Ps. 71.5-6 (grown old with Yhwh)

Yes / you are my hope
O Lord Yhwh,
my trust / from my youth.
I have relied on you / since I was born
from my mother’s womb / you have been my sustainer
continually the subject / of my praise. 

There are several converging lines of thought in these two verses. First, this is where we have an indication that the psalmist is man of age. His trust in Yhwh has been ‘from my youth’, and even “from my mother’s womb” Yhwh has “been my sustainer.” The psalmist’s entire life has been on grounded on hope, trust and reliance on Yhwh. He was, in a sense, born into this arena of covenantal relationship with Yhwh. And it has been his constant companion. This is not, however, a statement merely regarding the psalmist’s position vis-à-vis God. God has, also, “been my sustainer” from the womb. The psalmist has known of Yhwh’s concern for him. All of this, however, leads up to the concluding line—‘continually the subject of my praise’. This line can make us recall Ps. 70.4: “…and may those who love your saving help say continually, “God is great!”’. The point in our psalm, however, is that this ‘continuity’ of praise, embedded in verses that speak of life-long (‘continuous’) commitment of God for the psalmist and the psalmist for God, highlights this fact: that praise of God is just as much an emblem of this relationship as the “trust, hope and reliance”. It is not secondary or a residue or a byproduct of this relationship. Rather, it, along with these other virtues, stands at the heart of their covenantal relationship. Praise expresses the covenant as much as anything else. It is, in fact, what reveals the covenantal relationship to be one founded in the love and desire of one for the other, rather than it being a mere contract for services. In this way, it ‘fills out’ the other virtues, orienting them correctly. It is within this ‘sate-of-affairs’ that the psalmist has lived ‘continuously’ his whole life. He has grown old with God.