Tim Keller on Long Distance Spirituality

Tim Keller:

Years ago, on the advice of an older and wiser Christian, I began trying to pray through the Psalms once every month. Don’t be too impressed—I seldom make it through all 150 of the psalms every 30 days. However, by making that the goal I am able to eventually ponder each one at least several times a year.

One psalm especially has always caught my attention—Psalm 71. It might be entitled a ‘Psalm for Old Age.’ In verse 5 the psalmist says, “For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth,” and in verse 9, “Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone.” This text has been of more interest to me as I have grown older, but I usually think, “no use preaching on this psalm to a young congregation like mine.” And yet, I’ve come to see there is a lesson here for all of us, and especially for the young.

The psalmist says that from his youth he has relentlessly worked at three things. He has “always” taken refuge in God during times of distress (verse 3), “always” praised God as an act personal discipline (verse 7), and “always” put his hope in God for his future. The first practice has to do with how he has processed his suffering and disappointments, and the second practice has to do with daily prayer. He recounts that he has never let anything turn him aside from these disciplines:

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me upC9I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; my lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you—I, whom you have redeemed. (Psalm 71:20,22-23)

The third is the most foundational of all. He does rigorous self-examination regarding the fundamental trusts of his heart. He is careful to know what he actually rests in and lives for, and he continually re-focuses his soul’s deepest hopes on God.

Read the whole thing here.

HT: Z