As for man, his days are like grass--he blooms like a flower of the field; Sermons
There is a truth revealed in God's Word which seems to have a painful side. God is to us as we are to him. "Thou renderest to every man according to his work;" "With the froward thou wilt show thyself froward." It is a truth which needs careful qualifications. We have one such in this text. God's ways with us are taken upon due consideration of our bodily frailty. There may be a right or a wrong excuse drawn from the weakness of human nature. We certainly are under limited conditions, and these must be duly considered. I. GOD'S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF OUR BODIES. Observe that "frame" is more than "body." This vehicle of the human spirit is wholly the plan of God. 1. Its actual parts, powers, relations, are known to him. "Fearfully and wonderfully made." Illustrate hand, eye, brain. 2. The special tone and habit of each individual are known to him. We may think of him studying each one as a parent does the disposition of each child. 3. The conditions due to hereditary taint and to civilization. Some have a great fight with bodily and mental taint or bias. And there are special influences of disease, and mischievous results often follow it. 4. The general frailty, the passing away, the gradual decaying of the vital powers, God knows and estimates. II. GOD'S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR BODIES AND OUR MINDS. Minds are spiritual things, but they work through a material frame. The brain is the central machine, to which are attached the separate machines of the senses. The force of the machine is the blood. The spiritual operations of the mind are helped or hindered by the condition of the body. Illustrate a speck in the brain, or weakness in the heart. Sometimes we cannot think - we must just be still. Sometimes we feel depressed, and a sombre tone is put on our thinking. We fret over such things, until we remember that our God knows all. He expects no more work from us than he knows we can do; and he never counts the times of repairing and refreshing our bodily machine to be idle or wasted times. III. GOD'S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR BODIES AND OUR RELIGION. What he asks from each of us is just this - the noblest religious life we can reach under our existing body conditions. We fret to be free from the body, as St. Paul apparently did: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" But precisely the test under which each one of us is placed is this - Can you live a godly life in that body of yours, and under those precise body conditions of yours? Only when you can will God find it fitting to entrust you with the immortal and incorruptible body. Oar religious life is a thing of varying moods. Sometimes our "title is clear;" sometimes "our feet are firm;" sometimes our "head is lifted up;" sometimes we "walk in darkness, and have no light;" sometimes we say, "All these things are against me;" "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul." The very variety unduly troubles us, and we fear lest God should regard us as unstable. But he "knows our frame." Christian joy is very closely linked with bodily health, and Christian gloom with bodily disease. Some diseases spoil the vision. And the body is the great spoiler of the soul's vision. The glorious attainment of the religious life is to get above bodyhinderings; to become master of our bodies in Christ; to "know how to possess the vessels of our bodies in sanctification and honour." Feeling this to be the great aim in life leads to the excesses and extravagances of hermits and devotees. Remember, then, two things: 1. God sees souls. 2. God duly reckons for the body. It may be that we shall be surprised to find what soul progress we have really made, when the body-clog drops off. This tender and considerate representation of God is full of comfort to us. But then God has not left this sentence to lie in his Word as a general statement. He has taken our frame on himself, so that he might gain experimental knowledge of it. Jesus is the Brother-Man of sorrows. We may think of God's ways with us as based on the experience of Jesus. And if God's omniscience is a reason for trust, how much more is Christ's human experience! - R.T. As for man, his days are as grass. Homilist. We have here presented man's existence in relation to — I. THE MATERIAL AND THE MORAL. 1. His relation to the material. Like the flower — (1)He springs out of the earth.(2)He is sustained by the earth.(3)He returns to the earth.2. His relation to the moral. Inside this flame of organized dust there is a spirit that can reverence the Infinite, that can keep His covenant and attend to His precepts. Herein is the glory of man's nature. The power to do this is His distinction; the willingness to do this is his glory. II. THE TEMPORARY AND THE ETERNAL. 1. The connection of all men with the earth is temporary (vers. 15, 16). The wind of mortality is ever breathing through the human world, and men like flowers wither every hour, aye, every minute. 2. The connection of good men with mercy is eternal (vers. 17, 18; Isaiah 54:10). () There is a pensiveness in this season, which surely all must feel, and which must dispose all, except the most thoughtless, to some degree of reflection. It would be strange if we could stand amidst the decay, which is now so rapidly advancing, without being led by it into some train of meditation, favourable to religious feeling; and without receiving impressions calculated to make us wiser and better. I. THE FRAIL AND FLEETING NATURE OF MAN (vers. 15, 16; Psalm 90:5, 6; Isaiah 64:6; Isaiah 40:6, 7; Job 14:2; James 1:10). The place which we now occupy was once occupied by others, but it knows them no more; and soon it will know nothing of us. Our occupation will be gone — our daily doings will have ceased — our history will have come to its close. To fix our wishes on earth, would be to doom them to certain disappointment; it would be like putting our goods into a dwelling which we knew the next hour would be burned unto the ground — trusting our treasure to a vessel which we knew would go to pieces in the coming storm. II. THE ENDURING NATURE OF THE MERCY OF GOD (vers. 17, 18; 1 John 2:17; John 6:27; Matthew 24:35). Why, then, need we be depressed at the thought, that our days on earth are but as grass, and our joys but as the fading flowers of the field, since we may revive again, and become partakers of an "enduring substance" in a better world. III. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE TO WHOM THIS MERCY WILL BE SHOWN. Although it is free in its offers, it is not indiscriminate in its gifts: although it is given gratuitously, it is not given unconditionally: although it is offered to all, it is not granted to all. () I. OUR PRESENT STATE OF MORTALITY IS UPON MANY ACCOUNTS CONVENIENT AND USEFUL. 1. It is convenient that we should die, because this world is a state of trial. 2. As the consideration of death hath a tendency to deter us from vice, it consequently prevents some disorders, and makes us live together in society better than we else should pass our days. 3. It is also convenient that we should die, because the future recompenses of obedience are of a spiritual nature. 4. Another reason why it is convenient that we should die, is, that our obedience at best being defective, death prepares us for the next state, and excites in the soul thoughts and inclinations which ought to accompany it at its entrance into the world of spirits, and into the presence of its Maker. 5. It is not only convenient, but desirable and profitable, that we should die, if death conducts us to life eternal. 6. If by obedience and perseverance we secure to ourselves an inheritance in the Kingdom of God, when that promised time shall come, and this corruptible shall have put on incorrutption, the remembrance of our former earthly state, and of all its inconveniences, may probably add to our happiness; and then it will be good for us that we once were mortal creatures. II. THE METHODS WHICH WE MUST USE, TO ALLAY AND RESTRAIN THOSE IMMODERATE FEARS OF DEATH, WHICH ARE BLAMEABLE, AND WHICH ALSO RENDER LIFE ITSELF, WITH ALL ITS CONVENIENCES, DULL AND COMFORTLESS. 1. Frequent thoughts of our latter end will assist to produce this good effect. 2. Another way of reconciling ourselves to death is to consider it as unavoidable. 3. Another consideration tending to make us more willing to die, is, that it is common to all. 4. The troubles of life, rightly considered, may help to remove a great dislike of death. () As a flower of the field (Flower Service): — Let us listen to the preaching of the flowers today. What do they say to us? One thing they all say is — "trust God." God takes care of the flowers, and sends them dew, and rain, and sunshine, and fresh air, and they tell us that the same God who cares for them cares also for us. And next, I think, all the flowers say to us, "thank God." See how the daisies in the meadow seem to look up thankfully to God. Some one says that God smiles on the earth, and that the earth smiles back again with its flowers. Next, the flowers say to us, "be contented." They are quite satisfied to grow, and smell sweet, and look pretty, in the place where God puts them. Now, just as God plants the flowers in a certain place, some up high on the hills, others down low in the valley; some in the Queen's greenhouse, others in the cottager's garden, so He puts you children in your right place. Another thing which all the flowers tell us is this, "remember that you must die." When the autumn and winter come we say the flowers are dead because we cannot see them. But the flowers are not really dead. They are sleeping in the earth till the spring comes again. God has put them to bed in the warm ground, and when the proper time comes they will waken up. Just what God does to the flowers He does to us. What else do the flowers say to us? I think they say, "keep in the sunshine, be happy." You always find that flowers are on the sunny side of things. So ought we to be. There is another thing which the flowers say to us — "Be sweet." There is nothing so delicious as to go into a flower garden after a warm shower, and to smell the sweet scents. Well, God has sent you into the garden of this world to be sweet like the flowers. Some children are regular stinging nettles in a home, or a school. They always make people uncomfortable. They sting with their tongues, and they sting with their looks and their tempers.()
People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Beautiful, Field, Flourishes, Flourisheth, Flower, Grass, Growth, MortalOutline 1. An exhortation to bless God for his mercy
5. And for the constancy thereof
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 103:15 1194 glory, divine and human Psalm 103:1-18 6653 forgiveness, divine
8608 prayer, and worship Psalm 103:13-16 5004 human race, and sin Psalm 103:13-18 4446 flowers Psalm 103:13-19 4460 grass Psalm 103:15-16 4016 life, human
4017 life, animal and plant
4860 wind
4971 seasons, of life
5864 futility
6200 imperfection, influence
6203 mortality Library November 6. "Bless the Lord, O, My Soul" (Ps. Ciii. 1).
"Bless the Lord, O, my soul" (Ps. ciii. 1). Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me be stirred up to magnify His holy name. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Who so well can sing this thanksgiving song as …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Plenteous Redemption
This evening I shall consider the subject of redemption, and then notice the adjective appended to the word: "plenteous redemption." I. First, then, we shall consider the subject of REDEMPTION. I shall commence in this way, by asking, What has Christ redeemed? And in order to let you know what my views are upon this subject, I would announce at once what I conceive to be an authoritative doctrine, consistent with common sense, and declared to us by Scripture, namely, that whatever Christ has redeemed, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861 What the Flowers Say.
(Children's Flower Service.) PSALM ciii. 15. "As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth." Children, have you ever heard of the language of flowers? Now, of course, we know that flowers cannot speak as we can. I wish they could. I think they would say such sweet things. But in one way flowers do talk to us. When you give them some water, or when God sends a shower of rain upon them, they give forth a sweet smell; I think that the flowers are speaking then, I think that they are saying, "thank …
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2 Matt. 8:11 Many
"Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."--Matt. 8:11. THE words of Scripture which head this page were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ. You may take them either as a prophecy or as a promise. In either point of view they are deeply interesting, and contain much food for thought. Take the words as a prophecy, and remember that they are sure to be fulfilled The Bible contains many predictions of things most unlikely and improbable, …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times Thanksgiving Versus Complaining
"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Thanksgiving or complaining--these words express two contrastive attitudes of the souls of God's children in regard to His dealings with them; and they are more powerful than we are inclined to believe in furthering or frustrating His purposes of comfort and peace toward us. The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing. God's command is "In everything …
Hannah Whitall Smith—The God of All Comfort The Three Facts of Sin
"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction."--Ps. ciii. 3, 4. THERE is one theological word which has found its way lately into nearly all the newer and finer literature of our country. It is not only one of the words of the literary world at present, it is perhaps the word. Its reality, its certain influence, its universality, have at last been recognised, and in spite of its theological name have forced it into a place which nothing …
Henry Drummond—The Ideal Life The Three Facts of Salvation
"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction."--Ps. ciii. 3, 4. SUPPLEMENT TO "THE THREE FACTS OF SIN" LAST Sabbath we were engaged with the three facts of Sin. To-day we come to the three facts of Salvation. The three facts of Sin were:-- 1. The Guilt of Sin--"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." 2. The Stain of Sin--"Who healeth all thy diseases." 3. The Power of Sin--"Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." And now we come to the …
Henry Drummond—The Ideal Life The Long-Suffering, Loving-Kindness, and Tender-Mercies of God. --Ps. Ciii.
The Long-suffering, Loving-kindness, and Tender-mercies of God.--Ps. ciii. O my soul! with all thy powers, Bless the Lord's most holy name; O my soul! till life's last hours, Bless the Lord, His praise proclaim; Thine infirmities He heal'd, He thy peace and pardon seal'd. He with loving-kindness crown'd thee, Satisfied thy mouth with good, From the snares of death unbound thee, Eagle-like thy youth renew'd: Rich in tender mercy He, Slow to wrath, to favour free. He will not retain displeasure, …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
[984]Lauda Anima: John Goss, 1869 Psalm 103 Henry F. Lyte, 1834; Alt. Praise, my soul, the King of heaven; To his feet thy tribute bring; Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Evermore his praises sing: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting King. Praise him for his grace and favour To our fathers in distress; Praise him still the same as ever, Slow to chide, and swift to bless: Alleluia! Alleluia! Glorious in his faithfulness. Father-like he tends and spares us; Well our feeble frame he knows; …
Various—The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA Bless the Lord, My Soul
[1202]St. Thomas (Williams): Aaron Williams, 1763 Psalm 103 James Montgomery, 1819 DOXOLOGY Bless the Lord, my soul! His grace to thee proclaim! And all that is within me join To bless his holy Name! O bless the Lord, my soul! His mercies bear in mind! Forget not all his benefits! The Lord to thee is kind. He will not always chide; He will with patience wait; His wrath is ever slow to rise, And ready to abate. He pardons all thy sins; Prolongs thy feeble breath; He healeth thine infirmities, …
Various—The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA All we Therefore, who Believe in the Living and True God...
18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil, nor suffers any evil, from Whom is every good, even that which admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of decrease in His own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying, "Walk in the Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: For these are opposed …
St. Augustine—On Continence The Providence of God
Q-11: WHAT ARE GOD'S WORKS OF PROVIDENCE? A: God's works of providence are the acts of his most holy, wise, and powerful government of his creatures, and of their actions. Of the work of God's providence Christ says, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.' John 5:17. God has rested from the works of creation, he does not create any new species of things. He rested from all his works;' Gen 2:2; and therefore it must needs be meant of his works of providence: My Father worketh and I work.' His kingdom …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity Messiah Worshipped by Angels
Let all the angels of God worship Him. M any of the Lord's true servants, have been in a situation so nearly similar to that of Elijah, that like him they have been tempted to think they were left to serve the Lord alone (I Kings 19:10) . But God had then a faithful people, and He has so in every age. The preaching of the Gospel may be compared to a standard erected, to which they repair, and thereby become known to each other, and more exposed to the notice and observation of the world. But we hope …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2 Under the Shepherd's Care.
A NEW YEAR'S ADDRESS. "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."--1 Peter ii. 25. "Ye were as sheep going astray." This is evidently addressed to believers. We were like sheep, blindly, willfully following an unwise leader. Not only were we following ourselves, but we in our turn have led others astray. This is true of all of us: "All we like sheep have gone astray;" all equally foolish, "we have turned every one to his own way." Our first …
J. Hudson Taylor—A Ribband of Blue "For what the Law could not Do, in that it was Weak Though the Flesh, God Sending his Own Son,"
Rom. viii. 3.--"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak though the flesh, God sending his own Son," &c. Of all the works of God towards man, certainly there is none hath so much wonder in it, as the sending of his Son to become man; and so it requires the exactest attention in us. Let us gather our spirits to consider of this mystery,--not to pry into the secrets of it curiously, as if we had no more to do but to satisfy our understandings; but rather that we may see what this concerns …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning Why all Things Work for Good
1. The grand reason why all things work for good, is the near and dear interest which God has in His people. The Lord has made a covenant with them. "They shall be my people, and I will be their God" (Jer. xxxii. 38). By virtue of this compact, all things do, and must work, for good to them. "I am God, even thy God" (Psalm l. 7). This word, Thy God,' is the sweetest word in the Bible, it implies the best relations; and it is impossible there should be these relations between God and His people, and …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial The Hindrances to Mourning
What shall we do to get our heart into this mourning frame? Do two things. Take heed of those things which will stop these channels of mourning; put yourselves upon the use of all means that will help forward holy mourning. Take heed of those things which will stop the current of tears. There are nine hindrances of mourning. 1 The love of sin. The love of sin is like a stone in the pipe which hinders the current of water. The love of sin makes sin taste sweet and this sweetness in sin bewitches the …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 The Prophet Joel.
PRELIMINARY REMARKS. The position which has been assigned to Joel in the collection of the Minor Prophets, furnishes an external argument for the determination of the time at which Joel wrote. There cannot be any doubt that the Collectors were guided by a consideration of the chronology. The circumstance, that they placed the prophecies of Joel just between the two prophets who, according to the inscriptions and contents of their prophecies, belonged to the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah, is …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The First Day in Passion-Week - Palm-Sunday - the Royal Entry into Jerusalem
At length the time of the end had come. Jesus was about to make Entry into Jerusalem as King: King of the Jews, as Heir of David's royal line, with all of symbolic, typic, and prophetic import attaching to it. Yet not as Israel after the flesh expected its Messiah was the Son of David to make triumphal entrance, but as deeply and significantly expressive of His Mission and Work, and as of old the rapt seer had beheld afar off the outlined picture of the Messiah-King: not in the proud triumph of war-conquests, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah But, Say They, How is the Flesh by a Certain Likeness Compared unto The...
25. But, say they, how is the flesh by a certain likeness compared unto the Church? What! doth the Church lust against Christ? whereas the same Apostle said, "The Church is subject unto Christ." [1898] Clearly the Church is subject unto Christ; because the spirit therefore lusteth against the flesh, that on every side the Church may be made subject to Christ; but the flesh lusteth against the spirit, because not as yet hath the Church received that peace which was promised perfect. And for this reason …
St. Augustine—On Continence a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet
We shall now, in conclusion, give a survey of the third and closing discourse of the prophet. After an introduction in vi. 1, 2, where the mountains serve only to give greater solemnity to the scene (in the fundamental passages Deut. xxxii. 1, and in Is. 1, 2, "heaven and earth" are mentioned for the same purposes, inasmuch as they are the most venerable parts of creation; "contend with the mountains" by taking them in and applying to [Pg 522] them as hearers), the prophet reminds the people of …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament The Birth of Jesus Proclaimed by Angels to the Shepherds.
(Near Bethlehem, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 8-20. ^c 8 And there were shepherds in the same country [they were in the same fields from which David had been called to tend God's Israel, or flock] abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. [When the flock is too far from the village to lead it to the fold at night, these shepherds still so abide with it in the field, even in the dead of winter.] 9 And an angel of the Lord stood by them [He stood upon the earth at their side, and did …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel The Best Things Work for Good to the Godly
WE shall consider, first, what things work for good to the godly; and here we shall show that both the best things and the worst things work for their good. We begin with the best things. 1. God's attributes work for good to the godly. (1). God's power works for good. It is a glorious power (Col. i. 11), and it is engaged for the good of the elect. God's power works for good, in supporting us in trouble. "Underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. xxxiii. 27). What upheld Daniel in the lion's den? …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial Links Psalm 103:15 NIV
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