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Psalm 71:9

Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.

7I am a marvel to many, but you are my strong refuge.
8My mouth shall be filled with your praise, with your honor all day long.
9Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails.
10For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,
11saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”
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← Psalm 71:8Psalm 71:10 →
Notice

Failing strength makes the plea against rejection urgent: the speaker fears being left without God’s help at the very point of greatest weakness.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What part of growing older makes the plea against rejection feel most personal to you?

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How does the enemies’ claim that God has forsaken the speaker affect your reading of this prayer?

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What would you want to tell God about the prospect of your strength failing?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Isaiah 46:4Even to old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. Yes, I will carry, and will deliver.The psalm asks for God’s care in old age; Isaiah speaks of God carrying his people even when their hair is gray.
2 Timothy 1:12For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I …Both turn toward God amid vulnerability: the psalm asks against abandonment, while Paul expresses confidence in God’s power to guard.
Psalm 37:25I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.Both speak of old age and being forsaken, one through an urgent plea and the other through a long life’s observation.
Psalm 71:18Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared your strength to the next generation, your might to everyone who is to …Both ask God against abandonment in old age; the later plea adds the desire to declare God’s strength to another generation.
Psalm 119:8I will observe your statutes. Don’t utterly forsake me. BETHBoth plead with God against being forsaken, though Psalm 119 joins that plea to a resolve to observe his statutes.
Psalm 90:10The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.Both face the limits of human strength as years accumulate, with Psalm 90 also naming life’s labor, sorrow, and brevity.
2 Timothy 4:18And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.The shared thread is dependence on divine protection: the psalm pleads against abandonment, and Paul expresses confidence that the Lord will preserve him.
2 Samuel 19:35I am eighty years old, today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear the voice of singing men and …Both name the vulnerability of old age; the speaker in Samuel describes losses of taste and hearing.
Ecclesiastes 12:1–7Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”Both connect advancing years with hardship and keep God in view as human capacities diminish.
2 Samuel 21:15–17The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;Failing strength links the psalm’s plea with the account of David growing faint during battle.
Proverbs 3:16Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honor.The overlap is limited to length of life: Proverbs presents long life as a gift, while the psalm voices fear within old age.
Where this verse fits

Aging. fear for the future. feeling distant from God.

What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about doubt →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray this verse, naming one fear about aging

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Encouragement

Failing strength belongs in prayer. The speaker names the fear of being forsaken and takes that fear to God, whom the surrounding lines name as a strong refuge.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 71:9. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 71 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).