“Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.”
The plea not to be cast off in old age or abandoned when strength fails articulates the particular fear of the elderly: that diminishing capacity will result in abandonment. The reference to waning strength indicates physical decline. The plea not to be cast off articulates fear of being discarded as no longer useful. This verse expresses the vulnerability of age and the fear of divine abandonment during decline.
Church Fathers on Psalms 71:9
1. In all the holy Scriptures the grace of God that delivers us commends itself to us, in order that it may have us commended. This is sung of in this Psalm, whereof we have undertaken to speak....This grace the Apostle commends: by this he got to have the Jews for enemies, boasting of the letter of the law and of their own justice. This then commending in the lesson which has been read, he says thus: “For I am the least of the Apostles, that am not worthy to be called an…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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