Gray Hairs - Psalm 71:14-18

Psalm 71:14-18

But I will hope continually

and will praise you yet more and more.

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,

of your deeds of salvation all the day,

for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD I will come;

I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,

O God, do not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might to another generation,

your power to all those to come.

I looked in the mirror this morning Father, and the guy staring me in the face didn’t have just a few gray hairs on his head, it was all gray and it had drizzled down his face to fill his mustache and beard…

In his book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, Miller makes the statement that  "a good story is about someone who wants something and goes through difficulties to get it."  He follows with the question, "What do you want?" I have been sitting in that question since my last reading of the book several weeks ago. What do I want?  What do I want the last chapters in my story to say?

Verse 17 describes what has been true for me, and verse 18 feels like it is speaking to that question about the current desire of my heart.  I feel most alive when I engage twenty-thirty somethings in conversations about life and I feel a deep burden for my grand kids as I look at the world they are growing up in. This feels like a worthy calling, something to which I can give myself for the remaining days You give me.

What a challenge, to proclaim Your might and Your power to a generation to come. Can I do that? Do I even know Your might and Your power? Am I passing on something that is true for me or at least something You are growing in me?

Verses 14-16 give me some perspective on how to go about this:

1. Hope continually. (This is Your gig and Your power at play...so is it hopeless, really?)

2. Praise You yet more and more. (Perspective and attitude.)

3. Speak of Your righteous acts. (Intentionality and stepping up.)

4. Your power present in me. (2 Cor 4:7, I am a vessel filled with Your power. Your power, I am the means for presence, so be present. Jesus with skin on.)

5. Holiness matters.  It is who You are and what I am to reflect.

So what do I do with this now and as I look at the coming days? What do I need to cut out, what do I need to add? What will you place on my plate? Am I open to whatever?  What will hold me back?

This I am going to need for sure; v. 3 “Be to me a rock of refuge,

to which I may continually come.”  LHM/CHM

**3/3/20 This is one of what I hope will be a regular entry in my blog.  This is a shift from what I have done in the past which has mostly been episodic accounts of things I experience in life.  I may continue to post more of the same from time to time, but the drift of the blog, at least for now, will be my observations, prayers, questions, and grappling with the Bible as I read through it over the next two years with some friends.  We are together following a 2 year reading schedule and meeting monthly to compare notes.  Your comments are welcome and if you are interested in what the reading schedule looks like reply in comments and I will be glad to send it to you.