Psalm 71:14-18

The second section of trust and praise in the alternating "pattern" of Psalm 71 is verses 14-18:

"But I will hope continually,
and will praise you yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all day long,
though their number is past my knowledge.
I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God.
I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.
O God, from my youth you have taught me,
and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
to all the generations to come."

1. We know who God is by what God does. God's "righteous acts" or "deeds of salvation" reveal his "righteousness" (verses 15a-b, 16b; see also verses 19, 24) and his "faithfulness" (see verse 22b). Here God's "righteousness" means his "setting things right" or "righting the wrongs" in the world. Enemies oppress the psalmist, but he/she beseeches God "not to forsake" him/her (verse 18b).
2. When God answers our pleas for help and intervenes in our behalf, there are two natural or appropriate responses. The first is to thank him or to praise him. And thus the composer of Psalm 71 affirms that he/she will "praise" God "yet more and more" (verses 14b, 16), which recalls verse 8a and anticipates verses 22a, c, 23b. There is no way that we can thank God or praise God enough for all he has done and is doing for us.
3. The second appropriate response to God's mighty acts in our behalf is to tell others what he has done for us. The author of Psalm 71 uses two verbs to communicate this: (1) "tell"--verse 15a; (2) "proclaim"--verses 17b, 18c. When someone does something special for us, we cannot wait to tell others about it. The same is true when God does "righteous acts," "deeds of salvation" (verse 15a-b), "wondrous deeds" (verse 17b) for us. See Psalms 22:22; 66:16; and often.
4. Praising God and testifying to God's mighty acts are not activities in which we engage merely when we gather to worship God as an assembly of his followers. Rather, they are a lifestyle; they are activities which we do naturally "continually" (verse 14a), "yet more and more" (verse 14b), "all day long" (verse 15b; see also verses 8b, 24a). His deeds in our behalf are so numerous that "their number is past our knowledge" (verse 15c), so we can never praise or thank him enough, or testify enough to others about what he has done and is doing.

John Willis