Wednesday: Preparing for Old Age
“The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10, NKJV). These words from Moses remind us of the inexorable march of time. As the years come and go, we begin to see and feel changes in our bodies. Our hair turns gray or falls out, we begin to slow down, and aches and pains become our daily companions. If we are married and with children, our children might bear their own children, and we could then enjoy our grandchildren. The previous seasons of life have helped us get ready for the last one.
Read Psalm 71:1-24. What does this psalm teach us about not just preparing for old age, but about life in general?
Image © David Sorensen from GoodSalt.com
Psalm chapter 71 is the psalm of an older person who experiences the challenges that come with life, but who is happy because all along he or she have put their trust in God. The best way to grow old is to put our trust in Him while still young. In general terms, the author of this psalm shares three important lessons he learned as he moved toward this season of his life.
- Develop a deep, personal knowledge of God. From his youth (Ps. 71:17), God was his strong refuge (Ps. 71:1, Ps 71:7) and his Savior (Ps. 71:2). God is a rock and fortress (Ps. 71:3), his hope and confidence (Ps. 71:5). He speaks of God’s mighty deeds (Ps. 71:16-17), and His strength and power (Ps. 71:18), and all the great things He has done (Ps. 71:19). Ultimately he shouts, “O God, who is like You?” (Ps. 71:19, NKJV). Those daily conversations with God, as we study His Word and as we pause to reflect on all He does for us, will deepen our experience with Him.
- Develop good habits. Good nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, rest, et cetera will help us enjoy life longer and better. Take special note as to how the psalmist refers to the habits of trust (Ps. 71:3), praise (Ps. 71:6), and hope (Ps. 71:14).
- Develop a passion for God’s mission. The person in this psalm was not looking forward to being idle in his old age. Even in his retirement he wanted to continue praising God (Ps. 71:8) and telling others about Him (Ps. 71:15-18).
| For those who are older, what are some of the benefits of getting older? What do you know now that you didn’t when younger that you could share with those who are younger? |
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These lessons are providing us with an opportunity to discuss some very practical issues of Christian living. Aging is one that is close to my heart because that is where I am at the moment. I am over the "seventy-year" mark now and have to face the fact that aging is starting to have its effect on me.
Here is a collection of thoughts that have helped me.
1. Keep physically active. There is a very strong public push in Australia that everyone should walk about 10,000 steps every day. I usually do that. Most days I take my big bird camera for a walk with me as well.
2. Interact with people. I belong to the University of the Third Age Movement (U3A). It is a secular movement designed to keep older people active and interacting with one another. I run a "bird photography and observation" course for the local U3A and mostly it is just my usual daily walk accompanied by half a dozen retired folk like myself. We have a great time interacting together on these walks. Carmel is also a participant and does a workout called Bones and Balance, twice a week, and also has a group ukelele playing session every week. Carmel started playing the ukelele last year and has learned it with a passion.
3. Eat healthily. We are actively involved in the CHIP program and it has given us the impetus to eat good wholesome food. Both Carmel and I are relatively healthy and have avoided the usual lifestyle health issues that older people often struggle with. We believe that what we eat contributes a lot towards remaining healthy.
4. Dealing with ageism. Ageism is a fact of life. In our situation, we attend a College Church and I have had to deal with the fact that they do not really want older folk participating in active roles in the Church where young people can do it. I had to deal with going from an active to a passive role rather abruptly, but I accept that now and have found other things where I can be involved in spiritual life meaningfully. (Partly, it gives me more time to write for SSNET {grin})
5. Keep your brain active. My Mum was nearly 101 years old when she died. She read books and worked out crossword puzzles almost up to the very end of life. Her brain was always being exercised and challenged. One of the issues for me has been that I led an active academic life with research and teaching right up to my retirement. I miss both but have made up for it by being involved in various research projects. I have just had a book published with 3 other authors. "Denizens of the Dora" is not going to be a best seller but it is a scientific catalog of the fauna found in our region. My main contribution has been the photographs of birds and invertebrates. This project is both challenging and rewarding.
There are many other practical areas that we should discuss regarding aging. One that should be discussed is the issue of financial management. When we retire most of us have about 20 years of life to look forward to. Planning for sufficient income during that period is something that should not be left to chance.
You sure are practical Sir in this area. But out of curiosity, what kind of diet have you been having all along? Thank you
Greetings Nuwamanya Ephraim;
I have always been a lifestyle vegetarian, but more recently I have moved to a plant-based diet. (I do not use the term vegan because it is associated with animal rights activism.) Having said that I relax a bit when traveling or on special occasions. I love to share a bit of birthday cake or ice cream with my grandkids.
I always like to remind folk that diet is only part of being healthy. Exercise, rest, drinking lots of water, having a positive happy outlook on life, interacting with people, and having an active spiritual life all contribute to healthy living. There is no magic bullet!
Thank you so much for your insights. May God bless you with more abundant life and years.
Getting older is a fact. Surviving well is wise. What we do daily does impact to the total amount of time we live. Which means we are the result of our daily choices. Having good habits through life is something wise. With the focus on the type of body and activity we should eat well, exercise at least 3 times a week for 60 minutes, breathing right, resting, drinking water, taking some sunshine, etc, and on top of all develop a relationship with God (spiritual life)!
I ask you to pray for a friend that will go through a heart procedure. He is young and has a family to take care for. Thank you.
Hello I hope you live to 102 or 105. Don't ask me why. I so understand. Where I was living when you are 25 that was already old. Now I live in Italy and 95 year old women are still astonishingly strong and beautiful. Thank you for the practical side you presented. When we are young we think of old almost as something that happens only on Mars. We are not taught to protect our heart nor knees. Girls wear such high heels I sigh. If they only knew. Well I did too and I now know what can happen. Thanks again
I always find it disturbing when people quote Psalm 90:10 as mankind’s lifespan because it’s clear to me that God gifted us 120 years to serve Him in (Genesis 6:3)
Psalm 90:10 seems to be lifted out of context, in which Moses is talking to God in prayer about the people who die earlier than God intended. On reflection, Moses comments that their days are short and that they are not healthy.
Moses died in good health at 120 years as recorded in Deuteronomy 34:7, suggesting that we do well to rethink our interpretation of Psalm 90:10
"Retirement?" I am still looking for that word or concept in the Bible. Kings remained kings until they died. The high priest kept his office until he died. Where did this idea of "retirement" come from?
As I cross the threshold of 60 in just a handful of days to come, this decade has hit home the hardest. It has all seemed to go by so fast and I don't feel that old. Yet, my body has been telling me otherwise for a while. Not as limber, nor as quick, the eyes need corrective lens, and when you get an injury it takes a good bit longer to recover.
I am thankful that I decided in my 40's that I would rather wear out than rust out; so I read regularly, I exercise daily and I am thankful for a vegetarian diet that I adopted when I was 23, and haven't missed a barbeque since. I have a lot more health than I appreciate at times. Due to my lifestyle (no medications, no diseases, no health issues per se) I give blood and platelet donations regularly. Over time I have given four gallons of blood and just finished my third giving of platelets yesterday.
I agree with Maurice's excellent list of things one should do in these later years of our life. Aging doesn't have to be a sad sashay into the sunset. We may not be appreciated up on the stage with our bit slower selves, but we adjust and find more about life to appreciate.
What about what God has said in Genesis 6:3 and the fact that Moses (Deuteronomy 34:7) died in good health at the exact age that God said was our allotted lifespan please?
The usual interpretation of Genesis 6:3 is that God is giving 120 years warning before the flood. I don't see it suggesting that it is how long we live. The context suggests that is a warning and most commentators take it as such. The early patriarchs died at various ages just as today people die at various ages. The passage in Psalms 90 about aging is more a comparison of God's view and our view of time.
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I cannot agree with the commentators on this one. If it were prophecy I would consider the suggestions similarly, this is simply history, a record of what God decided.
We cannot help but notice that man’s lifespan is dramatically reduced 120 years prior to the flood yet one finds humans desperately trying to explain away God’s obvious allocation of 120 years — God most certainly said quite plainly that our lifespan will not reach 130 years, yes, Noah preached 120 years, every blow of the hammer preached the story of redemption. This does not detract from the facts that the writer of Psalm 90, died precisely at God’s prescribed 120 years as recorded for our understanding in Deuteronomy 34:7 and that his eyes were not dim nor his step slowed by disease... very important indeed.
Why would the prayer of Moses in particular in verse 10 be a comparison? He was simply speaking as one friend to Another and expressing his thoughts to his Friend.
Though others may buy into that concept I respectfully disagree and maintain that God has allocated us a portion of 120 years for it is really quite sad to see the number of people dying just because they reach 69/79 years of age and believe that they are destined to die the following year and so they do, and they shouldn’t!
Many even die years before their time because they are so sure that they are meant to die at 70 or perhaps 80 that they slip away before their time, and this, due to the psychological impact of believing this to be biblical truth!
It took some time for my mother in law to consider that she was not ready to die at 70! I challenged her to show me where God had changed His mind about Genesis 6:3 and she couldn’t... I suggested to her that unless she could find in the bible where God changed His mind and that Moses didn’t pray but was now the authority on her lifespan, that she was to press on to the age the Lord had given her of 120 years in service to Him for as long as He will allow her to...she turns 79 in July and is in excellent health sporting a full head of brown hair, looks like she is still in her 50s and now believes that she has these years of life left in her and is no longer ready to kick the proverbial bucket just because of a misunderstanding of scripture so often made by well meaning individuals.
Thank you again for taking the time to comment and may God forgive me for encouraging people to believe His Word over that of the scholars if I am mistaken in my faith in Him to deliver what He has promised to we mortals....120 years to serve Him faithfully as His friend Moses did.
Yes, Maurice is correct. The 120 years in Genesis is the probationary time for humanity prior to the flood. Remember, people were living into the 900's just before the flood, and after the flood two centuries or more on average. So, the 120 is prophetic for the flood that was yet to come.
Deut. is only sharing that Moses lived 120 years and died in good health. Moses died because he was not permitted to go into the Promised Land. It describes that God's punishment was Moses' fate, not that he would have lived forever, but that he wouldn't enter the Promised Land.
Again, context rules the ideas of God setting years for man's typical lifespans.
Thank you for your comment.. I hear you and cannot reconcile this with scripture. Blessings
I can not estimate the damage a misinterpretation of Ps. 90:10 has done to many people. Gathering their children around them at age 70, they put their houses in order and wait for the sentence to be carried out as promised. One woman told me how her family suffered for 15 years (her father lived to be 85) with this sentence hanging over them. Wondering what misery and sorrow would be apparent at each additional birthday. It colored every conversation and family plan. Ill health and death was expected at any time, with thankfulness for what has been received, but pitiful resignation. There are more than a few examples. Was this not David's personal experience?
Although Genesis 6:3 is used mostly to calculate the time of probation for the anti-antediluvians, isn't it a little closer to the reality of our time? How do we encourage those under this cloud?
It is truly unfortunate that people read the bible in such a literal manner as to inflict harm upon a person's relationship with God, and bring disrepute upon the faith
The psalm is clearly addressing man's fleeting days in comparison to God's eternal presence and His being outside of time. The author isn't suggesting that all men for all time have 70 years, and if by good will they reach 80, as a set truth. It makes no sense. We have seen in the course of history that average lifespans have fluctuated. Many factors go into these fluctuations like sanitary conditions, available nutrition, types of vocational engagements, cast or societal level, and so forth.
I think encouraging those under the cloud of a misappropriated text is to prayerfully share with them what the text is actually saying.
Amen, I agree, this is my greatest concern, that the devil gains the upper hand over those who are filled with years and a wealth of knowledge, able to share it with all as we are told to do in the great commission and that people give up hope and die because of a misinterpretation of psalm 90:10... all it takes is that one text incorrectly divided, to take down God’s people to the grave, years before their time!
I've read your comments and I agree with everything you have said. I used to dread the ideal of getting old. Now that I am over seventy like you, however I'm not as healthy as I would like to be but I keep my trust in Jesus. Knowing soon and very soon, Jesus is coming to make all things new. Now that I am older I'm more serious about serving my Lord. Time is running out. Thank for your comments.