Bridges on Proverbs 16:31

Charles Bridges on Proverbs 16:31


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31. The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

The hoary head is the old man's glory (Chapter 20:29), and claim for reverence.† God solemnly links the honour of it with his own fear.† “The ancient” are numbered with “the honourable.” (Isaiah 9:15.) The sin of despising them is marked (Ib. 3:5), and, when shewn towards his own prophet, was awfully punished.† Wisdom and experience may justly be supposed to belong to them;† and the contempt of this wisdom was the destruction of a kingdom.†

But the diamond in the crown is, when it is found in the way of righteousness. Even an Heathen Monarch did homage to it (Genesis 47:7-10); an ungodly nation and King paid to it the deepest respect.† The Fathers of the Old and New Testament reflected its glory. The one died in waiting faith in the Lord's salvation. The other was ready to “depart in peace” in the joyous sight of it.† “Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in all the ordinances of the Lord blameless;”† Anna — “a widow indeed” in the faith and hope of the Gospel;† Polycarp, with his fourscore and six years in his Master's service.† — Crowns of glory were their hoary heads shining with all the splendour of royalty. Earnestly does the holy Psalmist plead this crown for usefulness to the Church (Psalm 71:18); the Apostle, for the cause of his converted slave. (Philemon 9.) And who more honourable than those, who, having been “planted” in youth within the courts of the Lord, grow up to “bring forth fruit in old age,” manifesting the glory of the Lord's faithfulness and love? (Psalm 92:13-15.) Truly is an old man's ‘diadem that, which not the art of man, but the kingdom of God, hath fashioned and set on his head.’† And is not the earthly glory brightened by its nearness to the unfading, everlasting crown?

But separate the heavenly virtue from the hoary head. “The crown is fallen.” It lies dishonoured in the dust. For what is a more lamentable spectacle, than a graceless old man, only gaining by his score of years a proportionate share of guilt? Time is no empty duration. It is filled up with talents for eternity, a field for their exercise, helps for their improvement, and account for their neglect or abuse. The white hairs of ungodliness bespeak ripeness for wrath — “wrath treasured up” with every day's uninterrupted increase “against the day of wrath.” (Romans 2:5.) “The sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.”†

Proverbs 20:29

29 ¶ The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.

Footnote:

Chapter 23:22. 2 Samuel 19:32, 39.

Proverbs 23:22

22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

2 Samuel 19:32, 39

32 Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even fourscore years old: and he had provided the king of sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.

Footnote:

Leviticus 19:32. The Roman satirist intimates, that the neglect of “rising up before the hoary head” was punishable with death. — Juven. Satire, 13, 54-56. The reverence paid by the Lacedaemonians to the hoary head is well known. They probably borrowed this law from the Egyptians, who inculcated this respect to its full extent. Herod. Lib. ii. c.26. Compare also Ovid, Fasti, v. 57, 58. See a serious and instructive paper in the Rambler, No. 50.

Leviticus 19:32

32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.

Isaiah 9:15

15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

Isaiah 3:5

5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

Footnote:

2 Kings 2:23, 24.

2 Kings 2:23, 24

23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

Footnote:

Job 12:12; 32:4-7.

Job 12:12

12 ¶ With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days understanding.

Job 32:4-7

4 Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he. {waited...: Heb. expected Job in words} {elder: Heb. elder for days} 5 When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, then his wrath was kindled. 6 ¶ And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said, I am young, and ye are very old; wherefore I was afraid, and durst not shew you mine opinion. {young: Heb. few of days} {durst...: Heb. feared} 7 I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

Footnote:

1 Kings 12:13-20.

1 Kings 12:13-20

13 And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him; {roughly: Heb. hardly} 14 And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 15 Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 16 ¶ So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents. 17 But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. 18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. {made...: Heb. strengthened himself} 19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. {rebelled: or, fell away} 20 And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

Genesis 47:7-10

7 And Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh: and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? {How...: Heb. How many are the days of the years of thy life?} 9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.

Footnote:

Samuel, 1 Samuel 25:1. Elisha, 2 Kings 13:14. Jehoiada, 2 Chronicles 24:15, 16.

Samuel,

1 Samuel 25:1

1 ¶ And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Elisha,

2 Kings 13:14

14 Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

Jehoiada,

2 Chronicles 24:15, 16

15 ¶ But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. 16 And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.

Footnote:

Ib. 49:18. Luke 2:28, 29.

Genesis 49:18

18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

Luke 2:28, 29

28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

Footnote:

Luke 1:6.

Luke 1:6

6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Footnote:

Ib. 2:36, 37.

Luke 2:36, 37

36 And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; 37 And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

Footnote:

Euseb. Lib. iv. c. 15. Milner's Church History, i. p. 16.

Psalm 71:18

18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come. {when...: Heb. unto old age and gray hairs} {thy strength: Heb. thine arm}

Philemon 9.

9 Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 92:13-15

13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. 14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; {flourishing: Heb. green} 15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Footnote:

Muffet in loco.

Romans 2:5

5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

Footnote:

Isaiah 65:20. ‘There is not on earth a more venerable and delightful spectacle than that of an aged pilgrim walking with God; and a more affecting and deeply melancholy sight can hardly, on the contrary, be imagined, than that of a hoary-headed sinner, who has lived his fourscore years “with God in the world,” — all that time God calling and he refusing, and the Almighty “angry with him every day:” his body now bowed down beneath the weight of years; all his powers of action and of enjoyment decaying; every hour likely to be his last; time all behind him, and eternity all before him; and his soul still “dead in trespasses and sins;” the hour of his departure come, and no readiness for the world to which he is bound. O! with what opposite emotions do we contemplate old age in this character, and in the saint of God; who in approaching the close of his earthly pilgrimage is drawing near to what has been the goal of his hopes and desires; who, while outwardly decaying, is inwardly maturing for heaven; in whom every symptom of coming death is but a symptom of approaching life; and who, in the final exhaustion of nature, bids adieu to the world in the words of aged Simeon — “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” ’ — Wardlaw, on Ecclesiastes 12:7.

Isaiah 65:20

20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

Ecclesiastes 12:7

7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.