Psalm 71 reads as follows from the NIV version of the Bible:
1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness;
turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of evil and cruel men.
5 For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.
6 From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.
7 I have become like a portent to many,
but you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.
9 Do not cast me away when I am old;
do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
those who wait to kill me conspire together.
11 They say, "God has forsaken him;
pursue him and seize him,
for no one will rescue him."
12 Be not far from me, O God;
come quickly, O my God, to help me.
13 May my accusers perish in shame;
may those who want to harm me
be covered with scorn and disgrace.
14 But as for me, I will always have hope;
I will praise you more and more.
15 My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
of your salvation all day long,
though I know not its measure.
16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign LORD;
I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.
17 Since my youth, O God, you have taught me,
and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.
18 Even when I am old and gray,
do not forsake me, O God,
till I declare your power to the next generation,
your might to all who are to come.
19 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God,
you who have done great things.
Who, O God, is like you?
20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter,
you will restore my life again;
from the depths of the earth
you will again bring me up.
21 You will increase my honor
and comfort me once again.
22 I will praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips will shout for joy
when I sing praise to you—
I, whom you have redeemed.
24 My tongue will tell of your righteous acts
all day long,
for those who wanted to harm me
have been put to shame and confusion.
The overall image of this psalm is of the lifeguard who actually draws out the endangered swimmer and this is just another way that the Lord draws us as the lifeguard.
The psalmist brings a retrospective view that he could have more fully trusted the Lord even now and even then.
The Lord's presence to the psalmist is daily and he has observed and seen this.
But the trust in this has been partial as he has also heavily relied on his own good personal strength which is now waning.
He has seen how his strength, whether it was some combination of strength that probably included verbal agility and the ability to debate with the combination of a strong physical and mental make up, possibly of an imposing nature with a surrounding contingent that might have also displayed similar traits.
Due to the passage of time and some aging he is still strong but he retains only some of this strength. His strength has become less of a point of reliance and he is seeking a revival from the Lord.
As he queries the Lord from the Lord, he is saying that if he can have this he will praise him.
You can see the intensity of his person and this is somewhat humorous as well, but also insightful in that he realizes what the Lord desires is the praise, the glories thanksgiving emanating from his personhood and his own desire for the continued presence of the Lord.
What this psalm really goes into is full trust, that the manifestation of the Lord's helping and needed presence can be daily and can add infinitely and never be exhausted.
This psalm isn't really about getting old but about full verses partial trust at any age.
For the psalmist even if one major cog of the wheel, his own natural strength continues to diminish, he has enough experience with the daily presence of the Lord that he could fill in this forming deficit of prior strength, with a fuller trust of the capabilities and actions of the Lord for him.
In return he is willing to praise him and recount the deeds of the Lord for him to others, thereby sharing the knowledge of the Lord's ways to others.
He is actually doing this as his psalm is preserved in the Bible to this day.
In the practical and meditative application, this psalm can be pondered on the ways in which we have been partially trusting the Lord and partly trusting our own good gifts from him on an exclusive basis or in a way that excludes his presence to these gifts.
The idea of partial can be seen in Daniel Chapter 2 verses 31 through 35 which say, " 31 "You looked, O king, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.
We can ponder the ways in which in which times and situations change, we are called to a fuller trust.
As the wheels of time and situations change, we may need to say goodbye to partial trusts and move towards a fuller trust in the Lord.
When the psalmist is talking about revival he may be talking about a full revival of his prior strength even while he is older and this is what was the case with Caleb and he knows the Lord can do this.
The Lord can turn back the clock fully if he wishes but if this were to happen, he must bring back to this a full trust instead of the partial trust that he had.
But In any event he is saying that the Lord's compensation presence can show up any day and every day and that any dilapidation of personal resources can be suitably compensated for by the relationship of a fuller trust with the Lord time and time again and that his supply of rescue, reveals a personal presence that is inexhaustible and also manifested in very specific acts that can be seen well enough by the psalmist to be recounting the details of this acts to others.
In today's society, there can be shifts from less trust through the idea of accumulation of status, wealth, high status and maybe pride in that, to more of a full trust as to what the Lord can do for the faithful brethren even in the lean times.
The Lord is always the rescuer, the lifeguard who comes in for the rescue in more mild situations or in situations of deeper and more immediate troubles.
Ii might feel that the Lord does some things for me, but not all things. I may believe that he is more of a one trick pony for me as I will just get my ration and I really don't deserve more than this.
But this psalm is saying that the Lord can pile up actions within the day and day after day, indefinably and ad inline and I can more fully trust that the Lord's supply for me will not dwindle.
We can see that the Lord has pack numerous blessings upon people in relatively short periods of time which he did for this psalmist and he does for others today. There can be a fuller and more insightful trust into the possible experience of daily numerous blessings from the Lord and a keener awareness of how this can bring forth a fuller and more complete trust in his residing presence that never wanes.
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