2 Samuel 19:39, commentary and pictures

All the people went over the Jordan together with the king, and when the king had come over he kissed Barzillai and blessed him, after which Barzillai returned to his own home and ancestral place. Barzillai had loyally sustained David while David was a fugitive, and then escorted him partway on his return toward Jerusalem as far as the Jordan. To see the king safely across the river completed his loving service, and the kiss and blessing were given in gratitude for that loyal help. In this he stands as an example of loyalty. He was an aged man whose infirmity made him unfit for the entertainments of an earthly king's court, so he received the king's farewell blessing and went back to his own place.

The chapter belongs to the retribution that followed David's wrong toward Uriah, whose consequences continued through the rest of David's life, chiefly within his family. The verse itself belongs to David's later history, which displays the judgments that followed his great transgression and fulfilled Nathan's denunciation.

For aged servants of God this means they are not dismissed from waiting on Him and are not cast off in the time of old age, so they must not desert His service. When age keeps them from being working servants they remain waiting servants, still relishing the pleasures of God's courts as much as ever. They quietly wait to give Him honor and to receive comfort from Him until they inherit the promise, loving Him more dearly as eternal happiness draws nearer.