actually be our public scripture reading for the next few weeks, which is Psalm 71. Psalm 71. Psalm 71 is a song of old age. A song of old age. It is the musings of a faithful believer who is aware of his increasing frailty as time passes and his earthly life is gradually fading. But Psalm 71 is not a Psalm of gloom and despondency. Despite the trials and tribulations this child of God continues to face in his latter years, yet his hope and trust in God as his rock, refuge, and fortress remains steadfast because of who the Lord is as the unchanging, eternal God. In verses one through six, of Psalm 71, the psalmist begins in the thick of his present circumstances, which speak of his trials with a wicked, unjust, and cruel man. So that even in his more seasoned years, he still faces the harassment of enemies. But what does he do? Where does he go? Well, he turns to the Lord alone. He turns alone to the Lord as his certain and sure help, not only in this moment, but as he confesses, even from his youth. In fact, he turns all the way back to his conception in his mother's womb to declare that even then was his life utterly dependent on the Lord. That is objectively speaking. So there is no one but God alone who can be, as he describes the Lord, his rock of refuge, that is his only solid place of secure habitation. Therefore to the Lord alone does he trust now to rescue his life from his oppressive enemy Now principally What is this teaching us? Psalm 71 verses 1 through 6. What is this teaching us principally? Well, here's the big-picture principle, okay, and No matter what season of life we're in with all its changes, the Lord never changes. Let me say that again. No matter what season of life we're in with all its changes, the Lord never changes. Malachi 3.6, God said, I am the Lord, I change not. This is what we call in theology the immutability of God. God is unchanging. He is unchanging. And so therefore it must be, because of the immutability of the Lord, it must be in the Lord alone, in the Lord only, that all our trust, all our hope, all our assurance in every season of life is anchored. The flesh, as if I need to say this, but then again I need to say this, the flesh will fail you. The flesh will fail you. Your marriage will fail you. Your family will fail you. Your friends will fail you. Your career will fail you. Your money will fail you. Your property will fail you. The flesh will fail you. Absolutely fail you. And concerning in particular people The people in that circle of your connections and of your influence, if you haven't figured this out yet, or maybe you have and you're just being willfully blind to it, those closest to you, those you depend the most upon, they will fail you. They will disappoint you. Believe it or not, they'll even sin against you. They will change, no different than you. Because if you haven't checked this out yet, maybe you didn't look in the mirror this morning, but you're changing. We change every day. Every day is a day of changing in our lives. Internally, externally, we are changing every single day. But the Lord, the Lord will never fail you because the Lord never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so if you are mistakenly placing all your trust in a mere mortal person, maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's your children or someone else, but if you are mistakenly placing all your trust and hope in a mere mortal person, shame on you because you're putting a pressure on that person that is very unfair to them. They cannot be God for you. The only one who deserves all our trust is the Lord, period. He alone deserves all of our trust. No mere mortal man or woman deserves that. They can't handle that. And I wonder if you've ever thought of it that way. They can't handle that kind of stress and that kind of pressure. Because they're not eternal and they're not immutable. and they're not impassable. You see, because the Lord is immutable, he cannot change, well, he's also impassable, which means we don't change him. There's nothing that we can do, there's nothing we can say that will actually affect a change in him. Nope, can't happen. God is not bound by time. He is eternal. And he is nothing like us. We're made up of all kinds of different parts. God is not made up of parts. He's without parts. He is a simple being. But you know what? That should be a comfort to us. Because honestly, let me ask you this question as a Christian to a Christian. Do you really want God to be anything like you? Really? Seriously? I mean, I do hope that none of you would even pause and say, well, let me think about that. Well, then if that's the case, then he's no longer God, he's just like you. But the Lord says in his word, he says, actually, I'm nothing like you. And we say, thank God. Thank God that the Lord is indeed God, the one and only true and living God. And for the psalmist, here he is, Psalm 71, here he is in his old age, in his latter years, in the twilight season of his life, and the Lord is the same. The Lord has not changed. He looks back to his youth, He looks back in those younger days of his life, and the Lord was his rock then, his fortress then, and here he is in his latter days, and God has not changed. He's changed, this fellow believer, now in his older age. Oh, he's done a lot of changing, but not the Lord. Not the Lord. And so here he is facing a very dire situation. He has enemies coming after him. In fact, look at what he says in verse four. Rescue me, oh my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. He is facing a real problem here. But where does he go? Where does he turn? He turns to the one who changes not. He turns to the one who is eternal. He turns to the only one who is his true rock of refuge, his only secure habitation in all of life. He turns to the Lord, his God. And you see, that is what we all do as God's people when we're really walking by faith and not by sight. That's what we do. Because if you're walking by sight, you're not going to be turning to the Lord. You'll be turning to the arm of the flesh, and what is that going to leave you with? Frustration, anger, agitation, disappointment, depression, despondency, gloom, shall I keep going on? In other words, you're not having a happy day. is our only hope, our only trust, our only confidence. He is our only sure and certain help in every season of life. In every season of life. People come and people go. People live and people die. You have good days, you have bad. Such is your life and my life in this fallen world, a world full of changes, but the Lord remains the same. And brothers and sisters, listen to me, that should give you the greatest comfort of all, the greatest comfort you can ever have in this world. You can't get that kind of comfort from your spouse or your children, your closest friends, You can't, you can't get that kind of comfort from your fellow humans. You can't. They can't give you that kind of comfort. Because like you, they're struggling with the same mess. And like you, they face their own changes, and their own frailty, and their own failings. And so like you, They need the Lord also. The Lord must be their trust also. And so the psalmist in verses five and six, for you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord. from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth. You are he who took me, more literally from the Hebrew, you cut me from the umbilical cord. That's what it's actually saying. You are he who took me from my mother's womb. Where does he end? Where does he close this in verse six? My praise is continually, where? Of you. And we say, well, of course. Because no one in all this world is worthy of all our praise but God. But God. the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Only God is worthy of all our praise. And so therefore, like the psalmist, all our praise should be continually, ongoing, unceasing of the Lord, toward the Lord. Let's pray. Our Holy Father, it truly is a great comfort to us when we think very deeply and carefully and long and hard about the truth, oh Lord, that our God is an unchanging God, eternal, simple, self-sufficient, and that There is nothing, Lord, in our lives, nothing that we either can do or either don't do, but nothing coming from us that would actually affect a real change in you, Lord, in who you are, because you are the Lord who changes not. Heavenly Father, we pray that this great truth of this great reality of the glory and the majesty of your immutability will be a means of great encouragement and great support and great comfort to us all today. For any of us here, Lord, who are facing grave disappointment, are struggling with great despondency, who have been guilty of placing all our trust in man. Father, forgive us for such misplaced trust that is nothing more than idolatry. Forgive us for all the pressure that we have placed on others to be our God. We pray, Lord, that you'll work in us a deep and profound work of real repentance, so that we will flee from that awful and terrible sin that is an absolute evil and an abomination in your holy sight, because you have commanded us to have no other gods in addition to you, because you are the one and only and true God. We pray deeply for the grace of repentance. And that in this repentance, we will return to you with our whole hearts. In this repentance, Lord, we will renew our trust in you that will not be with only a little bit or some of our heart, but it will be with all of our heart, with everything that we are. We cast all all our cares on you alone. And Father, we thank you as you tell us in your word that in the casting of our cares on you, you care for us. And you will shoulder those cares for us as you carry us all our days. Father, we pray that in the light of what we have seen this morning, only in a glimpse of your glory from Psalm 71, and in the example of the faith of this saintly believer in his latter years, Lord, may our faith, may our faith show the same strength in our latter years also. May our faith, Father, by your grace grow deeper in you as we press on and persevere from one year to the next. May we become more and more a people who are truly walking by faith and not by sight. As we would behold your glory, as we would behold your majestic splendor, in all of the infinite, boundless, measureless greatness of who you are as our great, eternal, one and only living God. And may your praise be ever on our lips, coming from our hearts. This we pray. by your grace, for your glory, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.