Psalm 71
While most commentaries suggest that this psalm was written by David the fact is we do not know, however, because the first two verses are identical to Psalm 31 which was written by David suggests that David wrote this psalm. The title of this Psalm is “God the rock of Salvation”, The use of the word rock is mainly associated with a strong foundation and that is so true about God. He is the only strong foundation that we can experience and build our spiritual life. Verse 1 says: “In you, O Lord, I put my trust; let me never be put to shame”. The psalmist in this verse shows the human side of his trust in the Lord, while he declares his trust in the Lord, there is part of him that is uncertain as to whether God would protect him. Because of human weakness, this is a battle we face from time to time. The big issue is do we allow our feelings to dominate or do we act in faith because we believe in God. In Mark 9 we read the story of a man who brought his demon-possessed son to the disciples to be healed but they could not heal the boy. Then the father brought his son to Jesus, we read in Mark 9:23 ‘That Jesus said to the father “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”. The father replied in Verse 24 “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord I believe, help my unbelief”. Jesus then healed the boy. This shows us that provided we keep on going that is the true expression of our trust in the Lord. It is important the father and the psalmist were expressing their uncertainty to God, not to other people, this is an important lesson for us to learn. Verse 2 says: “Deliver me in your righteousness, and cause me to escape, incline your ear to me, and save me”. While we do not know exactly the situation the psalmist was in, his trust was certainly in the Lord. The first thing that stands out in this verse is that he was depending on the character of God. Sometimes we allow our minds to wander and try to work out solutions in our understanding. We should always remember that the many aspects of God’s character never change, He is the same yesterday today and forever! At times through the business of life, there is a danger that we can forget the greatness of God’s character, so when that happens we need to pause and remind ourselves of the greatness of our God. Also, the verse highlights that the psalmist is not ashamed to talk about his situation and how he is feeling, he desired to escape and knew that the Lord would save him. Over the years there have been times when I have been victorious by my strength, but I discovered that when that happened my relationship with my Lord suffered and it took time to restore that relationship, God wants us to have confidence in Him even when we see no way out. There are many scriptures to encourage us to trust Him and when we believe His word and put our trust in Him we see the goodness of God in our lives.