The testimony of old age to God's faithfulness.
Perowne thinks allusion may be to the "date palm, which, when it reaches maturity, produces three or four hundred pounds weight of fruit, and has been known even to produce six hundred pounds weight." In contrast with the prosperity of the wicked, which is but for a moment, the prosperity of the righteous is declared to be long lived. The aged are spared among us, not for any direct work they can do, but for the testimony they can render to the faithfulness and mercy of God. Over and over again we may hear them saying, "I have been young, and now am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Godly old age testifies, on the basis of its personal, lengthened, and varied experiences, of three things.
I. GRACE EVER ADAPTED. According to the promise, "As thy day, so shall thy strength be."
II. GRACE EVER ABOUNDING. According to the promise, "God is able to make all grace abound, so that ye, having all sufficiency unto all good things, may abound unto every good word and work."
III. GRACE EVER CONTINUING. As we sing in our hymn—
"His grace shall to the end
Stronger and brighter shine."
And according to the promise, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." John Owen says, "When believers are under all sorts of bodily and natural decays, and, it may be, have been overtaken with spiritual decays also, there is provision made in the covenant to render them fat, flourishing, and fruitful—vigorous in the power of internal grace, and flourishing in the expression of it in all duties of obedience. Blessed be God for this good word of grace that he hath given us such encouragement against all the decays and temptations of old age which we have to conflict withal."—R.T.