As we identified in the last article, Paul does feel bitter about the things which have happened to him. He almost falls into the trap of feeling isolated and abandoned too.

God abides

But in verses 17 and 18 he remembers someone who did stand by his side, and who always will.

One of the good things which growing old can bring us is a growing treasure house of God’s goodness on which we can draw. I have had so many, many conversations with people at their bedside where the biggest thing they want to tell me is that God has been good.

The good news for the believer is that as you grow older grace has more opportunity to change you, and you have more and more of God’s goodness to recollect.

Heaven Beckons 

This may sound a little morbid but it's good to remember that everyone lives only a finite amount of time. We have only so many days, and the more of them we use up… the fewer we have!

Listen to Billy Graham again:

I will soon celebrate my 93^rd birthday, and I know it won’t be long before God calls me home to heaven. More than ever I look forward to that day – not just because of the wonders I know heaven holds in store for me and for every believer, but because I know that finally all the burdens and sorrows that press down upon me at this stage of my life will be over.

Nearing Home: Billy Graham, Thomas Nelson, 2011

Confidence

This echoes what we can hear in Paul’s words in verse 18. The unerring confidence in his voice is so heartening.

The Lord WILL rescue me… and WILL bring me safely to his heavenly Kingdom.

The good news is that for believers the advancing years can bring clarification, and crystallize our view of eternity when we have confidence that it's where we're heading.

Not defeatist

Sister Catherine Wybourne is a Benedictine nun, Prioress of Howton Grove Priory, Hereford, UK, and a well known commentator in the UK media with an internet presence as the Digitalnun. She is now dying of a very vigorous form of blood cancer, and this is an excerpt from an article she wrote recently:

The world hasn’t changed, nor have I. I’m just as irritating as ever, and just as interested as I always was in the things that interest me. Admittedly, I haven’t the energy I once had, which I find frustrating; but I am not ‘battling’ cancer or ‘fighting’ my disease. I am just getting on with things, and tidying my sock drawer as best I can.

(Tidying one’s sock drawer is ‘nunspeak’ for preparing for death by trying to ensure there aren’t too many things for other people to clear up once one’s dead.)

And in case you’re thinking this sounds a bit defeatist– listen to how she ends the article:

The time will come when I will probably be too ill to pray. Then, more than ever before, I shall rely on the prayers of the Church. It will be for the Church to utter the praise and thanksgiving that will be beyond me. Just as every psalm sung in choir ends with the Gloria Patri, so, I hope, will the life of every one of us, including mine.

With his freedom gone, his friends all deserting him, his enemies still free to trample on his work; with no prospect of release and no creature comforts, Paul is not defeatist either. Instead he turns to fix his eyes more robustly on heaven than ever before (v.18).

Conclusion

So the good news for the old, and for all of us, is that Grace can change us, God always abides with us, and Eternity beckons us.

That doesn’t deny that at the moment messy and cluttered is where we all live, and old age can be frustrating and inglorious. But God’s glory can be found in the midst of it all, if we only look.

How do you feel about ageing and death?

Does this article change those feelings in any way?