Ps. 71.14 (praise, age and continuity)

And I, / I will have hope continually
ready to add / to all your praise. 

If one could speak simultaneously one would need to when considering the effect of God’s presence. What I mean is the same presence which turned ‘inside-out’ the conspiracies of the wicked in a perpetual display of shame also is the source of the psalmist’s “continuous” home and praise. This ‘continuous’ nature is important when contrasted with the wicked. There, we saw that God’s presence made their ‘end’ shame and humiliation; it “wrapped” them in reproach. It was total, and perpetual. Here, that ‘totality and perpetual’ nature is, in the righteous, manifested in hope and praise. In other words, in God’s presence both the righteous and the wicked are made perpetual: the wicked—to shame; the righteous—the hope and praise. It is, importantly, though this ‘drawing close’ of God that instantiates both conditions. He is both the event of judgment and the center around which both realities (the righteous and the wicked) become ‘perpetual’. When God-forever comes, his ‘forever’ is transmitted to those around him (for shame or for praise). That said, these ‘ends’ are not equal. God does not desire or take pleasure in the shame of the wicked as such. At no point do I recall in the psalms there ever being a sense of pleasure in their condemnation as such. Rather, it is the enactment of justice—the proper ordering of the wicked to their ‘end’ and the righteous to theirs—that becomes the source of praise for the righteous. Judgment is premised in the judgment being good. It is not merely an expression of power; nor is it arbitrary. It is good and beautiful (like the ‘ordering’/separating of creation). It is, in this manner, the source of praise and liturgy. What is here ‘added to God’ is the psalmist’s praise. And this is framed as rooted in a ‘continuous’ hope. It is at this point that we need to draw attention to the theme of ‘perpetuity’ that has been touched on—in verses 3, 5 6 (twice), 8, 15, 17, 18, and 24 there is some form of ‘continuousness’ referred to. In all of them, they point to God’s ‘continuing’ power on behalf of the psalmist. Some of them as referring to his lifetime, some to the future praise he is to offer. It is not coincidental that such an emphasis on ‘continuity’ and ‘perpetuity’ would find such broad expression in a psalm spoken by an elderly psalmist. The psalmist’s age provides this unique perspective on a life grown old with Yhwh and how that age points to a ‘continuous’ and ‘perpetual’ undergirding by God of those whom he cares for. We will return to this as the theme becomes more prevalent in this ‘praise section’ of the psalm.