A lifestyle of ministry

Although the psalmist has told us he is an old man (verses 9 and 18), he is not yet ready to quit. He could have kicked back and said, "Well, I can put my feet up and rest; I deserve it!" but he didn't. 

The songwriter of Psalm 71 still had a concern for ministry: he wanted to continue testifying to others of God's faithfulness and power.

My mouth is filled with your praise,
    declaring your splendor all day long......

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. (verses 8, 24)

As long as he was still breathing, he felt he had a ministry to tell people about God's greatness, His faithfulness to him, and about His glory. Many believers have allowed a worldly attitude to infiltrate their thoughts. They tell themselves, "I work all week long, so my weekends are for me. It's my free time and I will spend it however I please." Do we have that attitude? Do we think that if we give God a couple of hours by going to church on Sunday, that we have "paid our dues"? After all, we can't let ourselves be tied down to some kind of service or ministry that would hinder us from taking off for the weekend whenever we feel like it . . . .

Oy vey. Of course, there will be times in our lives when we are busier than usual with family and jobs. But let's think of the old-timey balance sheet: if all we are doing is making withdrawals (coming to church and receiving blessings) and we are not making deposits (spending time in service to God and distributing His blessings) then our lives are not balanced. When we think of our church life, our focus should be more of how we can serve God through the church, and less of what we can "get out of" the church. If we had been on the sidelines looking at our psalmist, we would not have thought "he doesn't serve. He only comes on Sundays." He had a lifestyle of ministering to others.

I have always had a different view of retirement than most folks. Our culture says that retirement is a time that we can kick back and chill, and do what we want to do. But we are believers! We do not have the right to live selfishly - our lives must be lived under Christ's lordship. If we retire from our job and are healthy, we have the opportunity to be involved in service that younger folks cannot handle - they are still dealing with the everyday demands of feeding, clothing, nurturing, and chauffuering their children, and juggling family and work responsibilities. Our lives are entering a season when we can focus on service.

When we read this psalm, we don't see the psalmist asking to be delivered so that he could sit by the river and play his lyre. He wanted to be delivered so he could tell the next generation about the power of God! He saw his mission as one of training the younger folks and then handing the baton to them.

How about us? Are we developing a lifestyle of ministry, built on our personal relationship with God? God's way for believers to grow old is for us to develop our walk with Him; we need to have that personal, deep knowledge of our Father. We need to trust Him, praise Him, and hope in Him, and then as we grow old, we need to have a ministry for Him.

As long as we have breath, we can show and sing of the greatness of God to the younger folks! What a finish!