’t do what you used to do? Welcome to the club.”
There was humor in it, but there was also truth.
Growing older forces us to confront our limitations.
When Strength Fails
For many people, especially men accustomed to providing, working, fixing things, and getting things done, the loss of physical strength can be particularly discouraging.
We want to be useful.
We want to accomplish things.
We want to provide for our families.
Then suddenly we discover that our bodies will no longer cooperate with all the things our minds still want to do.
That can produce discouragement.
We may even begin to feel useless or forsaken.
Our instinctive prayer becomes:
“Lord, give me more strength.”
“Give me more energy.”
There is nothing wrong with praying for strength.
But our greatest need is not simply more energy.
We need more grace.
We need God’s grace to grow old faithfully.
We need grace to accept our limitations.
We need grace to continue trusting Him when our abilities diminish.
We need grace because aging is part of life in a fallen world.
People spend tremendous amounts of time and money searching for the fountain of youth—for some treatment, medication, supplement, or procedure that will allow them to remain young indefinitely.
But eventually every one of us will go to the grave.
For the Christian, however, the grave is not the end.
Those who are in Christ will rise.
They will be with Him forever.
Remember Your Creator
Young people may read a psalm like this and think:
“This is about old people. I have plenty of time.”
That is a dangerous assumption.
Ecclesiastes 12 says:
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them.’”
The message is simple.
Remember God now.
Do not assume that you can live for yourself while you are young and deal with God later.
You do not know how much time you have.
Use your strength while you possess it.
Live for God now.
Develop habits of continual trust.
Learn to pray.
Learn His Word.
Learn to depend upon grace.
Whether young or old, every one of us needs God’s grace continually.
An Urgent Cry for Grace
The psalmist’s enemies believe his old age has made him vulnerable.
They say:
“God has forsaken him;
Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”
The psalmist answers by calling upon the One whose strength never diminishes:
“O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, hasten to my help!”
This is an urgent plea.
He needs God’s help now.
But there is good news.
The God to whom he has continually come throughout his life has not changed.
God never loses strength.
God never grows weary.
God is never too far away.
The old saint has returned again to his rock of habitation.
He is pleading for grace.
Is God Enough?
Despite all his troubles, the psalmist possesses one thing that cannot be taken from him:
He has God.
And for him, that is enough.
He knows God loves him.
He knows God cares for him.
He knows God is sovereign.
He knows God is working, even when circumstances are painful.
That raises a difficult question for every believer:
Is God enough?
If everything else were stripped away, could we still say that possessing God is enough?
Is salvation enough?
Is fellowship with God enough?
Is the privilege of coming to Him in prayer enough?
The God who created the universe invites His people to come to Him.
He says, in effect:
“I am your refuge.”
A life of that kind of trust cannot be lived by human strength.
It requires grace.
Continual Praise
After crying out urgently for help, the psalmist makes a remarkable turn:
“But as for me, I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And of Your salvation all day long.”
The psalmist is surrounded by trouble.
Yet rather than continually grumbling about his circumstances, he turns toward praise.
That is instructive.
We are often very good at complaining.
Young people complain.
Old people complain.
We describe our circumstances.
We rehearse our problems.
We tell other people everything that has gone wrong.
As we get older, health problems can become a particularly easy topic.
When I was younger, older people would sometimes tell me in great detail about their aches, pains, surgeries, and medical problems. I remember thinking, “Why are they telling me all of this?”
Now I find myself doing the same thing.
That is what we do.
We grumble.
But the psalmist shows us another response:
Praise.
He does not deny the trial.
He has already cried out urgently for God’s help.
But even if the trial is not immediately removed, he says:
“I will hope continually.”
And then:
“I will praise You yet more and more.”
The way we confront trials, fear, evil, and weakness is not by pretending they do not exist.
It is by turning our eyes away from ourselves and placing them again upon God.
Declaring God’s Righteousness
The psalmist says:
“I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.”
God’s righteousness is the righteousness worth proclaiming.
The psalmist is not interested in advertising his own goodness.
He wants others to know the character of God.
He continues:
“O God, You have taught me from my youth,
And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.”
He has spent his entire life learning in God’s school.
He is still God’s student.
And even in old age, he has not grown tired of speaking about God’s wonderful works.
Telling the Next Generation
Then comes one of the most significant statements in the psalm:
“Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to all who are to come.”
The psalmist still has a mission.
His physical strength may be diminishing, but his usefulness to God’s kingdom has not ended.
He wants to tell the next generation what he has learned.
He wants younger people to know God’s strength.
God’s power.
God’s righteousness.
God’s salvation.
God’s wondrous deeds.
There is a tremendous ministry here for older believers.
The church needs saints who have walked with God for decades.
The younger generation needs to hear from people who can say:
“I have experienced sorrow, loss, sickness, disappointment, and weakness. I have walked through seasons when I could not see what God was doing.
And He was faithful.”
A lifetime of God’s faithfulness becomes a testimony to those who come afterward.
The God Who Shows Trouble and Revives
The psalmist says:
“Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?”
There is no one like Him.
Then he says something striking:
“You who have shown me many troubles and distresses
Will revive me again.”
Notice the sovereignty expressed in those words.
The psalmist recognizes that even his troubles have not occurred outside God’s providence.
God has allowed him to pass through them.
That means our trials are not meaningless interruptions.
God uses them.
He uses them to sanctify us.
He uses them to prepare us for eternity.
He uses them to strip away self-reliance.
He uses them to teach us to depend upon Him.
And He uses them so that He may once again display His power in delivering and reviving His people.
The same God who permits His people to descend into deep places is the God who lifts them up again.
When we are down, He revives.
When we have fallen, He restores.
When our strength fails, He gives what we need to continue living for Him.
Praise from a Redeemed Soul
As the psalm reaches its conclusion, praise pours out from the psalmist:
“I will also praise You with a harp,
Even Your truth, O my God;
To You I will sing praises with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You;
And my soul, which You have redeemed.”
He wants to praise God with everything he has.
His lips praise.
His tongue praises.
His voice praises.
His instruments praise.
His very soul praises.
Why?
Because God has redeemed him.
That is the ultimate reason for Christian praise.
We have been redeemed.
Whatever physical weakness comes, whatever circumstances change, whatever we lose in this life, the believer possesses something infinitely greater.
Christ has saved him.
Continual blessings are worthy of continual praise.
The Psalm Comes Full Circle
At the beginning of Psalm 71, the psalmist’s enemies believe he will be ashamed.
They believe God has abandoned him.
They want his faith to be shown as worthless.
In the middle of the psalm, he asks God to put his enemies to shame.
Then, at the end, he says:
“For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my hurt.”
The psalm has come full circle.
The psalmist’s trust was not misplaced.
God has been vindicated.
The man who trusted Him has not ultimately been put to shame.
Do You Know This God?
All of this leads to a greater question.
Do you know this God?
More importantly, does He know you?
There is only one way for sinful people to be reconciled to a holy God, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ.
God is holy.
Because He is holy, He must judge sin.
Scripture teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Every one of us has sinned against our Creator.
And because He made us, He has the right to judge us.
One day every person will stand before the Judge of all the earth and give an account.
What will we stand upon?
Our works?
Our morality?
Our accomplishments?
Our religious activity?
We possess no righteousness of our own sufficient to stand before a holy God.
Our only hope is to stand in Christ.
Christ took the sins of His people upon Himself.
He bore the penalty of sin.
He went to the cross at Calvary and died.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Christian’s answer before God is not:
“Look at everything I did.”
It is:
“Christ did it all. He paid it all. I have nothing to offer except Him.”
So come to Christ.
Do not spend your life living entirely for yourself and assume there will always be more time.
Learn of the Savior.
Trust Him.
Take refuge in Him.
We Still Have an Enemy
Psalm 71 also contains prayers against the psalmist’s enemies.
These kinds of prayers are often called imprecatory prayers, and they can sometimes be difficult for modern readers.
We may not have enemies standing outside waiting to take our lives, but Christians still have a real enemy.
Scripture describes the devil as a roaring lion prowling about seeking someone to devour.
He seeks to destroy.
He seeks to discourage believers.
He seeks to keep Christians from enjoying the fullness of life in God.
And for those who do not know Christ, he seeks to keep them from ever coming to Him.
But the good news is that Christ has already won the victory.
The enemy still causes havoc.
But Christ has conquered.
Therefore, our strength cannot be in ourselves.
Our strength must be in Christ.
Live Well and Finish Well
Psalm 71 gives us the example of an old saint who has learned where to go when trouble comes.
He goes to God.
He has gone there throughout his life.
And now, when his strength is fading and his enemies appear to be closing in, he goes there again.
That is what it means to live well and finish well.
Continual trust.
Continual grace.
Continual praise.
When you are strong, trust Him.
When your strength fails, seek His grace.
When trouble comes, run to your refuge.
When God delivers, praise Him.
When trials remain, praise Him still.
When you are young, remember your Creator.
When you are old and gray, tell the next generation what God has done.
And when everything else has been stripped away, remember that the Christian still has Christ.
In Him we have salvation.
In Him we have safety.
In Him we have strength.
So let us, like this old saint, continually run to our refuge and spend our lives offering unending praise to His holy name.
Journals of a Fallen World 