The Green Cedars of Old Age Text: Psalm 92:10-15
Introduction: The Great Evangelical Retirement Plan
We live in a culture that is obsessed with retirement. The goal, held out before everyone as the great prize at the end of a life of toil, is to finally arrive at a point where you can stop working. The ideal is a life of perpetual leisure, Florida condos, and early bird specials. The world wants to labor for sixty-five years so that it can finally purchase a life of comfortable uselessness. But God's economy operates on a different principle entirely. God's great retirement plan is not cessation, but continued, glorious fruitfulness. It is not a retreat into irrelevance, but a graduation into a different kind of strength, a different kind of influence.
Our psalm for today, a song for the Sabbath, gives us a picture of the righteous man that is utterly at odds with the world's ideal. The world says the goal is to be comfortable. God says the goal is to be fruitful. The world says old age is for winding down. God says old age is for yielding the richest, sweetest fruit. The world sees strength in terms of raw, youthful vigor. God sees strength in terms of deep-rooted, time-tested stability.
This passage is a promise to the righteous. It is a description of what a life lived in faithfulness to God looks like in its latter stages. It is a portrait of geriatric glory. And in an age that worships youth and despises the wisdom of the aged, we desperately need to recover this biblical vision. We need to see that the trajectory of a Christian's life is not a slow, sad decline into weakness and obscurity, but rather a steady, upward growth into the likeness of a great and ancient tree, full of sap, full of life, and full of fruit to the very end.
This psalm contrasts the fleeting prosperity of the wicked, who spring up like grass only to be destroyed forever (v. 7), with the enduring vitality of the righteous. The wicked are like weeds in a lawn, a flash of green before the mower comes. The righteous are like the great cedars of Lebanon, whose rings tell the story of centuries. Let us attend, then, to this portrait of godly maturity.
The Text
But You have raised up my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me. The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of Yahweh, They will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be rich and fresh, To declare that Yahweh is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
(Psalm 92:10-15 LSB)
Strength, Vindication, and Joy (vv. 10-11)
The psalmist begins this section with a personal testimony of God's faithfulness. He has experienced God's deliverance firsthand.
"But You have raised up my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil." (Psalm 92:10)
The horn in Scripture is a consistent symbol of strength, power, and dominion. Think of a bull or a wild ox, its head lowered, its horns representing its formidable capacity for defense and attack. For God to exalt someone's horn is to grant them victory, to lift them up in strength and honor. This is not the psalmist's native strength. He does not say, "My horn is naturally strong." He says, "You have raised up my horn." This is delegated, gifted strength. It is God's power at work in His servant.
And with this strength comes a fresh anointing. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, of consecration, of joy, and of healing. This is not stale, leftover oil from a previous victory. It is fresh oil. God's grace is not a one-time deposit; it is a daily provision. His mercies are new every morning, and His anointing is always fresh for the task at hand. The righteous man does not run on the fumes of yesterday's blessings. He is continually supplied by the Spirit of God. This combination is essential: divine power (the horn) and divine blessing (the oil). We need both. Power without the Spirit's sanctifying influence becomes tyranny. The Spirit's presence without power is not the biblical portrait of the Christian life.
This strength and anointing result in a settled confidence in the face of opposition.
"And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me." (Psalm 92:11)
This is not a vindictive, personal gloating. This is the settled joy of seeing God's justice prevail. It is the confidence of one who knows he is on the Lord's side, and therefore on the winning side. He can look upon his enemies not with fear, but with the calm assurance that God will deal with them. He hears of their plots and their uprisings, not with anxiety, but with the knowledge that their doom is certain. This is the quiet exultation of faith. It is the same sentiment we see in Psalm 2, where the one who sits in the heavens laughs at the plotting of the kings of the earth. When you know that God is your rock, you can watch the waves of opposition crash against Him and break, while you remain secure.
The Flourishing of the Righteous (vv. 12-13)
From his personal experience, the psalmist now generalizes the principle. What God has done for him is what God does for all the righteous.
"The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon." (Psalm 92:12)
These are two remarkable images of vitality and stability. The palm tree was known for its uprightness, its longevity, and its fruitfulness. It stands tall and straight, a picture of integrity. It thrives in arid conditions, its roots going deep to find water, a picture of the righteous man drawing life from the hidden springs of God's Word. And it produces sweet fruit, a picture of a life that blesses others.
The cedar of Lebanon was legendary in the ancient world. These were magnificent, towering trees, known for their strength, their durability, and their fragrant, rot-resistant wood. They were used to build the Temple in Jerusalem. To grow like a cedar in Lebanon is to be strong, majestic, enduring, and of the highest value. The righteous are not flimsy reeds, shaken by the wind. They are cedars. They grow slowly, but they grow strong, and their influence lasts for generations.
But where does this flourishing happen? Verse 13 tells us the location is everything.
"Planted in the house of Yahweh, They will flourish in the courts of our God." (Psalm 92:13)
A tree does not plant itself. It must be planted. The righteous are not self-made men; they are God-planted men. And their location is crucial. They are planted in the house of the Lord. This means their life is centered in the worship, the fellowship, and the life of God's people. They are not lone-ranger Christians. They are deeply rooted in the covenant community. It is in the rich soil of corporate worship, biblical preaching, and fellowship with the saints that this flourishing occurs. You cannot expect to be a mighty cedar if you try to grow in the thin, rocky soil of individualism. It is in the courts of our God, in His very presence, that true spiritual vitality is found.
Geriatric Glory (v. 14)
Now we come to the great promise that defies all worldly expectations for old age.
"They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be rich and fresh." (Psalm 92:14)
Most trees, as they age, become less fruitful. Their production declines. But for the righteous, the opposite is true. The fruitfulness continues, and in many ways, it deepens. The fruit may change from the active labors of youth to the wisdom, counsel, prayer, and stability of old age, but it is fruit nonetheless. The godly patriarch or matriarch is not put out to pasture. They are a vital part of the orchard.
The text says they shall be "rich and fresh." The Hebrew is literally "fat and green." This is a picture of undiminished vitality. "Fat" means full of sap, full of spiritual lifeblood. "Green" means they are not dry, brittle, and withered, but vibrant and alive. The world looks at the elderly and sees wrinkles, weakness, and decline. God looks at His faithful saints and sees trees that are still full of the sap of His Spirit, still producing the green leaves of a vibrant faith. Their bodies may be failing, but their spirits are flourishing. This is the great paradox of the Christian life: "though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16).
The Ultimate Purpose (v. 15)
Finally, the psalm gives us the reason for this enduring fruitfulness. What is the purpose of this long life of flourishing? It is not for the righteous man's own glory. It is for God's.
"To declare that Yahweh is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." (Psalm 92:15)
The final and ultimate fruit that a godly man or woman produces is a testimony to the character of God. A long life, lived in faithfulness, becomes a powerful sermon. It is a declaration. The world looks at this old saint, this ancient cedar, who has weathered countless storms, who has seen seasons of drought and seasons of plenty, and who is still standing, still fruitful, still green, and is forced to ask why. The life itself is the answer. That life declares that Yahweh is upright. He keeps His promises. He sustains His people. He is a solid, dependable foundation.
The psalmist concludes with a personal affirmation: "He is my rock." This is not abstract theology; it is lived reality. After a lifetime of testing God's faithfulness, the verdict is in. And the verdict is this: "there is no unrighteousness in Him." God has never been crooked. He has never been unfair. He has never failed. The entire life of the righteous man is an exhibition, a public demonstration, of the perfect, unswerving, rock-solid righteousness of God.
Conclusion: Planted in Christ
This is a glorious picture, but it is a picture of the righteous. And as we look at our own lives, we know that we are not, in ourselves, righteous. We are not naturally upright palm trees. We are crooked shrubs. We are not mighty cedars; we are bramble bushes, fit for the fire. So how can we lay claim to these promises?
We can only do so because we have been united by faith to the one truly Righteous Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Vine, and we are the branches. He is the mighty Cedar, and we are grafted into Him. We are not planted in the house of the Lord by our own efforts, but by grace. We are "transplanted to the LORD's own house." God, in His mercy, uprooted us from the cursed ground of Adam's sin and planted us in the rich soil of His Son.
Therefore, all the strength of the wild ox is ours in Him who defeated Satan. All the fresh oil of the Spirit is ours in Him upon whom the Spirit descended and remained. All the flourishing of the palm and the cedar is ours in Him who is the Tree of Life. And the promise of fruit in old age is guaranteed in Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
The Christian life is one of deep roots and slow, steady growth. Do not be discouraged by the slow progress. Do not envy the wicked who spring up like grass. Their end is destruction. Be content to be a cedar. Sink your roots deep into the house of God. Drink deeply of His Word and His presence. And trust His promise that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. He will cause you to bear fruit, even into old age, so that your entire life might be one long, joyful declaration that He is your Rock, and in Him there is no unrighteousness at all.