Bible Strands
Psalms 71:18
Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God, transitioning from a recollection of lifelong instruction to a plea for sustained presence as he approaches old age. The request is framed within a continuous narrative of faithfulness that spans from youth to the end of life.
The words — זִקְנָה (ziknah) denotes old age, and שֵׂיבָה (seivah) literally means gray hair. Together they anchor the plea in the physical reality of aging, while עַד ('ad) sets a strict temporal boundary for the request.
The thread — The plea echoes Psalm 71:9, which repeats the fear of abandonment in old age, and aligns with Isaiah 46:4, where God promises to sustain the elderly. The commitment to teach the next generation parallels Psalm 78:4, which commands declaring God's might to coming generations.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader to acknowledge that spiritual responsibility does not expire with physical decline. It requires the reader to actively seek God's presence specifically to fulfill the duty of transmitting faith before life ends.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 46:4 Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.
- Psalms 71:9 Do not discard me in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.
- Psalms 78:4 We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed.
- Psalms 145:4 One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—
- Psalms 78:6 that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children
- Exodus 13:14 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Psalms 22:31 They will come and proclaim His righteousness to a people yet unborn—all that He has done.
- 1 Samuel 4:18 As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years.
- Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?
- Exodus 13:8 And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’