THE CHALLENGE OF AGING – A LIFELONG PERSPECTIVE

My sister and I.

“From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you. I have become a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength has gone….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.” (Psalm 71)

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” (Isaiah 46:3,4)

“How far back in your life can you trace the hand of God? If you have never done this, I venture to think you will be surprised! Consciously or unconscious to us, God has been our support since birth; it was he who caused us to be born at the time and place of his choice. Not accident but design, not coincidence but plan, not chance but divine direction – that is the story of every believer, the secret history of every conversion. It is the direct implication of the wondrous title of ‘Sovereign One’, a God who truly is God, who holds in his hand not only the broad sweep of world history, but the tiniest details of personal stories; a God whom no circumstance or adversary – or collection of adversaries – can defeat; present in every place, master of every situation, deciding and controlling at every time. And so it will continue to be as long as earthly life shall last.

E’en down to old age, all my people shall prove

My sovereign, eternal unchangeable love;

And then, when grey hairs shall their temples adorn,

Like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.

Our old age is as much his loving concern as our youth and prime.”

(Alec Motyer, Psalms By the Day, p.194)