The Devil's Favorite Lie Text: Psalm 71:9-13
Introduction: The Unpensionable War
We live in a culture that worships at the altar of youth and fears the grave with a pagan terror. It is a culture of managed decline, where the goal is not to finish well but to fade away comfortably, to be put out to pasture with a decent pension and minimal fuss. But the Christian life is not a career from which you retire. The Christian life is a war, and in this war, there are no conscientious objectors and no honorable discharges before the final victory.
The psalmist here is an old man. He is not sitting in a rocking chair reminiscing about the good old days. He is in the thick of a fight. His strength is failing, his enemies are circling, and the whisper of the devil is in the air, a lie as old as the Garden: "God has forsaken you." This is the central lie of the enemy, and it is the lie that this psalm confronts with rugged, battle-tested faith.
This passage is a raw, honest prayer from a man who has walked with God for a lifetime and now faces the combined assault of physical decline and spiritual warfare. It is a prayer that demolishes the sentimental notion that the golden years are for quiet disengagement. No, the final years are often the place of the fiercest fighting, because the stakes are highest. A life of faithfulness is a testimony, and the devil desires nothing more than to see that testimony end in a whimper of doubt and despair. This psalm teaches us how to fight to the finish, how to pray when the body is weak, and how to answer the devil's favorite lie with the truth of God's unpensionable covenant.
The Text
Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
For my enemies have spoken against me;
And those who watch my life have counseled together,
Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”
O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, hasten to my help!
Let those who accuse my soul be ashamed and consumed;
Let them be wrapped up with reproach and dishonor, who seek to do me evil.
(Psalm 71:9-13 LSB)
The Honest Fear of a Fading Saint (v. 9)
We begin with the psalmist's vulnerable plea:
"Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails." (Psalm 71:9)
This is not a cry of unbelief. It is the prayer of a man who knows where to take his fears. He is experiencing the objective reality of physical decay. The arm that once drew a bow is now frail. The legs that once ran into battle now tremble. In a world that measures a man's worth by his utility, his productivity, his strength, the psalmist feels his value diminishing in the eyes of men. And his fear is that God might operate on the same godless principle, the same utilitarian calculus.
He is praying against the temptation to believe that God's love is contingent upon our usefulness. Our culture discards the old. They are a burden, an inconvenience. The psalmist takes this cultural reality and lays it before God, asking, "Are you like them? Will you discard me when I am no longer strong?" This is a profoundly honest prayer. He is not pretending to be a stoic. He feels the weakness, and he names it before his God.
But the very act of praying this way is an act of faith. He knows God is not like the fickle sons of men. He is appealing to God's covenant character. God's promise is not, "I will be with you as long as you are productive." His promise is, "even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save" (Isaiah 46:4). God's covenant is not a fair-weather contract; it is a blood oath that holds fast when our strength fails. The psalmist is not doubting this promise; he is clinging to it by turning it into a prayer.
The Taunt of the Godless (vv. 10-11)
Next, the psalmist reveals the source of this spiritual pressure. His internal fears are being amplified by the external taunts of his enemies.
"For my enemies have spoken against me; And those who watch my life have counseled together, Saying, 'God has forsaken him; Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.'" (Psalm 71:10-11 LSB)
Notice the devil's tactic. The enemies are not just attacking the man; they are attacking his theology. Their central accusation is theological: "God has forsaken him." This is the oldest and most potent arrow in the quiver of the wicked. They see a righteous man suffering, a faithful man growing weak, and they draw a perverse and blasphemous conclusion. They interpret his trial as divine abandonment.
This is the logic of Job's friends. It is the logic of the Pharisees at the cross, wagging their heads and saying, "He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him" (Matthew 27:43). The enemies' reasoning is simple and carnal: if God is with you, you will be strong and prosperous. If you are weak and afflicted, God must have left you. Therefore, you are fair game. "Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver." They see his weakness not as a trial of faith, but as an opportunity for plunder.
This is a profound spiritual diagnostic. The wicked believe in a god of raw power, a god who is only with the winners. They cannot comprehend a God who is strong in our weakness, a God whose glory is perfected in our suffering, a God who was crucified in weakness but raised in power. The psalmist's enemies are not just bullies; they are heretics. Their practical atheism leads them to a predatory worldview. When they believe God is absent, they believe all moral restraint is removed.
The Urgent Cry for Vindication (v. 12)
In the face of this lie, the psalmist turns up the volume of his prayer. He does not argue with his enemies; he cries out to his God.
"O God, do not be far from me; O my God, hasten to my help!" (Psalm 71:12 LSB)
His enemies say God is far off, so he prays for God to be near. His enemies say there is no one to deliver, so he pleads for God to hasten. He is taking their lie and turning it into a petition. He is asking God to publicly and powerfully refute the slander of the wicked. This is not just a prayer for personal comfort; it is a prayer for the vindication of God's own name and honor.
The cry "hasten to my help!" reveals the urgency of the situation. This is not a theoretical debate. He is in real danger. The wolves are circling, and he knows that his only hope is the swift intervention of his Shepherd. This is the prayer of a man who has no Plan B. He has no strength of his own to fall back on. He is utterly dependent on God, and he knows it. And in the economy of the kingdom, this is the position of greatest strength.
The Imprecatory Conclusion (v. 13)
The prayer culminates in what makes modern, sentimental Christians so uncomfortable: a raw call for divine justice.
"Let those who accuse my soul be ashamed and consumed; Let them be wrapped up with reproach and dishonor, who seek to do me evil." (Psalm 71:13 LSB)
This is an imprecatory prayer. It is a prayer for God to do to the wicked what they are trying to do to the righteous. Let's be clear about what this is and what it is not. This is not a petty, personal vendetta. The psalmist is not asking for a tire to go flat on his enemy's chariot. He is praying for the public vindication of God's justice. His enemies have slandered God's faithfulness. They have equated God's honor with worldly strength. They have sought to devour one of God's own children. The psalmist is praying that God would act in history to show that He is not mocked.
He prays for them to be "ashamed and consumed." Shame is the public exposure of their folly. He wants their lie, "God has forsaken him," to be thrown back in their faces when God shows up to deliver him. He wants them to be "wrapped up with reproach and dishonor," clothed in the very garments they tried to weave for him. This is a prayer for cosmic justice, for the great reversal that the gospel promises. It is a prayer that aligns the psalmist's desires with God's revealed will to judge evil and defend the righteous.
To be squeamish about such prayers is to have a low view of God's holiness and a sentimental, unbiblical view of His justice. God is not a doting grandfather who pats evil on the head. He is a consuming fire. These prayers are not about our personal animosity; they are about our zeal for God's glory. When we pray for God to bring down the abortion industry, or to confound the architects of sexual perversion, we are praying in this same apostolic, imprecatory tradition. We are asking God to vindicate His own good name and His own perfect law against those who trample them underfoot.
Conclusion: Forsaken for Us
The great lie of the enemy is "God has forsaken him." And there was one moment in history when that lie was, from a certain perspective, true. On a cross outside Jerusalem, the Son of God, in whom the Father was always well pleased, cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
The enemies were there, counseling together, watching His life. They spoke against Him, saying, "He trusts in God; let God deliver him." They pursued and seized Him, and it appeared for all the world that there was no one to deliver. The taunt of Psalm 71 found its ultimate target in Jesus Christ. He endured the ultimate dereliction. He was cast off. His strength failed. He was forsaken.
And why? He was forsaken so that we, the aged and failing saints, would never be. He drank the cup of God's wrath to the dregs so that for us it would be empty forever. He was wrapped in the reproach and dishonor of our sin so that we could be clothed in the robe of His perfect righteousness.
Because of the cross, the prayer of the psalmist is answered for us with a definitive and eternal "Yes." God will not cast you off in your old age. He will not forsake you when your strength fails. For He has already poured out the full measure of His forsaking upon His own Son. Your weakness is not a sign of His abandonment; it is the stage for the display of His sustaining power. Your enemies' taunts are not a verdict on your standing; they are an opportunity for God to show Himself strong on your behalf.
Therefore, when your strength fails, do not despair. When your enemies whisper that God has left you, do not believe them. Take this psalm on your lips. Plead the covenant that was sealed in the blood of Christ. And know that the God who raised Jesus from the dead will most certainly carry you, his beloved child, all the way home.