O God, You have taught me from my youth,
And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.
And 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 (Psalm 71:17-18).

In a world where everyone is out to preserve their own honor, here is King David simply seeking the Lord's glory. From his youth he declared God's praises, and David prayed that he might continue to do so to his dying days. David sought God's providence not so much to amplify his own glory but to complete his mission in declaring God's praises to both his generation and the generation to come. 

Friends, has someone offended you today? Have they disrespected you? And are you so offended that you want to do them harm? This is not the spirit of David, nor is it the attitude of Christ, which believers are called to emulate. Paul writes for us:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:3-8).

The world teaches, "Do to others as they did to you." Jesus taught, "Do to others as you want them to do to you" (Luke 6:31). The world teaches, "If they bring a knife, you bring a gun; if they bring a gun, bring a bazooka." The world encourages the attitude of Lamech, the son of Cain, who declared, 

Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
    wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
    a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
    then Lamech seventy-seven times (Genesis 4:23-24).

This is completely opposite the teaching of Jesus:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:21-22).

Friends, Satan's deception in our culture is very subtle. It may even sound logical. But it is not the Lord's way. The saying, "Do to others as they did to you" sounds so very enticing and logical, but it is the spirit of vengeance and is partner to those who say, "If someone hurts me, I will murder them." Even when, as Christians, we rebuke a brother, it is not for justice but for mercy, to help, heal, and restore that brother. When Paul confronted gross sin in the Corinthian church, a sin even pagans did not do, he commanded the offender to be discliplined by the church through their breaking fellowship with him, but it was not for his destruction but for his ultimate salvation. Paul told them to "hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord " (1 Corinthians 5:5). Later on, when this brother came to realize and confess his sin, Paul just as strongly encouraged the church to receive him back:

The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him (2 Corinthians 6-8).

My dear friends, do not be conformed to this world (Romans 12:2). Do not be overcome by evil, but choose to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Just as you received mercy and not judgment from the Lord, God desires of us to show mercy over judgment (James 2:13).

Someone told me recently that a leader will demand his followers do his bidding. Truly, this is how the world sees leaders, and these leaders gladly exercise such authority over others. Jesus acknowledged that this is the way leaders are perceived and the way they act in the world (Matthew 20:25). But this is not how Christian leaders are called to lead. We are called to serve and be longsuffering (Matthew 25:26-28). Jesus served in this way. By God's grace, I want to lead and serve as Jesus led and served. May I not be concerned for my honor, but may I honor the Lord, who made me and saved me and in whom is all my hope forever. I pray, dear friends, that you will have the same attitude. 

But I am afflicted and needy;
Hasten to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay (Psalm 70:5).

David pleads with God to deliver him from his affliction and neediness. Then consider Solomon's words:

For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor and needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.
He will rescue their life from oppression and violence,
And their blood will be precious in his sight (Psalm 72:12-14).

Solomon declares that God will indeed deliver the needy and afflicted.

But as we read passages like this, have you considered that before there is deliverance, there is first affliction. Before there is provision, there is suffering. Does not God, who has power to deliver, have the power to keep them from affliction and neediness in the first place?

This is the same question some Jews asked when Jesus visited Lazarus: 

Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? (John 11:37).

It is true that Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying. He could have come before Lazarus died. The context even tells us that he was less than two miles away. But Jesus deliberately waited until after Lazarus was dead. Both Mary and Martha said,

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died (John 11:21,32).

Jesus waited so that the Jews, including Mary and Martha, might witness the power of God and believe (cf. John 6:14-15, 41-42). In fact, Jesus said that this was God's intent all along:

This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it (John 11:4).

 A few chapters before the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus healed a man born blind. On that occasion, his disciples presumed that the man was blind on account of sin, whether his own or his parents. But Jesus tells them,

Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him (John 9:3).

Thus, both occasions, the blindness from birth and the death, provided an opportunity to manifest God's power and bring glory to the Son, even Jesus Christ. As I have argued before, it is not the deliverance or the healing that is the important thing but the power of God. 

The man born blind lived all his life suffering from his blindness. Lazarus suffered both sickness and death. Before this, an invalid suffered from his condition for thirty-eight years before Jesus healed him. These are representatives of thousands and millions of others, who were never healed. Could God have healed everyone? Yes. Did He?No. 

Why not? It does not serve God's purposes to heal everyone. Just as it does not serve God's purposes to save everyone. He is glorified both in the suffering as well as in the healing. He is glorified both in the damnation of many, as well as the salvation of some. 

But let us understand, although God does not always or even often heal, He is the only true Healer. Although He does not always or even often save, He is the only Savior. Let us, then, acknowledge that God is the only Deliverer, and there is no other. Yet, He is not subject to the will of men, neither to heal when or whom we want, nor to save when or whom we want. This is the nature of God's sovereignty. As the LORD said to Moses:

I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion (Exodus 33:19).

Therefore, it is right and good for us to cry out to Him, but let us not presume that He must do anything for us that He has not promised us in His Word. Can God deliver? Yes, but He will not always do so. Can God prosper us? Yes, but He may not choose to do so. 

Then, you may ask, how can we live our own lives? <Pause> Your question is wrongly phrased. We ought not to seek our own lives. Instead we ought to seek to live our lives in line with His will. This is the testimony of every Christian: "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). Paul writes elsewhere,

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Friends, how are we to live our lives? Not as our own, but as those who have been bought by God, not for our own purposes, but for the will of Him who saved us. And to the extent that we understand and live God's will, that is the extent to which we can know He answers our prayers. Even Jesus declared, "I did not come down from heaven to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me" (John 6:38). This is why Jesus could also affirm, 

Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me (John 6:41-42).

God was always with Him to grant Him everything He asked for because Jesus always lived to please God, His Father:

The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him (John 8:29).

Friends, let us walk in the footsteps of Christ, always seeking God's will in everything, so that we might have the assurance of what God's calling and election are in our lives.

Please, God, rescue me! Come quickly, Lord, and help me (Psalm 70:1).

But as for me, I am poor and needy; please hurry to my aid, O God (Psalm 70:5).

O God, don’t stay away. My God, please hurry to help me (Psalm 71:12).

Do you sense the desperation in David's tone? It appears that David's appeal does not receive an immediate response from God. In fact, David says that God has allowed him to suffer (Psalm 71:20). Even so, David is determined to continue to hope in God and to praise Him:

But I will keep on hoping for your help; I will praise you more and more (Psalm 71:14).

This is a good reminder for us as well. Sometimes our faith falters when God does not do as we ask. When things don't work out as we hope, when we don't prosper from doing good, when there is no tangible benefit from our devotion, we consider taking matters into our own hands over trusting God. Yet, it is faithfulness in spite of disappointment, loss, suffering, and apparent defeat where God is most glorified. By our persistent testimony of trust and praise to God, we declare that we put no hope in the transient benefits of this life. As Paul also wrote,

 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (1 Corinthians 12:9-10).

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body (2 Corinthians 4:7-11).

Isn't this also what our Lord Jesus taught His disciples?

Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels (Luke 9:23-26).

It is very human to desire deliverance from disappointment, suffering, and loss. Even the Lord Jesus prayed that God might deliver Him from crucifixion. Paul prayed that God might remove his thorn in the flesh. Yet, both Jesus and Paul had a greater desire, namely, that God's will be done. 

And so we can pray like David for God's help. We can pray like Jesus for deliverance. We can pray like Paul for relief. Nevertheless, let us have a deeper appreciation and desire for the praise of God's Name and the fulfillment of His good, holy and perfect will in our lives. 

How many times do we see athletes, politicians, and people we consider our heroes fall? Watch the news and we find all kinds of people who fall from their lofty pedestals. Psalms 73 is about the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the innocent. We tend to look up to people who are wicked/arrogant. The world is their footstool. Their pride in who they are and what they have pretty much drips from them. Pride is their necklace says v. 6.

At the end of their life, however, they are gonna die and face judgement. And they're going to do it stripped of anything earthly. They built up "treasures here on earth where moths and rust can destroy." They lived their lives looking to the admiration and adulation of other people, and they will have to face God someday and account for that.

As for the righteous, what do we really have here on Earth? Are we so steeped in the need to be validated by humanity that we forget that we must be proven righteous by the blood of Christ? 

V. 23-28 says Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards You will take me up in glory. Whom do I have in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on Earth but You. My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever. Those far from you will certainly perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge, so I can tell about all you do.

So who am I? Is God's presence my good? Is He my refuge? The strength of my heart? Do I desire only God on this Earth? Or am I chasing after the wicked?

  ²³ Yet I am always with you; 

   you hold me by my right hand. 
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, 

   and afterward you will take me into glory

God has us in his firm grip from birth to death. But far more we have the hope of resurrection.  Though our courage and strength may fail, we know that one day we will be raised to life to serve Him forever.   God is our security and we must cling to Him.  I have learned to cling hard to Him when times get rough.  I like to picture myself clinging tightly to God's right hand and nothing can pry my hand from His!

As for me, I will always have hope (Psalm 71:14)

 Whether Christian or not, we all face trials of many kinds. What makes our life different is the hope that we have in Christ.  If we are feeling hopeless, perhaps through prayer and mediation on God's word, we may find hope. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we should read the Scriptures, for it is through what God has revealed to us that we can find hope.

 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

 Therefore, Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD. (Psalm 31:24)

Though you have made me see troubles,
many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
²¹ You will increase my honor
and comfort me once more

 I wish I were immune to troubles because I am a child of God who loves his children dearly. Because of the same reason, I know that God allows troubles in our lives with the promise of restoration. Troubles that the Psalmist experienced in his life were not only difficult ones but also happened quite frequently. My life has never had a dull moment but I see myself growing in His knowledge and having deeper understanding of my God. We go through difficult times just like anyone else in the world, but we have hope of restoration because God loves us. If any of you feel lonely today in any hardship, do not think that you're alone in the fight! God says that He neither slumbers nor sleeps to watch over you.

Friends,

When I reflect on Psalm 71:17-18 I think of the folly of youth and the weakness of elders. Oftentimes, both are quickly and easily moved to sin or to lose their focus on God-centered priorities. The youth, because they don't know any better, and elders because they are too weak to resist. The Proverbs clearly show how youth are simple-minded and prone to foolishness and self-destruction without discipline. And the Old Testament gives many examples of men, who started strong but ended badly.

 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
         And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
 Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
         O God, do not forsake me,
         Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
         Your power to everyone who is to come.

Here the Psalmist reflects on how God has been his Teacher and Provider his entire life. The Psalmist gives his motivation - to "declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come."

This reflection reminds me of another reflection - one by the prophet Agur in Proverbs 30:7-9,

      Two things I request of You
      (Deprive me not before I die):

      Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
      Give me neither poverty nor riches—
      Feed me with the food allotted to me;

      Lest I be full and deny You,
      And say, “Who is the LORD?”
      Or lest I be poor and steal,
      And profane the name of my God.

If you read these words and conclude that Agur is seeking a life of moderation, you would be missing the point. His interest is neither riches, nor poverty, nor anything else in between. His interest is what will glorify God most. This is the same interest of the Psalmist in Psalm 71 above.

As I reflect on this today, I wonder, "Do I seek God just to meet my needs?" "Do I seek God as a kind of insurance plan in case all of my wordly interests don't turn out so well?" "Which do I seek God more for? For God Himself or for His benefits here and now?" What is my interest? John Piper famously wrote, "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him." I like that. Oh that my only interest would be God's highest glory (cf. Psalm 71:16) and that I would seek no other good than nearness to my God (cf. Psalm 73:28).

There have been many times I have felt envious of non believers who prosper.  I then pray, ask for forgiveness and realizes my reward in in Heaven.  Revelation 11-15 is a great scripture to fill my heart with hope.  "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever." KJV.   No reward on earth can compare with our reward of eternal life in heaven!

Psalm 73 is for me a highly relevant psalm. It speaks of envying the prosperity of those who do not seek God (verse 3). What is more remarkable is that it was written by Asaph, who was the worship leader of Israel. It is his personal confession and testimony. He begins his testimony with a praise of the goodness of God and purity of the pure (verses 1-2) but an acknowledgement that as for him, his "feet had almost slipped" (verse 2). He had almost slipped from faith. Why? His immediate experience was contrary to his theological understanding (as provided in verse 1). He witnessed the wicked prospering in every way (verses 4-10, 12)  while God seemed disinterested in their affairs (verse 11). This is why God's people seemed so prone to follow the wicked (verse 10). The pursuit of purity and self-discipline seemed to him both painful and vain (verses 13-14).

These were Asaph's inner thoughts and not shared with others; otherwise, as he acknowledges, "I would have betrayed the generation of Your children" (verse 15). After all, he was the worship leader. How would it be for the worship leader to announce that it was better to enjoy life with the wicked and that the pursuit of righteousness was vain? Yet, as he thought about these things, he admits, "It was troublesome in my sight" (verse 16). He was deeply disturbed by this inner conflict between what he knew about God and his present experience.

The answer for Asaph came to him when he went into the house of God. Then he realized "their end" (verse 17).  He realized that in all his envying, he had only seen through a very narrow and tunnel vision. His awareness failed to look beyond the boundaries of birth and death. When he gained the perspective of eternity, all of a sudden clarity was restored to his vision. Verses 18-20 depict the swiftness, suddenness, finality and awful reality of judgment in death for the unbelieving and wicked.

In the rest of the psalm, Asaph humbles himself, acknowledges his guilt and extols the virtues of God's grace. In an expression of absolute devotion, he confesses,

    ²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You?
         And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
    ²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail,
         But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

We may look at this psalm and think, "Whew! That was close! What a terrible experience?!" We might have a smiliar reaction to what Job experienced when God tested him with the loss of all things. In that instance, Job got it all back. Yet, if that's our consolation and answer, we would have missed the point of the book. Asaph's understanding of God and worship grew through his wrestling and Job's did as well through his experience of loss. Asaph summarizes what he learned in the last verse of this psalm:

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good (v. 28).

Remember, Asaph began this psalm giving praise to God because of His goodness toward Israel (see verse 1). God was good because He blessed Israel and Asaph and all who were pure in heart. What Asaph came to understand was that even when God does not bless Israel or Asaph or the pure in heart, God remains good because He Himself, in His very nature as God, no matter what He sovereignly chooses to do, is good. And so with this in view, Asaph's personal good is then to be near to God. The closer he draws to God, in submission and praise and obedience to Him, the greater is his good.

This is also what Job learned. In some ways, like his confused friends, he imagined that God was good because He did certain prescribed "good" things. When God revealed Himself to Job, Job realized,

My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.

Job's awareness of God became enlarged. We have this testimony of Asaph and Job so that we can view God with an enlarged vision of Him. If we meditate on this, it will silence our petty complaints in life and elevate our reverence and love for God such that no contrary experience of life can move us from our worship of Him. God is good not because He does good things. He is good because He is good. And so His nearness to us is our good.