This is a psalm written in old age...
I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O My God
My hands, with fragile paper thin skin, bespeckled with liver spots, embrace the wood polished by years of use...
My fingers, gnarled, stiff with arthritis, scarred by life's battles, reach for the strings so much harder to pluck than in my youth...
The notes sound out, not so clear as in the past, some not intended, some out of time...
But I offer them to you, God of old age, who hears, as if through my hearing aid, the music I play
I will sing praise to you to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Isarel
A cough to clear my throat, the frail, faltering notes of old age, wavering, a little off key...
No more top C's, unintentional vibrato...
Words elude my grasp, hymns I loved of yesteryear reduced to tum ti tum...
New songs too fast, too syncopated, no harmonies, no depth...
(Don't let me get crabbit LORD, inside I'm still a young girl with wings on my feet)*
I sing what I know, what I trust to be true...
Great is Thy faithfulness, LORD, unto me.
Today I have a cold - and a hacking cough and my voice isn't too good. Working with Psalm 71 in readiness for Wednesday and a group of seniors recalling 70 years of the 'Bright Hour' led me along this path. Somehow thanks to acute rhino-virus, I feel a little more empathy than I otherwise might!
For the record (in case you ever wondered) this is not a pop at new songs, which I actually enjoy using, just a reflection of what some (by no means all) older folk say to me. That and recognition that I find myself nodding agreement when I watch 'Grumpy Old Women!'
* Plagiarised from the wonderful poem "A Crabbit Old Woman"
Comments
Sorry you are unwell Catriona. I know the Psalms contain good descriptions of feeling rotten, but I've never personally felt comforted because someone describes accurately how miserable I feel! But take care of yourself, take your time getting better, and hope by Wednesday you're up to Psalm 71.
I'm only in the lower foothills of growing older myself (though my daughter can't often get me to play tig with her these days - walking tig hurts less). So I can't speak with the experience of a seasoned traveller. But sometimes the word of fellow feeling, spoken in God's presence seems to have a positive force for those who are struggling with the ascent and miserable with it. I'm not sure being comforted is always the point. "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" is a powerful prayer. Even though its power lies somewhere other than comfort.
But yes, of course, three cheers as as well for the gracious reminder that the view is good and the summit is near (and that colds don't last for ever)!
Psalm 71 is great. Thank you. "Do not cast me away when I am old" (Ps. 71:9) seems to express openly the fear that God won't love us when we're weak and withered and wrinkly, when in fact he cares for us precisely because he knows we are dust - stuff that goes wrong and wears out.
"For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth" - rooted in the promise of presence throughout all life's experiences - enables us to take refuge in God (whose love endures for ever), to find strength when ours has gone and to praise even when we look or feel terrible (Ps. 71:5-7).
Sorry, didn't mean to go on, but the pointer to Ps. 71 was devotionally helpful. As was the pastorally helpful pointer to Ps 70.
Whoops, showing my ignorance again!
I've just realised verse 22 is in Ps 71 too.