The Biography of a Believer: A Lifelong Testimony Text: Psalm 71:5-8
Introduction: The Grammar of a Godly Life
We live in an age that is pathologically obsessed with the new, the novel, and the now. Our culture has the attention span of a gnat on a sugar high. It celebrates reinvention. It encourages you to discover your "new truth" this afternoon, and to discard it for another one by tomorrow morning. The modern man's biography is a series of disjointed snapshots, with no narrative thread, no continuity, and certainly no author. It is a story that begins in the middle and goes nowhere.
Into this chaotic and forgetful world, the Word of God speaks a different grammar entirely. The Christian life is not a series of disconnected moments; it is a story. It is a biography written by a sovereign Author, from the first line to the last. And the central theme of that story, the unifying plot, is the unrelenting, pursuing, and preserving faithfulness of God. This psalm, likely written by an aged David, is the testimony of a man looking back over the entire manuscript of his life and seeing the signature of God on every single page.
This is not the prayer of a novice. This is the voice of an experienced saint, what Spurgeon called a "struggling, but unstaggering, faith." The psalmist is in trouble again, as saints often are. Enemies are circling, strength is failing, and the taunts are flying. But his appeal is not based on the crisis of the moment, but on the covenant of a lifetime. He is arguing with God from God's own resume. He is pointing back to a lifelong pattern of divine faithfulness as the grounds for his present confidence. This is a crucial lesson for us. Our faith in the present is fueled by our remembrance of the past. A Christian with amnesia is a Christian in peril.
In these four verses, we are given a compact theology of God's lifelong, covenantal care. It begins before birth, continues through youth, and serves as the foundation for a life of praise that becomes a public spectacle, a sign and a wonder to a watching world. This is the biography God writes for all His people.
The Text
For You are my hope;
O Lord Yahweh, You are my trust from my youth.
By You I have been sustained from my birth;
You are He who took me from my mother’s womb;
My praise is continually of You.
I have become a marvel to many,
For You are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your beauty all day long.
(Psalm 71:5-8 LSB)
A Hope Established in Youth (v. 5)
The psalmist begins his testimony by identifying the object and the origin of his confidence.
"For You are my hope; O Lord Yahweh, You are my trust from my youth." (Psalm 71:5)
Notice the direct address. This is not a dry, abstract proposition. It is a personal appeal: "You are my hope." The hope of the believer is not in a principle, a system, or a feeling. Our hope is a Person. And this person is "Lord Yahweh," the sovereign, covenant-keeping God. All our hope is located entirely outside of ourselves and is lodged securely in Him.
And this trust has a history. It began "from my youth." This is a flat repudiation of the modern conceit that faith is something you find after you have "sown your wild oats" and lived a little. The world's script says that youth is for rebellion and old age is for regretful religion. The Bible's script says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the best time to begin is at the beginning. "Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1). David's confidence against Goliath was not born on the battlefield that day; it was forged years before, with a sling and a stone, in the lonely pastures, trusting God against the lion and the bear. A godly life is a marathon, not a final, desperate sprint to the finish line.
This is a profound encouragement for covenant parents. We are to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, teaching them from their youth to place their trust in Yahweh. We are not raising them to hopefully get converted at a youth rally after a decade of rebellion. We are raising them as disciples from the beginning, trusting that the God who makes the promise is faithful to keep it. A long obedience in the same direction starts with the first step, taken in youth.
Sustained from the Womb (v. 6)
The psalmist pushes his testimony back even further, to the absolute beginning of his existence.
"By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You." (Psalm 71:6)
God's covenant care does not begin when we become aware of it. It begins at the beginning. The psalmist recognizes God's active, personal involvement in his very formation and birth. He says, "You are He who took me from my mother's womb." This echoes what he says elsewhere: "Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God" (Psalm 22:9-10).
This is a glorious pro-life text, but it is more than that. It is a pro-sovereignty text. We are not accidents. We are not the products of blind, biological chance. From the moment of conception, we are God's project. He is the one who knits us together (Psalm 139:13) and the one who brings us forth. Our very existence is a testimony to His creative power and sustaining grace.
Because God's care is from the absolute beginning, the psalmist's praise is without end. "My praise is continually of You." This is the only logical response. If every breath is a gift, if every moment of existence is sustained by His power, then every moment ought to be an occasion for praise. Praise is not something we tack on to the end of the week. It is to be the constant background music of the believer's life. When your life story begins with God, it is only fitting that the soundtrack should be one of perpetual praise to Him.
A Public Spectacle (v. 7)
A life of such singular, lifelong trust in God does not go unnoticed. It becomes a public statement.
"I have become a marvel to many, For You are my strong refuge." (Psalm 71:7)
The word for "marvel" here can also be translated as a "wonder," a "sign," or a "portent." It means he has become a spectacle. To a watching, unbelieving world, a man who genuinely trusts God through thick and thin is an oddity. They don't know what to make of him. When things are going well, they might dismiss him as lucky. But when the wheels come off, when the enemies gather and the body weakens, and the man still refuses to curse God, still holds fast to his hope, he becomes an inexplicable marvel. He is a walking, talking anomaly in their godless system.
The prophet Isaiah said something similar about himself and his children: "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion" (Isaiah 8:18). This is the calling of the church. We are to be a peculiar people, a city on a hill. Our unwavering faith in the face of a hostile and chaotic world is meant to be a sign. To some, it is a sign that points to the reality and power of God. To others, it is a sign that condemns their unbelief.
But the psalmist knows why he is a marvel. It is not because of his own inner strength or his stiff upper lip. He is a marvel for one reason: "For You are my strong refuge." He is a wonder because his God is a fortress. The world sees a man standing in the middle of a hurricane, yet he is unmoved. They marvel at the man, but the secret is the rock on which he stands. He is secure not because the storm is small, but because his refuge is great.
A Mouth Filled with Praise (v. 8)
The psalm concludes this section by returning to the theme of praise, making it the all-day occupation of the godly man.
"My mouth is filled with Your praise And with Your beauty all day long." (Psalm 71:8)
This is the result of a life spent observing the faithfulness of God. The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart, and this man's heart is overflowing with a lifetime of evidence. His mouth is not just sprinkled with praise; it is "filled" with it. There is no room for grumbling, for slander, for faithless chatter. It is full of praise and with God's "beauty" or "glory."
This is not a grim duty; it is a glorious feast. "My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips" (Psalm 63:5). To speak of God's character, His works, His salvation, His beauty, is the highest and best use of human speech. And it is an "all day long" affair. From the moment he wakes to the moment he lies down, his mind and mouth are occupied with the glory of God.
This is the true business of the Christian life. We were created and redeemed for this very purpose: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. This verse is a beautiful picture of what that looks like in practice. It is a life so saturated with the goodness and greatness of God that praise becomes as natural as breathing.
Conclusion: Your Biography in Christ
This psalm is the biography of every true believer. The details may differ, but the plot is the same. Before you were born, when you were being formed in secret, God's eye was upon you. He is the one who brought you forth, not just from your mother's womb, but from the spiritual death of your sin. He is the one who called you in your youth, or whenever He called you, and became your hope.
And because He has been with you from the beginning, He will be with you to the end. He does not abandon His projects halfway through. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6). This is the foundation of our confidence.
Therefore, we are called to live lives of continual, all-day-long praise. We are called to remember His past faithfulness, to lean on it in our present troubles, and to trust it for our future. As we do this, we too will become marvels to many. Our lives will become public testimonies, signs and wonders that point to the only strong refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your life is not a random collection of events. It is a story being written by the author of life. And the theme of that story is His unwavering, covenantal faithfulness. So let your mouth be filled with His praise, all day long. Let the story He is writing in you be read by all men.