Psalms that have impacted my life

Psalm 71 Part 5

As we are continually inspired by this psalm I am encouraged by the way David uses past experiences to encourage himself in the pressure he felt as King of Israel. Verse 17 says: “O God, you have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare your wondrous works”.  I can identify with David because I was born again 2 weeks before my 15^th birthday and that life-changing experience  I have never regretted or departed from in these 68 years. I am so thankful for what God has taught me over the years and is still teaching me. I have always been passionate about the Lord and have desired to live a life that is well pleasing to Him. I could spend the rest of this blog relating situations of God’s blessing in my life. David was anointed King of Israel when as a teenager the only experience he had was looking after his father’s sheep and worshipping his God. The bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart. One example of how God provided for us was after we were married and expecting our first child, and Babara had to finish work because she was pregnant. The next week because of the Australia-wide financial crisis I was told that from next week my hours of work would be halved. I was devastated and did not know how I could tell Barbara the bad news, for reasons I cannot remember on my way home from work that day I visited a shop and as I came out of the shop met my brother who asked if I knew anyone who was looking for a position as a draftsman because the company he worked for was desperate for one. To my surprise, I was working at this new job two days later so I never suffered any lack of income, that was a miracle that I have never forgotten. That experience has helped me when later in life I faced major challenges I knew God would look after us. David said that he would declare God’s wondrous works and this is a good habit to have always talked about the goodness of God in our lives. When you do this not only you are blessed but you help the people you are in contact with by your Godly encouragement. Verse 18 says: “Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, do not forsake me until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come”.  It is interesting that as David realised that he was getting older he wondered if he could be effective for God as an older person, I suspect that every person who is getting older wonders the same thing. He wanted God to be with him while he encouraged and declared God’s goodness to the next generation. He also declared this in Psalm 92:14 which says: “They shall bear fruit in their old age, they shall be fresh and flourishing”. This has certainly been my experience over the last 8 years, I have written 5 books and my weekly blog is seen by over 300 people each week all around the world. In this season of my life, I consider it a privilege to be able to encourage so many people about the greatness of God in my life. Whether I was young and now am a lot older God has been faithful all my life and He is worthy to be praised.