Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
Ver. 1. Remember now thy Creator.] Heb., Creators - scil., Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, called by Elihu, Eloa Gnosia, "God my makers," Job 35:10 and by David, the "Makers of Israel." Psa 149:2 So Isaiah 54:5, "Thy makers is thine husbands." "Let us make man"; Gen 1:26 and, Gen 1:1 Dii creavit. Those three in one, and one in three, made all things; but man he made "fearfully and wonderfully"; Psa 139:14 the Father did it; Eph 3:9 the Son; Hebrews 1:8 ; Heb 1:10 Col 1:16 the Holy Ghost. Psalms 33:6 ; Psa 104:30 Job 36:13 ; Job 33:4 To the making of man a council was called. Gen 1:29 Sun, moon, and stars are but the "work of his fingers"; Psa 8:3 but man is the "work of his hands." Psa 139:14 "Thine hands have made me," or took special pains about me, "and fashioned me," saith Job. Job 10:8 Thou hast formed me by the book, saith David. Psa 139:16 Hence the whole Church so celebrates this great work with crowns cast down at the Creator's feet. Rev 4:10-11 And hence young men also, who are mostly most mindless of anything serious, for childhood and youth are vanity, are here charged to remember their Creator - that is, as dying David taught his young son Solomon, to know, love, and "serve him, with a perfect heart, and a willing mind," 1Ch 28:9 for words of knowledge in Scripture imply affection and practice. Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare, To remember God is every whit as needful as to draw breath, since it is he that gave us being at first, and that still gives us ζωην και πνοην, "life and breath." Act 17:25 "Let everything therefore that hath breath, praise the Lord," even so long as it hath breath; yea, let it spend and exhale itself in continual sallies, as it were, and egressions of affection unto God, till it hath gotten, not only a union, but a unity with him. Of all things, God cannot endure to be forgotten.
In the days of thy youth,] Augustus began his speech to his mutinous soldiers with Audite senem, iuvenes, quem iuvenem senes audierunt, You that are young hear me that am old, whom old men were content to hear when I was but young. And Augustine beginneth one of his sermons thus, Ad vos mihi sermo, O iuvenes, flos aetatis, periculum mentis, To you is my speech, O young men, the flower of age, the danger of the mind. To keep them from danger, and direct them to their duty, it is that the Preacher here exhorts them to remember God betimes, to gather manna in the morning of their lives, to present the firstfruits to God, whose "soul hath desired the first ripe fruits," Mic 7:1 and who will "remember the kindness of their youth, the love of their espousals." Jer 2:2 God of old would be honoured with the firstlings of men and cattle, by the firstfruits of trees, and of the earth, in the sheaf, in the threshingfloor, in the dough, in the loaves. He called for ears of corn dried by the fire, and wheat beaten out of the green ears, Lev 2:14 to teach men to serve him with the primrose of their childhood. Three sorts there were of firstfruits: First, Of the ears of grain offered about the passover; secondly, Of the loaves offered about pentecost; lastly, About the end of the year, in autumn. Now of the first two God had a part, but not of the last. He made choice of the almond tree, Jer 1:11 because it blossometh first; so of Jeremiah from his infancy, Timothy from his mother's breasts, &c. He likes not of those arbores autumnales autumnal trees Jdg 1:13 which bud at latter end of harvest. He cares not for such loiterers as come halting in at last cast to serve God, when they can serve their lusts no longer. The Circassians, a kind of mongrel Christians, are said a to divide their life between sin and devotion - dedicating their youth to rapine, and their old age to repentance. "But cursed be that deceiver," saith the prophet, "that hath a male in his flock, and yet offereth to the Lord a corrupt thing." Mal 1:14 Wilt thou give God the dregs, the bottom, the snuffs, the very last sands, thy dotage, which thyself and friends are weary of? Shall thine oil, which should have been fuel for thy thankfulness, increase the fire of thy lusts, and thy lusts consume all? Jam 4:3 How much better were it to sacrifice early, with Abraham, the young Isaacs of thine age? to bring as he did young rams unto the Lord, and even, while thou art yet a lad, a stripling, to "take heed to thy ways according to God's Word." Psa 119:9 Ye shall not see my face, saith Christ, as once Joseph, except you bring your younger brother with you.
While the evil days come not,] viz., Of old age and misery; for these are seldom separated. Senectus, ut Africa, semper aliquid novi adportat, As Africa is never without some monster, so neither is old age ever without some ailment. Multa senem circumveniunt incommoda, b Many are the inconveniences that do encompass an old man. Solet senectus esse deformis, infirma, obliviosa, edentula, lucrosa, indocilis, et molesta, saith Cato in Plutarch, c Old age useth to be deformed, weak, forgetful, toothless, covetous, unteachable, unquiet. Now shall any man be so besotted and bewitched as to make that the task of his old age which should be the trade of his whole life? and to settle his everlasting only surest making or marring upon so sinking and sandy a foundation? A ship, the longer it leaks, the harder it is to be emptied; a land, the longer it lies, the harder it is to be ploughed; a nail, the further it is driven in, with the greater difficulty it is pulled out. And shall any man think that the trembling joints, the dazzled eyes, the fainting heart, the failing hands, the feeble legs of strengthless, drooping, untractable, wayward, froward old age can break up the fallow ground, can ever empty and pluck out the leaks and nails of so many years flowing and fastening?
a Breerwood's Inquiry, 135.
b Horat.
c Plut. in Apoph. Rom.