This is a beautiful psalm that declares who God is for us! Psalm 71 was written by David when he was being persecuted by his son, Absalom. We see in earlier Psalms when David is fleeing from Saul how he feels truly persecuted and sadden by the betrayal of someone close to him. Now, however, his own sonis coming after him to take the throne and all he can do is praise and worship God! Would you be able to do the same if your own child was trying to usurp and kill you?
Aside from God’s protection, David’s one plea is for God to keep him alive long enough so he may proclaim the majesty of God to the new generation (v. 18). He doesn’t care what people plot against him, how they threaten him, he declares that he will praise God even more! When we feel persecuted, beaten down, tired of this life, as if all is going wrong, do we praise God like this? It is in our worship and praise of God that we are able to receive His victory over this life which he has already won. In John 16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure and he comforts them with this:
32 “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Many times we are so deep in the thick of battle of our day to day tribulations that we tend to forget the war is already won! Our enemy tries to convince us, as David mentions in verses 10-11:
For my enemies have spoken against me; And those who watch for my life have consulted together, Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”
Our enemy, the great deceiver, tries to convince us of the same: that God has forsaken us and we are left all alone to fend for ourselves. But the truth is that God never leaves nor forsakes us. If we can truly believe it, then we simply get to praise God and walk in his victory regardless what the world around us sees or tries to do. This is why the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 1:
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Dead or alive, we are good! We win either way. Our relationship with God is a win-win situation because he has already won and this alone is enough to praise God amidst the difficulties of life.
