And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Ver 26. And though after my skin worms destroy this body] Here he pointeth again, as doth likewise David, when in Psalms 34:6, he saith, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him," &c. So the ancient believers, when they came to that Article in the Creed, I believe the resurrection of the flesh, were wont to add, Etiam huius carnis, even of this flesh, pointing to some naked part of their body; or else alluding to that of the apostle, "This mortal must put on," &c.
Worms destroy this body] Heb. They destroy this. He saith not this body, quod ob deformitatem summam, non liceret corpus dicere, saith Vatablus, So worn it was, and wasted with sores and sicknesses, that it could scarcely be called a body. And yet it was not at the worst either, for in the grave it should be worm eaten, and something more. Mihi experto credite, saith Austin, Believe me, who have tried it, open dead men's sepulchrcs, and upon their heads ye shall find toads crawling, begotten of their brains; on their loins serpents, begotten of their reins; in their bellies worms, begotten of their bowels, &c. (Serm. 48, ad Frat. in Erem.).
Yet in my flesh] Heb. Out of my flesh, as out of a casement.
I shall see God] I shall see Christ, Christum in corpore (Austin's wish), the human and glorified body of Christ, who is God blessed for ever, as also the mystical body of his Church perfectly united unto him, 1 John 3:2. To this sense some render the text thus, I shall see God in my flesh, that is, I shall see Christ sitting in glory, clothed with flesh, or in the likeness of man. And here do but think with thyself, though it far pass the reach of any mortal thought, saith one, what an infinite inexplicable happiness it will be to look for ever upon the glorious body of Jesus Christ, shining with incomprehensible beauty, and to consider that even every vein of that blessed body bled to bring thee to heaven; and that it being with such excess of glory hypostatically united to the second person in Trinity, hath honoured and advanced thy nature, in that respect, far above the brightest cherub. The whole verse may be read thus, And after I shall awake, though this body shall be destroyed, yet out of my flesh shall I see God. And being thus read, it is a plainer and fuller confession of the resurrection, saith an interpreter. It is common in Scripture to compare death to sleep and resurrection to awaking, Dan 12:2 Psalms 17:15. The bodies of the saints are laid in the grave, as in a bed of roses, to ripen and mellow against the resurrection, and they write upon their graves, as one did once, Resurgam, I shall surely rise again (Dr King). Moses's body, hid in the valley of Moab, appeared afterwards glorious in Mount Tabor. This is matter of joy and triumph, as it was here to Job, and to those good souls who were to lose all, Daniel 12:2, and those, Hebrews 11:35, considering that God, by rotting, would refine their bodies, and in due time raise them conformably to Christ's most glorious body, the standard. The forethought of this cheered up David's good heart, Psalms 16:9, and those in Isaiah, Isaiah 26:19, and the good people in our Saviour's time, John 11:24. I know, saith Martha, concerning her brother Lazarus, that he shall rise again at the resurrection; at the consolation, saith the Syriac interpreter (Benuchama). Resurrection and consolation then were terms equivalent. Hence that great apostle, 2 Corinthians 4:16 : "For this cause we faint not," saith he. For what cause? Because we believe "that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you." And the same apostle maketh this doctrine of the resurrection the canon of consolation, 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14, &c., to the end.