From Childhood Too Old Age

Good morning, everyone. Well, it’s a beautiful sunny day here in this part of Alberta.

We have another inch of snow on outside from last night and it just does not want to stop coming down. But we will rejoice in the Lord anyway. As the folks say, you can’t go anywhere. So what does it matter if the weather’s a little snowy or what the weather may be like.

 This morning, I am going to address “God’s Constant Help From Childhood to Old Age”. So many times as we get older, we don’t think about stress in our life. And yet it’s there. We watch the news. It creates stress. We hear some discouraging things about a child or grandchild or maybe even a great grandchild. And then it causes us some stress.

We’re just waiting for a young lady called Elizabeth, and she is my nephew and nieces daughter who’s expecting a baby tomorrow. But she wishes already it was yesterday. When that child is born God is going to go with that child, low even unto the end of the age. He is going to go with her from diaper stage maybe back to diapers stage. We don’t know that for sure.

But we’re going to look at Psalm 71 this morning.
The Rock of Our Salvation.
I am going to point out what David had to say about God. Some of the things that he thanked him for. What God was to him. So many times we need to think about that through our lifetime.

I was born the year and they invented the computer. And that computer has caused a lot of stress for a lot of people, but it has done a lot of good for a lot of people.

We can communicate to each other via the computer. We can cheer each other up when we do communicate. And by the way, during this time of crisis, we all need to be communicating with our family and with our friends. You know, we’ve already paid, if you have a telephone, for that privilege. So why not use it? Pick it up and just ask, how are you this morning? What is God doing in your life? Are you excited about the new news that the curve is going down? You see all of that we need to thank God for. Because even people who do not think that there is a God, God is still working through them to create the miracle of the drug that is going to come and cure this disease. And so for that, I’m grateful.

He starts out and he says, “In you, O Lord, in you alone do I put my trust”. I’m not going to trust in my bank account. I am not going to trust in my car. Not going to trust in my house. I’m not even going to trust in my family and friends. I’m going to trust in God. And by the way, God always delivers. We went through just a few of the three thousand plus promises that God had made in our last delivery to you. And I want you to know that they will never change.

Deliver me in your righteousness

But he said, “Deliver me in your righteousness”. So there’s the first one. It is God’s righteousness that delivers us from all the calamities that we have.

Now, last night I lay in bed and above three o’clock in the morning, I woke up. And I went through a list of things that God has brought me through, both as a person and as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it is just amazing.

When I was born, I was born a blue baby and so many people thought I wouldn’t live. Now it was during the Second World War, I was born at home because of the hospital beds were taken. You want to know something? God brought me through it. On my 16th birthday we had a tragedy at our Bible Camp. Four boys went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, who were the same age as me; very young. And yet,God decided it’s time for them to enter eternity. And as the scripture says, “There is a time to live and a time to die, and after this, the judgment”. It was that very text we’d studied in our Bible class no more than forty five minutes before this happened. They sat and they listened. As a matter of fact, one of the boys asked the question, “How do we know when we’re going to die?” And Dr. Boyd didn’t say we would know, but that God would know.

“It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that, the judgment”. So many times we hear about all kinds of things when it comes to Christ’s second coming. But we don’t hear about the righteous judgment that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have. Now, David is going to be there too, he will be answering for some of the things that he did and that which he should not have done . And I don’t have to tell you what they are those are firmly planted in your mind. And many people say, well, how could God choose a man like this to be the greatest king that Israel ever had? And through his lineage, the Son of God would come and rule and reign, which he will do throughout all of eternity.

For you are my rock and my fortress

And then he said, “For you are my rock and my fortress”. Now there’s the second one. What does it mean that God is our rock? Well, he is our stabilizing force. When we think of a rock, we think of something hard. Now, I grew up in an area where it was all rock and there were very few trees at that time. However,that has all changed and now we have vegetation. But guess what, the rocks are still there.

It was upon one of those rocks that I felt was so huge that I would climb up when I was a young boy and start preaching on that rock. And the neighbor that lived next door to that huge rock was Mr. Gatchell, who had started that subdivision, and they named the town after him. He was not a follower of Jesus Christ, but he used to love to watch our family do our devotions because we acted them out. And because I was the youngest one of nine, I would get to be David with the sling. And my biggest brother, who is Fred, would get to be Goliath and he’d have to fall down, and of course, I would take his sword and so on and thresh it through him. Now it was just acting don’t get nervous. He was also my favorite brother.

Deliverance from his cruel enemies

And then he asked for deliverance from his cruel enemies.  From the cruel man. People can be cruel. If you’ve been watching the news and listening to what they have been saying about Christians, as a matter of fact, the New York Times blamed this virus on Christians, and the spread of it on Christians. And yet that is so far from the truth. Most Christian organizations stopped holding public meetings. Now there are a few that went ahead and did it. And of course, the media found right away who was went and visited those churches and listened to some rampaged by somebody who isn’t quite balanced and who certainly doesn’t believe all of scripture, because the scripture says that, “We are to obey those who have the rule over us”. That is not just in the church, but outside of it. We are to keep the laws of the land.  And I would say the majority of Christians, probably ninety nine percent, try as best they can to keep all of the laws of the land, even at tax time.

You are my hope – you are my deliverer

And then he said, “For you are my hope”. And he had mentioned in another Psalm, “You are my deliverer”. Our hope needs to be in God and during this time of crisis, we must trust him wholly and trust him completely.

You are my trust from my youth

Then he said, “You are my trust from my youth”. You see, David knew what it was to go through hard times. He came from a family that was not like any other family. When David was going to take on Goliath, guess what? The older one thought, he’s nuts. Why is he going to do that? He can’t defeat Goliath. And yet God had put it in his heart, in his mind, gave him a plan how to do it. He took those five little stones, took his sling. And when a slug the sling, he prayed to God, Jehovah. And sure enough, Goliath fell to the ground.

You see, that’s what disturbed David that really counts. He didn’t want anybody mocking God, Jehovah, and therefore he was willing to take him on.

My praise shall be continually of you

And he said, “My praise shall be continually of you”. In  other words, I’m going to humble myself and believe that everything that God has given to me came from the father of light as a gift, with whom there is no shadow nor variableness. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And just as he promised to be with David the King he has also promised to be with us.

You are my strong refuge

Then he said, “You are my strong refuge”. Not just some kind of a refuge. You’ve ever seen somebody build something and, you know, as you’re building it, it’s too flimsy. They didn’t do a good job in the foundation. Next thing you know, there are cracks in the walls because the foundation wasn’t right? Well, David’s foundation was right. It was his faith and trust in God.

May my mouth be filled with your praise

And then he said, “May my mouth be filled with your praise. Your righteousness, oh, God I see, each morning”. This morning, as we think of this, I want us all to trust God more. To put all of the problems that we have in God’s hands to believe and trust God, that he will take this virus in whatever direction he chooses as being a sovereign God. But he will also have mercy on us so that we might realize we can do nothing except through God, our savior.

I want you to know that we are going to continue to do this. We will be starting our ministry as chaplains now that we can go out. But most of the ministry we’re going to do is going to be through technology and there are expenses to some of this. If you would like to participate in alleviating some of those for us, we would be grateful. Our address is Box 1063 Bragg Creek, Alberta, and our postal code, which in the United States you call a zip code, is T0L 0K0. And if that’s okay with you, then you can help us along.

Psalm 71 New King James Version (NKJV)

God the Rock of Salvation
1 In You, O Lord, I put my trust;
Let me never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape;
Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 Be my [a]strong refuge,
To which I may resort continually;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked,
Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
5 For You are my hope, O Lord God;
You are my trust from my youth.
6 By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.

7 I have become as a wonder to many,
But You are my strong refuge.
8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.

9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
11 Saying, “God has forsaken him;
Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”

12 O God, do not be far from me;
O my God, make haste to help me!
13 Let them be confounded and consumed
Who are adversaries of my life;
Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor
Who seek my hurt.

14 But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
And Your salvation all the day,
For I do not know their limits.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

17 O God, You have taught me from my youth;
And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.

19 Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,
You who have done great things;
O God, who is like You?
20 You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,
Shall revive me again,
And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 You shall increase my greatness,
And comfort me on every side.

22 Also with the lute I will praise You—
And Your faithfulness, O my God!
To You I will sing with the harp,
O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You,
And my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long;
For they are confounded,
For they are brought to shame
Who seek my hurt.