On reaching the age of 50 a person is eligible for membership of the large and active American Association of Retired Persons. A growing percentage of the general population in the West belongs to the over 50s. Likewise, in many churches the majority is made up of the over 50s. All kinds of provisions are made for such older persons in society from housing to medical cover, from dress to food.
There is good reason also why there should be collections of prayers for the over 50s as they become aware of being in the second phase of their mortal life. Here we look at the personal prayer of an older person that has come down to us in Holy Scripture as a Psalm - Psalm 71 in the English versions.
This psalm may be described as the lament of an old man, who is not without means and who has some musical ability. He prays to the Lord for deliverance from various enemies as he grows old. Happily, remembrance of God?s protective care since infancy convinces him in his praying that God will not abandon him to the afflictions brought either by old age or by jeering enemies. His desire is to praise his Maker and Redeemer as long as he has breath.
The heart of his petition is found in verses 9 & 18 (Revised Version).
Cast me not away in the time of old age; Forsake me not when my strength faileth.
Even when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; Until I have declared thy strength unto the next generation, Thy might to every one that is to come.
This pious Israelite is not asking to be freed from the reality of growing old or from the real experience of diminishing powers and weakening body. He is fully aware of what getting older means in terms of reduction and decay in bodily strength and vigor.
Rather, he prays that he will always be aware in pain or in pleasure of the presence of the Lord God, always be able to recall the mercies of God to him as a member of the covenant people, and always ready to testify in praise and in witnessing to the covenant mercies of God to those around him.
In the whole Psalm there are many acts of praise, petition and intention. As the old man beseeches God to be merciful to him, he also recalls the mercies he has known and experienced and he states what he intends to do as he continues to grow older.
In his speaking to his God, we hear not only his faith, trust and hope but also his fears and concerns. He is a real man with strong convictions and feelings, and what comes through very powerfully in the whole Prayer is his overwhelming desire to remain in communion with God as he grows older. Certainly to be aware of the presence of God each day is for his own sake, for his peace and comfort; but, it is also that he may constantly witness to his family and his friends of the covenant mercies of his God.
If we pray this Prayer in and through Jesus Christ in the spirit of the new covenant, then the promises of God the Father to his adopted children available to us are the clearer, stronger and more explicit than those under the old covenant. If we do consider ourselves as the adopted children of God the Father, bound to him in and through Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, and united to him and the Lord Jesus in and by the Holy Spirit, then we can claim a vast array of promises in the New Testament to guide and support us as we grow older and continue as pilgrims en route for the heavenly City.
DO READ the Psalm and pray it as a child of God with the psalmist.
Then, perhaps you could open your hymnbook and sing/pray Joseph Addison's hymn, inspired by this psalm -- "When all thy mercies?" Here are the first and last verses.
When all thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view I'm lost
In wonder, love and praise.
Through all eternity to thee
A joyful song I'll raise;
For O! Eternity's too short
To utter all thy praise.
Finally, an ancient Collect:
O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ?s sake our Lord. Amen.
Does anyone know of any published editions of collections of prayers for older people, those maturing in years? Please let me know?
Thanks.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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