“But I will keep on hoping for your help; I will praise you more and more.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭71‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

God is definitely trying to tell me something.

For the past week, my totally random method of picking a topic for my Heaven On Wheels devotional kept picking “Hope” as the topic. When something that should be random isn’t, I know that God is at work and that I should listen to Him.

My God-directed non-random topic choice then pointed me to one of the Psalms. This psalm is often described as “the prayer of the aged believer”, so it’s definitely God talking to me!

It begins with the psalmist praising the Lord for His constant care, thanking God as a strong refuge throughout a long life. But, like most of us, he also asks God to keep him strong physically, mentally, and spiritually as his strength fails.

The psalmist is in the midst of a crisis, depending on God only for help. There’s nowhere in the psalm where the writer becomes despairing; in fact, he seems to be fully aware of a sense of God’s favor.

Psalm 71 is like our lives, a mixture of problems and praise. By hoping for God’s help, the psalmist is expecting fully to be delivered from his problems, and he praises God for the blessings he receives and will receive. Once again I quote the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon, who said of this verse, “When I cannot rejoice in what I have, I will look forward to what shall be mine, and will still rejoice.”

Spurgeon also eloquently sums up the final part of the verse: “A dying hope would bring forth declining songs; as the expectations grew more dim, so would the music become more faint; but a hope immortal and eternal, flaming forth each day with intenser brightness, brings forth a song of praise which, as it shall always continue to arise, so shall it always gather new force.”

This short verse is a reminder that no matter how dire our troubles may seem, hope in the Lord’s deliverance is worth our continued praise.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, thank You for being my strength throughout my life. May Your name be glorified for eternity! In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.