4. Mature Christian Hope Psalm 71:14-18

Text: “But I will hope continually, and will yet praise Thee more and more.  My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy Salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.”

Psalm 71:14-15.

Good morning, prevailing, mature Christian!  As your years have come and gone and multiplied from your youth until now - an age of senior maturity - not only in years, but in ‘grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ…’; your hope in Him has never waned, never been snuffed out, even after enduring many afflictions of age, and the ever-present attacks of your Christian warfare in the service of King Jesus.  Praise God for senior mature Christians!  You are the salt of the earth, and a credit to your Lord God.

Verse 14. “But I will hope continually, and will yet praise Thee more and more.  True Christian hope is not some vague notion that, ‘Well, something might occur that brings relief for me in the situation I, or my loved ones are in.’. No!  Christian hope is based, first on the sure promises of God contained in our KJV Bibles, which is the inspired (God-breathed) Word of the Living Lord God Jehovah, and God is not a man that He should lie, thus, Christian hope is based firmly in certainty of Divine fulfilment and Omnipotent help.

“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent (say He will do, and not do it.): hath He said, and shall He not do it?  Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?  Behold (look, and fully understand), I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.”  (Numbers 23:19-20)

Secondly, Christian hope is based on the certainty of God’s past help in times of stress and dire troubles – this is what makes the mature, senior Christian a powerful prayer-warrior and perseverer in the ‘faith once delivered unto the saints…’! (Jude 3)

Having actually experienced many memorable times of God’s faithful help in the past, the mature Christian is blessed with that extra faith in God’s grace for present and future times of stress or troubles.  As the precious chorus instructs us: “Count your blessings, name them one by one…and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”  Past blessings and help from God’s Sovereign hand, enhances Christian faith in the believer who has received it.  Praise God for His matchless and ever-given grace!

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”  (Hebrews 4:16)

“Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24)

Verse 15.  “My mouth shall show forth Thy righteousness and Thy Salvation all the day.  Please take sure note, Reader, it is not the Psalmist’s righteousness that he is seeking to show forth for us – because, as Paul teaches us in Romans chapter three, we have no righteousness of our own to set forth to anyone! 

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one…there is none doeth good, no, not one.”  (Romans 3:10-18)

Specifically, therefore, it is at all times the Supreme righteousness and Salvation of the Lord God alone that the Psalmist here is setting forth and exalting from his lips, for this is the only righteousness that grants access into Heaven, through the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross for sinners.  Sinners like you and me can come no other way.

“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)

“But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things (necessary things in life) shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Verse 16. “…I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine only.  Again, the Psalmist repeats this vital point of Salvation; this singular focus on the importance of Christ’s righteousness; the Father’s Holiness; the Spirit’s regenerational necessity – if sinner’s souls are to be born again and brought into God’s family through His great and Sovereign grace.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”                    (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The Scriptural way of Eternal Salvation in Christ Jesus is the only way for repentant sinners to access a Holy Heaven.  It’s God’s way, or the highway.  Heaven or Hell.  Glory to the Lamb Who was slain to make the true and only way to Heaven for sinners such as we! 

Verse 17. “O God, Thou hast taught me from my youth.  Such is the vital importance of sending our children to Sunday Schools, Christian Youth activities; Scripture Unions, etc. – the life-giving truth of God’s Word must be instilled early in our children’s hearts, if they are to be spared lives of sin and the misery it inevitably brings.  God’s Word is sheer truth. 

Teach God’s Word in the home, if we ever love our children enough to save their souls. A home with an open Bible will always be a home filled with the love of God.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  (Proverbs 22:6)

Verse 17. “…Hitherto have I declared Thy wondrous works.  “How then shall they call on Him in Whom they have not believed?  And how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?  And how shall they hear without a preacher? …So, then faith cometh by hearing (reading), and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:13-17)

Verse 18. “Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed Thy strength unto this generation, and Thy power to every one that is to come.”  Take note again, Reader, it is God’s strength and God’s power the Psalmist is inspired to show unto his generation.  The arm of our own strength/power will always fail us, we must go in and out in the strength and power of Omnipotent Lord God Jehovah.

“But ye (God’s people) shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)

True Christian hope has been inspired as true Christian strength from God has been given – time and time again, to the mature Christian believer.  This is what makes him/her ‘prevailing, mature Christians’; seeing God’s hope fulfilled, and His power exercised in His own Cause of Christ and Him Crucified for the Salvation of gross sinners.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour Lord God we have in the risen Christ Jesus.

Thought:  Lord God, enable me to show forth Thy power, to the Salvation of many.