From the womb to the tomb

For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother's womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.
I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails. – Psalm 71.5-9

I am far from being old – at least that’s what I am keep trying to tell myself. I am however getting to the point where I am beginning to see old approaching.

And that makes me a little anxious. What does old age hold for me? We have never had much and have not been able to make a lot preparation for those years.That scares me bit. It scares me because when those years get here I am going to have to do a lot of depending on God. It shouldn't make me anxious. It is wrong for me to be anxious, but it is something I have to deal with all the time.

I don’t think I have ever really noticed this passage before. Maybe it is because I have never needed it till now.

But I think I am going to memorise this passage.

You are my hope, O Lord God. I am not my hope. My abilities and my resources are not my hope. My plans and preparations are not my hope. God is my hope.

Why is He my hope and not those other things?

He has been my trust for a long, long time. He started a marvellous work in my in my mother’s womb in that cold Alaska winter of 1954. He has been with me from that July day of my birth in Fairbanks, Alaska in 1955. He took me from my mother’s womb.

And I must rely on Him to carry me all the way to the tomb.

My prayer for my ageing years.

I pray that God will be my refuge
I pray that mouth will be full of His praise and His glory
I pray that the God who has carried me this far will not cast me off in my old age
I pray that my God will not forsake me when my own strength fails

The great thing is that I can pray those last two with absolute confidence because Christ has already promised ‘I will never, ever, ever, ever leave you or forsake you.’

The God who fearfully and wonderfully made me in the womb will fearfully and wonderfully carry me to the tomb.