Psalms 103:14-16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For he knoweth our frame The weakness and mortality of our natures, and the frailty and misery of our condition, (as the expression seems to be explained in the following clause) That we are but dust And that if he should let loose his hand upon us, we should be irrecoverably destroyed. For, as for man Fallen, mortal man; his days are as grass Which grows out of the earth, rises but a little way above it, and soon withers and returns to it again: see Isaiah 40:6-7. As a flower of the field If man, in his best estate, seem somewhat more than grass; if he flourish in health and strength, youth and beauty, riches and honour; if he look fresh and fair, gay and lovely, glorious and powerful; yet even then he is but as a flower which, though distinguished a little from the grass, will wither with it; yea, as a flower of the field Which is more exposed to winds and other violences than the flowers of the garden, that are secured by the art and care of the gardener; so he flourisheth Unfolds his beauty in youth, and flourishes a while in the vigour of manhood; but the wind A blasting or blighting wind, unseen and unlooked for; passeth over it Over the flower, even when it is in its perfection; and it is gone It droops, shrinks, and bows its head; its leaves fall off, and it sinks into the ground that gave it birth. And the place thereof shall know it no more There is no more any appearance or remembrance of it in the place where it stood and flourished. Thus the life of man is not only wasting of itself, but its period is liable to be anticipated by a thousand accidents. If the breath of the divine displeasure pass over him, and God, with rebukes, correct him for iniquity, his beauty consumes away like a moth fretting a garment: his comeliness and vigour; his prosperity, wealth, and glory; his health, strength, and life, waste away gradually, or vanish suddenly; and he bows his drooping head and mingles again with his native dust; his friends and his companions look for him at the accustomed spot which he once adorned, but in vain: the earth has opened her mouth to receive him, and his place shall know him no more.