The point of this proverb is not to suggest that the young are better than the old or the old better than the young. The point is that each has his glory, his particular contribution. If you want help moving house then get a young man in. He will probably be best able to help you. But if you want advice on how you can handle arguments you are having with your wife, you might be better to consult an older man. When it comes to preaching there are differences too and although young and old can have their weaknesses they also both have their strengths.
We are in danger of caricaturing but we can say two things.
Firstly, the young can be nervous, too quiet, poor at dividing the material and not very good at application. They can be insensitive and too cerebral. However, ideally, there is a zeal and a directness, a freshness and excitement that older preachers can often lack. The younger man takes no prisoners and hearers are disarmed by the powerfully exaltation of Christ and the eager call to follow him. His thorough preparation and his careful exegesis give him authority.
Older preachers, on the other hand, can ramble, have too many illustrations, lack exegetical rigour and make applications that are off the mark. Ideally, however, they speak with a depth of experience, a warmness and love that melts the hearts of their hearers in a way that too often does not happen with younger preachers. They avoid exegetical and homiletic pitfalls that younger preachers do not and avoid wasting the congregation's time on theological points of interest only to seminary students.
It is useful for preachers old and young alike to rightly assess their strengths and weaknesses. Young men will preach young me's sermons and old men old men's sermons but is they can be the best that they can preach that is all to the good.
