Believers, need not feel weak or unproductive as they grow older. As we age, the more effective and strong we should become in the faith. Just as the autumn fall season of the year is the time of abundant fruitfulness, so we should be able to say, "Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16)2Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. That was true of the apostle Paul. During his years of service for the Lord, he faced many hardships. He recognized his human frailty and that "death is working in us" (2 Cor 4:12). But even as his body became weaker, his spirit became stronger. As he grew older physically, he grew more vibrant spiritually.
Are you growing "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"? (2 Pet 3:18).
The psalmist wrote, "Those who are planted in the house of the Lord.....Shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing" (Ps 92:13-14).-Mr De Hann, MD
Growing old but not retiring,
For the battle still is on;
Going on without relenting,
Till the final victory's won.........Anon.
The inward man is renewed day by day; that is, continually; it answers to ויום יום, an Hebraism; see Est_2:11 the internal hidden man of the heart, the new man is in a prosperous condition; our souls are in good health; the work of God is comfortably carried on in us; we have sweet and repeated experiences of the love of God; we are growing in grace, and in the knowledge of Christ; and, like the palm tree, the more weight is hung upon it, the more it thrives; and, like the children of Israel in Egypt, the more they were afflicted the more they grew.
Psa 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Psa 92:14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,
Psa 92:15 To declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Psalms 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord,.... Or being planted (e), that is, everyone of the righteous before mentioned; such are they that are planted out of the wilderness of the world, and into Christ, and are rooted in him, and are planted together in the likeness of his death and resurrection; have the graces of the Spirit of God implanted in them, have received the in grafted word; and, in consequence of all this, are grafted into the olive tree, the church; or have a place and name there, better than that of sons and daughters, where they are as plants grown up in their youth; and which is here meant by "the house of the Lord", in allusion to the tabernacle, or temple, which had the figure of palm trees on the walls of it: so the Tar gum interprets it the temple, rendering it,
"his children shall be planted in the sanctuary of the Lord:''
and though it may seem strange that trees should be planted in an house, it should be remembered that the house of the Lord, or the church, is a garden, whose plants are an orchard of pomegranates, Son_4:12, and such are not mere education plants, or such as are merely by outward profession, or only ministerially, planted, but are planted by the Lord himself; and so are choice and pleasant ones, by which God is glorified, and which shall never be plucked up: and these shall flourish in the courts of our God; like trees in courtyards before houses; alluding to the courts in the tabernacle or temple, where the people worshipped: here the righteous flourish like palm trees, as in the preceding verse, being rooted in Christ, who is the righteous man's root, that yields fruit, and from whom all his fruit is found; but this flourishing is not merely in the leaves of profession, but in the fruits of grace and righteousness, being watered with the dews of divine grace, and having the benefit of the word and ordinances; which are the waters of the sanctuary, that refresh and quicken the trees of righteousness that grow by it; see Eze_47:1. This is referred to the times of the Messiah, and the resurrection, by the ancient Jews (f).
Psalms 92:14 They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age,.... Being thus planted and watered, they shall not only bring forth the fruits of righteousness, but shall continue, and go on to do so, and even when they are grown old; contrary to all other trees, which, when old, cease bearing fruit; but so do not the righteous; grace is often in the greatest vigour when nature is decayed; witness Abraham, Job, David, Zachariah, and Elisabeth, and good old Simeon, who went to the grave like shocks of corn, fully ripe:
they shall be fat and flourishing; or "green", full of sap and moisture, abound with green leaves and precious fruit; or, in other words, abound in grace, and be fruitful in every good work: being in grafted into the true olive, the church of God, they partake of the root and fatness of it; having a place in the house of the Lord, they are satisfied with the goodness and fatness thereof, and are made to drink of the river of divine pleasure; and being in the courts of the Lord, where a feast of fat things is provided for them, they eat and feed, and so thrive and flourish; the allusion is to fat and flourishing palm trees (g).
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