Flourishing When Old

Scripture Reading: Psalm 92:12-15

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

The other day at work a company-wide meeting was held in which an employee was honored for ten years of service. After I thought about that, I told another employee I didn’t know if I would make it to my tenth anniversary, only because of my age. I’m 64. Will I still be working full-time when I am 74? Maybe. Maybe not.

Events like this keep reminding me that I’m getting old.

Esther, one of my granddaughters, doesn’t like it when I say I’m old. She always responds with, “You’re not old! Don’t say that.” Well, you have to face facts sometimes.

My age was on my mind when I read this Psalm and my thought was, “I want that to be true for me.” I want to bear fruit in my old age. I want to be sappy. I want to be declaring God’s goodness and righteousness and that he is my rock.

But then I read verse 12 and see that it is the righteous who experience this fruitful agedness. I examine myself and see all of my faults and imperfections, my sins and iniquities, and I wonder how I could be a Psalm 92:14 man.

Then, I look to Jesus. I see His perfection, His righteousness, and His goodness and I remember that His righteousness is mine through faith. Looking unto Jesus, I recall that He has taken everything that is wrong with me upon Himself and carried it to the Cross and put it to death with Himself. “He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

In Jesus, by grace through faith, I can be the kind of righteous man who still bears fruit in my old age.

And so, I pray it be so, not because I have earned it, but because Jesus has purchased it for me.

an old tree with fruit on it