Meditations on Psalm 71

In you, O Lord, I put my trust,

Let me never be put to shame.  Psalm 71:1 NKJV

            There is no one who walks through this world without struggles, only a difference in circumstances.  For some, it is a collapsing family.  For others, a collapsing livelihood.  Still others face challenges of health in body, mind, or spirit.  Some are plagued with loneliness, others with wagging tongues and hurtful lips.  Some struggle to find enough food for the day, or shelter against the cold.  Some have lost loved ones to disease or catastrophe.  Some are hunted by predators, who would enslave them to evil desires.  Everyone in this world suffers, even if only separated by circumstance and degree.

            David, who wrote the words of this ancient Hebrew song 3000 years ago, knew about suffering, too.  He lived through all these things at different times of his life.  How could he sing about having put his trust in a God who let him suffer?  How could he then ask, that he never be put to shame?  When living hungry, alone, persecuted, slandered, attacked, amongst death and disease, touched in our own very bodies by the suffering of the whole world… how can he, or we, pray such a thing?

            It is faith… but not just any faith.  It is a faith which sees beyond the suffering of the moment, and clings to a God who endures suffering with us.  It is a faith which beholds a God who does not abandon us in suffering, but enters into it with us, and carries us through it.  It is a faith that knows our God has conquered the suffering of this world, and all that the evil one would send us.  David knew a God who promised to save him, and all people, through a Messiah who would break the chains of suffering and death, and bring eternal life where the darkness of despair blighted the land.  David looked forward through a thousand years of future history, to the time of the promised Messiah, who in his very body would take the sins, evil, and suffering of the whole world… and nail them to the tree of the Cross.  David’s faith looked forward to the salvation God had promised, knowing that none of his suffering in his time, could compare with the glory of the time to come.

            Do you know this God?  This God who does not flee nor laugh at suffering, but comes to you in the midst of it?  This God who takes your suffering upon Himself, that you might receive His eternal life, and peace, and hope?  His Name is Jesus, and He calls out to you.  He has suffered all things for you, that you might be saved through Him.  Hear and cling to Him, and you, like David, will see beyond the boundaries of time and space, even your own suffering, to a life forever kept in Him.  For you, there shall be no shame, because the enemy can’t really touch you—for in this world we may have suffering, we are of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world.   

Amen.