You’ve heard of people trying to “make a deal” with God, haven’t you? Maybe you have been one of those people. “Lord, if you will ______, then I will _____.” Those “deals” are usually designed for the good of the recipient, aren’t they?
Would you ever try to “make a deal” with God for the good of someone else? In Psalm 71, the psalmist does exactly that. We will look specifically at verse 18, but get the feel for the entire psalm first. “In you, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame. Deliver me…cause me to escape…incline Your ear to me…save me…Be my strong refuge…save me…Deliver me…Do not cast me off…Do not forsake me…do not be far from me…make haste to help me…do not forsake me…revive me again…bring me up again…increase my greatness…comfort me on every side.”
If you only read those expressions in the psalm, you could easily walk away thinking the psalmist was being very demanding, rather selfish and not very God-centered. But such a conclusion would miss the mark. The question to consider is, “Why? Why was the psalmist making these pleas to his God”? Let’s consider the focus in verse 18, and then expand that to the rest of the psalm.
“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” (71:18). The psalmist had a goal. He had a purpose. He had a strong desire to “declare” the strength and power of God to his present generation and to successive generations. He was striving to make a deal with God to “deliver” him, “save him” and “not forsake” him, so that he could fulfill his goal of telling others of God!
Look at the rest of the psalm in that light. “My praise shall be continually on You…Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day…I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more…My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits…I will make mention of Your righteousness, and of Yours only…I declare Your wondrous works…I will praise You and Your faithfulness…My lips shall greatly rejoice…and my soul which You have redeemed…My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long.”
Have you tried to “make a deal” with God lately? So often those deals are focused on the good of the recipient, but the “deal” that the psalmist was seeking to strike with God was not for his own good but the good of others and of the glory of God. Could you say (or Would you say) to God, “Spare my life until I declare Your greatness to this generation and to the generation to come”? That…and that alone…is our purpose!