April 4thPsalm #71
Thoughts in the late afternoon
‘My friends are gone and my hair is grey, I ache in the places where I used to play.’ [Leonard Cohen]
‘I think I imagined as a child, that once people finally grew up and were adults, their minds more or less ran on the spot. How grateful I am to have lived long enough to discover otherwise. The essence of life, it seems to me, is change….Growth, turn, turnover, conversion, adjustment, deconstruction and reconstruction, loss, gain, whatever name one may use for change, the very process of life creates a story full of plot.’
[Dora Dueck, Return Stroke, 2]
https://youtu.be/7eUuNCddCFg - ‘On the brink of everything’
Several years ago, the President of Harvard made headlines when he refused to hire a world-renowned professor because said professor was 56 years old. The President called him a ‘burnt-out volcano.’ After a huge backlash, the universities’ Board of Regents overruled their president and the professor was hired.
Our psalmist looks back to the way God has been the object of his hope and trust since his youth. God has been the psalmist’s teacher; and God’s faithfulness has been a sign to other people that they can take the risk of trusting in God.
The psalmist is honest: there can be good reason for fear as the years pass by. Maybe a family is divided over the inheritance to come; maybe the older person doesn’t have the strength to stand as firm as he once did; maybe he or she feels keenly the loss of choices as the world seems to shrink; maybe he feels less close to God than he once did. Thus, to paraphrase vs 1, the psalmist pleads: Don’t ever abandon me!’
The psalm falls into three parts, each ending on a note of praise: verses 1-8, 9-16 and 17-24.
71.1-8 FROM CHILDHOOD
‘Upon you I leaned from my birth’ (v.6).
71.9-16 TO OLD AGE
‘Do not cast me off in the time of old age’ (v.9).
Verse 14 provides a clear statement of the psalmist’s perspective, a kind of theological centre built around hope and praise.
71.17-24 A SUSTAINING FAITH
Verses 17 and 18 pick up the "from my youth" and "to old age" themes of the precious sections, tie them together, and offer some further reflections. As the psalmist looks to the future, he resolves to continue doing what he's being doing for a lifetime: telling about the "wondrous deeds" of God. These verses can be prayed by any believer, recalling the blessings of good instruction in the faith from childhood on, and anticipating a future that continues with God. And, our psalmist affirms, even in old age he is still learning (v.17-21).
In his fine book, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old, Parker Palmer, at age 80, explores the limits and the gifts of aging. He identifies ‘six gifts.’
1 Recognizing you are ‘on the brink.’
For me, as I approach age 80, I’m “on the brink” of everything. From this vantage point of age and metaphorically being in a high place, on the brink, I can look back, I can look around and I can look ahead and connect the dots in a way that allows me to discover something about my own life. Wholeness does not mean perfection – it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. I’m grateful for this truth as age leads me to look back on the zigzagging, up and down path I’ve hacked out during my far from perfect life.’
2 Looking back and finding the patterns.
The discovery piece of aging is being able to look back and say, “Ah, that is how it all connects.” If I can use the metaphor of a tapestry that you have been and are still weaving, I can also say that there are ugly threads of failure or misunderstanding. But looking back, you can see how those (threads) become an integral part of the weave, not only adding beauty but also contrast, and they strengthen the resilience of the fabric. These are things that I couldn’t see in my 30s or even into my 60s.
3 Reframing your purpose.
Echoing the psalmist, Becker writes, ‘Maybe [our] job now is caring for the growth and development of other human beings. If you put it that way, there’s no need to ever leave your post unless you want to, because people who need that kind of support are legion.’
4 Listening to and learning from young people.
‘This thing of always giving advice is deadly because it kills off any chance of relationship. The thing to do is listen, to hear them into speech. Young people suffer deeply from feeling they’re not listened to; they’re not seen as who they are. When an elder expresses generous interest and doesn’t immediately fall into advice mode, that builds relationship. That’s step one. Step two is dealing with failure and telling them not to be afraid of it. Factoring failure into your story is not only honest but also reassuring to young people. I have learned so much more from failure than I have from my successes. For my successes, I pat myself on the back. But when I fail, that’s when I stay up late at night chewing on things. That’s when deep learning happens. Failure is a big teacher and also a big thing to model with younger folk.’
5 Facing up to mortality.
‘For a long time, I bored my doctors, but over the past few years, I’ve
become a ‘person of interest’ to several kinds of specialists’ (3).
St. Benedict said to “Daily keep your death before your eyes.” No matter how rich or important and famous you are, there is death coming. Two things happen when we meditate in a healthy way that our lives are finite. One, we become more appreciative of life and its gifts. Two, we can prepare ourselves for the Big Death by embracing all the little deaths that come our way: the death of a dream, of a relationship. Instead of trying to avoid thinking about those things, it’s important to embrace the motto, “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.” There’s no way out except in and through.
6 Speak out with wisdom (you’re not dead yet).
Becker concludes: ‘The laws of nature that dictate sundown dictate our demise. But how we travel the arc toward the sunset of our lives is ours to choose: will it be denial, defiance, or collaboration?’
16 I will dwell on your mighty acts, my Lord.
Lord, I will help others remember nothing but your righteous deeds.
I wish you joy on the journey.