71:1-2 Psalm 71 is a prayer request written directly to God. It serves as a reminder that when we put our trust, and sincere love, in God, we have the right to ask for His protection. We have access to His rescue. We can believe and find comfort in the fact that He fights shame and enemies for us. He assists us in our recovery from defeats, and reminds us that in Him, we have the ultimate victory.
71:3 Our God is our refuge; He is the place, the only place, we have absolute peace. As the Psalmist did, ask that rest from Him. God always provides what His children need and trust Him to provide. He is our foundation as well as our fortress. He is our stronghold and headquarters in the battle that life can sometimes be.
71:4 Our Savior retrieves us from the hand of the wicked. He retrieves us from the places and people and states of mind that harm us; notice that we should make that request. We should ask Him to perform His promises, that way He knows we have listened to them and that we trust in them.
71:5 Our Father is our continual hope. He is the light in the darkness. He is the possible in the impossible. Every day, He is our sun rise. His love propels us onward, toward the home and purpose He has built for us.
71:6 The psalmist acknowledged that he had been supported by God throughout his life, even since the womb. He promised to live in perpetual gratitude for God's perpetual presence and faithfulness. And a life of gratitude should be so easy for a child of God, for His love is evident when we have worked to have a relationship with Him.
71:7-8 No matter what the opinion or situation of external circumstances, the Psalmist declared that His refuge in God was more than enough... enough to praise God His entire life.
71:9-11 The Psalmist was aware that there were people against him, but they became irrelevant the moment the psalmist prayed to God about them.
71:12-13 When we love God, we can count on Him to be with us. Always. We can count on Him to thwart the plans of our enemies. To halt the processes which seek to hinder or harm us.
Our relationship with God is strongest when we give our whole self and life over to His will. The more places, and the deeper, we invite Him, the more powerful His will is in every circumstance, endeavor and relationship in our life.
71:14-16 Make these declarations also:
I will hope continually; I will praise You more and more; I will speak of Your limitless righteousness and salvation; I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will speak of Your righteousness exclusively.
These sincere declarations of faith will change and heal and sustain our lives; the faith which gives us access to our Provider and Protector will propel us with purpose.
71:17-18 The Psalmist asks for protection and sustenance from God so that he can praise God. The joy of his life was to express his love for God, to make God's philosophy known and heard.
And our God is on-board for the whole duration of our trip here. Every moment. We should remind ourselves to invite Him into the whole, into each moment. As God declares His love for us in action, so must we declare our love for Him. Every decision we should consult with Him about; every opinion we should align with His word; we should share our joy with Him and abound His blessings to others.
71:19-21 Our God is great and incomparable. He disciplines and revives His children, and all of it done from love and compassion. He blesses and comforts, humbles and heightens. His love is precise.
71:22-23 Praise and worship is an important element to our relationship to God, but also to our soul. Our love for God needs expression, and He deserves for it to be expressed.
It is so beneficial for us to consider how He listens to and answers prayers. It is crucial for us to maintain an awareness of His promised presence, and so we sing gratitude for the promises He makes and keeps.
Sometimes we overlook the answers He gives, the promises He has bought into fulfillment. We constantly have more requests and the former ones are forgotten. But God remembers... and because of that faithfulness, so must we. He knows what we need and He provides it; He also goes further and blesses us with things we want. Our sweet, sweet God is so loving.
