John Calvin Commentary Psalms 71:17

"O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; And hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works." — Psalms 71:17 (ASV)

O God! thou hast taught me from my youth. The Psalmist again declares the great obligations under which he was to God for his goodness, not only with the view of encouraging himself to gratitude, but also of exciting himself to continue cherishing hope for the future, which will appear from the following verse.

Besides, since God teaches us both by words and deeds, it is certain that the second kind of teaching is referred to here. The idea conveyed is that David had learned by continual experience, even from his infancy, that nothing is better than to lean exclusively upon the true God.

So that he might never be deprived of this practical truth, he testifies that he had made great proficiency in it. When he promises to become a proclaimer of God’s wondrous works, his object in making this commitment is that his ingratitude might not interrupt the course of Divine beneficence.

Upon the truth stated here, he rests the prayer which he presents in verse 18, that he may not be forgotten in his old age. His reasoning is this: Since you, O God! have from the commencement of my existence given me such abundant proofs of your goodness, will you not stretch out your hand to help me, when you now see me decaying through the influence of old age?

And indeed, the conclusion is altogether inevitable: as God graciously chose to love us when we were infants, embraced us with his favor when we were children, and has continued without interruption to do us good during the whole course of our life, he will surely persevere in acting toward us in the same way even to the end.

Accordingly, the particle גם, gam, which we have translated still, here signifies therefore. David's design, from the consideration that the goodness of God can never be exhausted and that he is not changeable like men, was to draw the inference that he will be the same towards his people in their old age as he was towards them in their childhood.

He next supports his prayer with another argument: if he should fail or faint in his old age, the grace of God, by which he had been sustained until now, would at the same time soon be lost sight of. If God were immediately to withdraw his grace from us after we have but just tasted it slightly, it would quickly vanish from our memory.

Similarly, if he were to forsake us at the close of our life, after having bestowed on us many benefits during the previous part of it, his liberality by this means would lose much of its interest and appeal.

David therefore implores God to assist him even to the end, so that he may be able to commend to posterity the uninterrupted course of Divine goodness, and to bear testimony, even at his very death, that God never disappoints the faithful who turn to him.

By the generation and those who are to come, he means the children and the children’s children to whom the memorial of the loving-kindness of God cannot be transmitted unless it is perfect in all respects and has completed its course.

He mentions strength and power as the effects of God’s righteousness. It should be understood, however, that he is incidentally praising by these titles the manner of his deliverance, in which he congratulates himself; as if he had said that God, in the way it was accomplished, demonstrated matchless and all-sufficient power.