Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 103:5
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
5. thy mouth ] So the A.V. for the same word in Psa 32:9, and the R.V. has retained the rendering here, though it rests on no sure basis. The Ancient Versions are at fault. The LXX gives thy desire; the Targ. the days of thine old age; the Syr. thy body; Aq. and Jer. thy adornment. The latter is the regular meaning of the word; and it has been suggested that, like glory in Psa 16:9, it may mean soul. But this is improbable, as the soul itself is addressed; and it seems better to suppose that the verb has an unusual construction (but cp. Psa 145:16), and to render:
Who adorneth thee to the full with goodliness;
(So that) thy youth is renewed like an eagle.
In Israel’s resurrection from the grave of exile each Israelite is as it were endowed with a fresh accession of youthful vigour. Cp. Isa 40:31, where, as here, the point of comparison is the strength of the eagle, which might well seem to enjoy perpetual youth. There is no need to suppose an allusion to the fable that the eagle periodically renewed its strength by soaring sunwards and then plunging into the sea. Coverdale’s paraphrase in the P.B.V., “making thee young and lusty as an eagle,” gives the sense rightly.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things – The word translated thy mouth here is rendered in the Chaldee thy age; in the Arabic, the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, thy desire; in the Syriac, thy body; DeWette renders it, thy age. So also Tholuck. The Hebrew word – ady – is rendered ornaments in Exo 33:4-6; 2Sa 1:24; Isa 49:18; Jer 2:32; Jer 4:30; Eze 7:20; Eze 16:11, Eze 16:17 (margin,); Eze 23:40; and mouth in Psa 32:9, as here. These are the only places in which it occurs. Gesenius renders it here age, and supposes that it stands in contrast with the word youth in the other part of the verse. The connection would seem to demand this, though it is difficult to make it out from any usage of the Hebrew word. Professor Alexander renders it thy soul – from the supposition that the Hebrew word ornament is used as if in reference to the idea that the soul is the chief glory or ornament of man. This seems, however, to be a very forced explanation. I confess myself unable to determine the meaning.
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles – Compare Isa 40:31. The allusion, to which there is supposed to be a reference here, is explained in the notes at that passage. Whatever may be true in regard to the supposed fact pertaining to the eagle, about its renewing its strength and vigor in old age, the meaning here is simply that the strength of the psalmist in old age became like the strength of the eagle. Sustained by the bounty of God in his old age he became, as it were, young again.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 103:5
Thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
Like eagles
Like the eagle. I think it is helpful to contrast this figure with the figures used in the previous psalm. There we have a psalmist upon whom the renewing ministry has not yet been wrought, and he lies prone in the grip of a deep depression. I am like a pelican of the wilderness; this is the very figure of gloom and desolation. I am like an owl of the desert; he finds a fitting symbol in the bird which dwells among the ruins, and which finds no comfort in the light of day.
The moping owl doth to the moon complain.
And yet a third figure is used by this melancholy singer: I am like a sparrow alone on the housetop. In his loneliness he finds a suitable emblem in the bird which has lost its mate or its young, and which abides on the house-top silent, lonely, and desolate. Now turn away from these dark and dismal figures to the one of my text. Now my text makes the inspiring declaration that the eagle type of life is the divinely-purposed possession of every man. Men and women who are in covenant with the Almighty will not appear to the world to be kinsmen of the owl and the pelican. They will rather be significant of the eagle. The eagle is, perhaps, our most majestic bird; even to see it in captivity is to behold a creature of splendid and royal build. This is the bird which is to typify the life that is in communion with God. First of all, the life will be eagle-winged. There is nothing more striking about the eagle than its mighty power of wing. The bird can soar away into uplifted mountain vastnesses, and far beyond the highest summit it can mount into the glorious blue. They shall mount up with wings as eagles! And our life is never completed, and we have never really come to our own, until we are in possession of these wings. It is that wing power which marks the maturity of our life, and by which we enter into our splendid destiny. Now, this wing power is just the ability to rise above our circumstances, and to soar into the heavenly places in Christ. We are all familiar with men and women who never get above their immediate surroundings. Such experiences have been the lot of all of us. Our immediate surroundings become our prisons, and we sit down and mope in the midst of our captivity. Life with God is life with the eagle wing; in the strength of that wing we can rise above our prison house into the purer, larger air of the Spirit. I can rise above my temptations. When snares are crowding round me, and when the enemy comes quite near, it is purposed that I should just take wings and find myself far above them. Flee as a bird to your mountain! We make a great mistake when we confront every temptation in the attitude of fight. Most of our temptations could be conquered by quietly rising into a higher sphere. And we can rise above our sorrows. And so it is with our worries and cares. Too many of us just creep and crawl, or we sit among them in cold complaint. Our destined inheritance is the heights. It is the eagles wings we want. Give me the wings of faith to rise! And life in God will not only be eagle-winged but eagle-eyed. What a piercing, wide-casting eye is the dowry of the eagle! When we want a suitable figure to express our conception of a Gladstones eye, or a Kingsleys eye, or an Emersons eye, we go to the eagle for it. And this eagle vision is to be the gift of every soul which is in sacred covenant with God. But how this book bemoans our feeble eye. Your eyes are dim. Ye cannot discern. Eyes have ye, but ye see not. Ye are blind. But the book not only indicts us for our short and imperfect sight; it offers us the gift of splendid vision. If we had the eagle eye two things would happen. First of all, we should discern the significance of the immediate. But, secondly, we should have a sensitive discernment of the remote. We should be the first to see the little cloud on the horizon which betokens the coming rain. We should be the first to catch the faint dawning which is the herald of the coming day. No one would be before us. With the eagle eye we should get the first glimpses of the coming of the Kingdom. Now, how are these gifts of the eagle wing and the eagle eye to be obtained? They are to become ours by the ministry of renewal. God will so re-fashion us that in our recovered strength we shall be like the eagle. The words which immediately precede my text describe to us two of the ways by which this renewal is to be effected. We are to be made young by the repair of diseased tissue. He healeth all thy diseases. The gracious Lord will lay hold of powers upon which decay has fastened, and He will renew the dead matter, and make it sound again. God by His mercies recovers His people from their decays. Decay so easily sets in! Our highest powers so speedily become destroyed. As we grow older our sympathies are apt to shrivel, and love is apt to wither, and hope loses its youthful strength. And, secondly, He will feed the sound tissue. He satisfieth thy mouth with good things. He will remove the disease, and He will provide suitable nutriment to sustain the powers He hath renewed. And the nutriment will satisfy, and we shall have no restless and tiring cravings. Our inner man is renewed day by day. And so in our spirits our youth can be recalled, and in strength of wing and power of eye we can be like the eagle. In old age we can have daily surprises, as we make daily discoveries of the unsearchable riches of Christ. The whole secret of the renewal so far as we are concerned is just here; we must wait upon the Lord. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. (J. H. Jowett, M.A.)
The secret of perpetual youth
These words suggest three points from which to view the great problem of human life, namely, those of the Good, the perfection of life, and Satisfaction. Each of these represents an aspiration of human life, and corresponds to a conviction of what should be, and must be, in a world with an infinite wisdom, power and love on the throne of it.
I. Thy good for man must be found in living trust in, and union with, God. As in the ease of the words, Open Thy mouth wide, and I will fill it, we have here an allusion to the relation of birds in the nest to the parent-bird. Man does not find the good for his life until he enters into a living spiritual relationship with God.
II. Through the attainment of the good man obtains perpetual youth. There can be no old age or decay for those into whom the life of God is flowing, for those that drink out of the fountain of good. The inner life is ever young, and grows more beautiful with the advance of time.
III. In this divinely-sustained and ever new life man finds full satisfaction. Who satisfieth thy mouth, etc. Fulness of life only can bring fulness of joy, and fulness of life can be found only in the presence of God. Satisfaction cannot be full unless it is permanent. Fulness of joy cannot be asserted unless we are able to add Pleasures for evermore. Eternal youth is the fount of eternal joy. In finding God man finds himself, finds life, finds joy. A real satisfaction even in this world of change; by and by in Gods presence fulness of joy. (John Thomas, M.A.)
The renewal of youth
I. A striking figure. The eagle is an emblem of the prosperous Christian–
1. In the penetration of its eye.
2. In the elevation of its flight.
3. In the swiftness of its motion. If the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, we cannot be dull and inactive.
4. In the dignity of its appearance. The grace of God elevates the mind and ennobles the soul. Christians are dignified in character, principles, pursuits, duties, ends and aims, and destinies.
II. A pleasing fact. There are times when God graciously appears on behalf of His people, in such a way, that He may be said to renew their youth like the eagles.
1. In the recovery of health after severe sickness.
2. In the renewal of vigour after religious decay.
3. In the restoration of joy after spiritual depression.
4. In the perpetual bloom of immortality. (E. Temple.)
Renewed youth
Past spiritual experience need not be a memory only, nor need the claims of the future alarm us, in Christ we have never had or been our best, from age to age through the satisfaction of our mouth with good our youth may be renewed like the eagles.
I. Spiritual life, then, may be marked by constant youth.
1. Because youths best features are of the very essence of the spiritual nature.
(1) Conscious possibility.
(2) Enjoyment of life.
(3) Untiring strength.
Christianity is constant youth, it brings youths best features with it, as it increases the more spiritually youth-like we are, according to our Lords principle that to grow in greatness in the kingdom of heaven is to grow towards the child.
2. Because spiritual life has never reached its maturity. The Christian can never say, The best is gone. With him, better experiences, and attainments, and service are to come.
3. Because its source is untouched by the deteriorating influences of earth. Our life is hid with Christ in God. Thus it cannot die, Christ maintains it from Himself. For the same reason it never need decline.
II. We sometimes fail of the youthfulness of spirituality. We need not. It is a grave dishonour to Christ to suppose that He cannot keep us from failing, and a great injury to ourselves to suppose that anything in the nature of the ease forbids unbroken Christian progress. Therefore, though what we speak of now is a fact, let us remember that it need not be, and is only due to sin.
1. It is so when we feel our chance is gone: Time is the great enemy, said a statesman. And so we say of our religious possibilities, Time is the great enemy–it destroys what we might have been. In early life we form ideals, we determine then to conquer circumstances, and rise; time passes, and the ideal fades, we think then we can only be what circumstances let us.
2. It is so, too, when we miss the sacred powers and experience of other days. For the days that are past, with some, were better than these.
3. And it is so, when there is nothing youth-like in our piety.
III. This failure is remedied by partaking of Divine nourishment.
1. We have as much strength as we receive in nourishment, and no more. Every life has its proper food–vegetable life, animal life, human life, and so on; and if it be deprived of it, it fails till at last it dies. Our natural strength is the result of the food we have taken, and its maintenance, and increase, and revival depend on our feeding it. Now it is so with spiritual life, Christ is its food, I, said He, am the Bread of life, our life is in Him, the measure of our piety therefore is the measure of our reception of Him, we can have no more Divine life than we receive through partaking of Christ.
2. That, then, indicates the source of spiritual decline. Have we lost our youth? Have our powers, and possibilities, and joys vanished? It is due to this, and if we trace it back we shall find it so: we have neglected Christ.
3. That reveals the means of renewal. Christian young in years, and Christian young by the long retention of spiritual youthfulness, you will never grow old (faded and worn, I mean) in the Divine life, you will keep and increase your blessedness, if you but constantly feed upon Christ. (C. New.)
The renewal of youth
Every fresh inspiration is a new beginning of life. Over the years as they slip by there will always be inscribed the apostolic saying, Not as though I had already attained. But though perfection is ever in front, we may thank God for every experience that opens out new roads, and helps us to move forward to that which is holy and good.
1. Renewal is essential in all things. When the body ceases to form new ceils the hour of its dissolution quickly arrives. Does the imperial mind cease to delight itself in, and eagerly search after, new and brilliant aspects of truth? You know the result, how soon that mind becomes either as sweet bells jangling out of tune, or is enervated, crusted, stale, and unprofitable. Carried out into nature, the same law ordains that the capacity of the earth to sustain mankind shall depend on bursting seeds, prolific roots, opening buds, and the renewal of generous fruits. Repeated in form, they are new every year. But while renewal is at once a law, and a most marvellous manifestation of the Divine Providence, it never assumes such a profound significance as it does in the world of thought and feeling. Your ideals are opportunities for renewal; from the splendid aims and hopes they reveal you may go on to the greatness and beauty of the deeds that make them real.
2. The redemptive and saving purposes of Divine love work by and through the same law. Renovation is the guarantee of spiritual health; recreation is the secret of sustained energy, and of triumphant faith. In Jesus our Immanuel the words of the psalm before us find their verification. He came that He might say to the weary and storm-tossed, to the evil who repented, to the bowed-down and forsaken, to those in the guilt and slavery of iniquity, Thy youth is renewed like the eagles. He is still saying it; He is still offering to satisfy our mouths with good, that our youth, too, may be renewed.
3. Consider the powerful contrast hero set forth. Age, even though veiled with poetic grace, and having many compensations, is a time of waning powers. There is less generous enthusiasm and more of caution and prudence. On the other hand, youth is marked by splendid impulse and ardour; radiant in energy, care sits lightly on its shoulders. It is like a morning gladness before the heat and burden of the day. In this world these conditions, so strangely distinct in features and qualities, are equally essential. We must have beginnings, the sweeter and purer the better; and we must have endings, and always is it cause for rejoicing when they are full and honourable, and the garments of time and the tools of nature are laid aside after long and faithful use. But there is no such thing as age in heaven. Growing old in heaven is growing young. Those that are in heaven are continually advancing to the spring of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live, because it is goodness and charity that forms and presents in them its own likeness. (J. T. Freeth.)
Youth renewed
I. The youth of the soul of Gods child was renewed gloriously, and he entered on a new and imperishable life in his new birth,–in the hour of that entire change of state and of character, of which Jesus said to Nicodemus, Except a man be born again, etc. Most blessed renewing this of youth, wherein a sinner, throwing off the iniquities of a lifetime, returns back to somewhat of the very gladness, and innocence, and guilelessness, of childhood!
II. There is often a further, most blessed renewing of the souls youth of Gods child–some call it a second conversion, though the expression requires to be used cautiously–when, after a period of darkness, and distance, and spiritual decay, with, it may be, the commission of positive sin, God revisits His child with His pardoning and sanctifying mercy, brings him to deep repentance, and restores to him the purity and the joy of His salvation.
III. But there is what I might call a more normal and progressive rejuvenescence,–renewal of the souls youth of the child of God,–which Paul exemplifies for us (2Co 4:16-18). Oh, this is Gods filling His child with all peace and joy in believing, that he may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
IV. The youth of the soul of Gods child comes to be renewed, strange to say! in the highest of all ways, in his death,–in that which, to the eye of sense, might seem to be the end and wreck of all. Oftentimes there are marvellous foretastes and anticipations of this in the closing hours. (C. J. Brown, D.D.)
The renewal of youth
This thought of the renewal of youth appears again and again in the traditions and legends of mankind. As if shrinking from decay, and having somehow a conviction that man was not intended to be lost, outworn and exhausted in his earthly pilgrimage, he has had his dreams of the renewal of youth. Sometimes the dream took the shape of the legend of the phoenix, living for centuries, and when consumed rising from its ashes; or the eagle mounting up into heaven till he comes near to the seat of central fire in the sun, when scorched by the sun he casts himself into the sea; thence he emerges again with new vigour and fresh plumage, till at his hundredth year he perishes in the sea. In the text there may be an allusion to the yearly moulting of the feathers of the eagle and other birds, the eagle being selected as the liveliest image of strength and activity. And the old alchemists were searching for the elixir that would not only transmute inferior metals into gold, but would restore to man his youth, and so prolong his life, enabling him to resist disease, and set the destructive influences of nature at defiance. It was a beautiful dream. It contains a hint of mans great capacity of life, and his wondrous destiny.
I. God is the fountain of youth. He is from everlasting–the underived, uncreated, unbeginning Existence; the Ancient of Days. But He is eternally young. His mercies are new every morning. The resources of Omnipotence have not begun to fail; the energies of the Holy Spirit are not spent. The measurements of time are only a convenience to us, our dates and chronologies are nothing to God. He is clothed with the eternal beauty of youth; and new benefits, too numerous to be counted, are ever bearing witness to the freshness and constancy of His love.
II. We, then, may receive from Him the gift of perpetual youth. The psalmist, with the boldness of faith, speaks of the Eternal as standing in close relation to himself. Jehovah and the soul are represented as in touch with each other. Who forgiveth all, etc. It is difficult to satisfy a human soul. Myriads are making the attempt, and failing. But here is satisfaction. The soul at rest, its longings met; no longer wandering in the market-places of the world in search of goodly pearls, it has now found the pearl of great price, it has found the good. What is this good? Why, it is God Himself, and that is the reason why it is satisfying. The Lord is my portion.
III. What are the characteristics of youth? Think of two or three. There is energy. A young man without energy is out of his place; he is born out of due time. If he is not energetic in youth, he had better apply for a position among the lotos-eaters, and steep his brows in slumbers holy balm. Action is identified with life. Energy, activity is the mark of the renewed nature. The rest to which it attains is not indolence, but the harmony of the powers in the service they render, the absence of all disturbing or thwarting elements, the repose of the soul in God, who is not idle, but ever working out the counsels of His own will. Youth is a time of hopefulness. It is led On and sustained by the visions of hope. Many of them may be, and probably are, only illusions; but even then they are useful. It is Gods kind provision that the morning should be bright. And this trait of youth is in the renewed nature. It is begotten again to a living hope. Many hopes are dead; they grew very weary as the years advanced, and gave up the ghost. The paths of all who forget God are strewn with the withered hopes that were once green and beautiful. But this is a living hope–living because Jesus is living, the hope of life, fulness of life, complete victory over the powers of darkness and death. And we speak of the enthusiasm, fervour, dash, daring of youth. And so there is brightness and fervour in the renewed nature. We say that the heart grows cold with age; no new friendships are formed; the interest in the outside world is lessened; the blood is more sluggish; the pulse more slow; the heart more cold. But the man who is living in the company of Jesus Christ has not a cold heart; it is burning with love to Him, and with zeal for the triumph of His cause.
IV. This new life is beyond the power of the visible and temporal. Suffering cannot harm it. Indeed, it has manifested its greatest beauty and shone with heavenly splendour in seasons of affliction and trouble. Death cannot harm this life. While the outward man is decaying, the inward man is renewed day by day, moment by moment. The true life can no more die than God can die; and the change will only be a renewal of youth. Heaven is a land where the people grow younger, and their glory never fades. (J. Owen.)
Rejuvenescence
Ever since our first parents were banished from the Tree of Life, by whose blessed medicine they were kept in undecayed vigour, mankind have sought a substitute for it in ways of their own. In Greek mythology we read the story of Medea, who, by the magic of her incantations, restored the aged to the bloom of youthful beauty. In Eastern fables we are charmed with descriptions of the Vijara Nadi, the ageless river, which makes the old young again by only seeing it; and of the spring of immortality flowing in caverns below the earth, and guarded by the pundit Kabib, where the bodies of those who bathe in it shine as if anointed with oil, and are fragrant as with the scent of violets. The South Sea islander, seeing the sun sinking, dim and weary, in the western waves, and rising again from the eastern main fresh and bright, conceived the beautiful myth of the water of enduring life, which removes all deformity and decrepitude from those who plunge beneath its silvery surface. Among the Aleutian islanders the legend is current that in the early ages of the world men were immortal, and when they grew old had but to spring from a high mountain into a lake, whence they came forth in renewed youth. In the Mediaeval romances we are familiar with the Fountain of Youth, and with the wanderings of pilgrims in search of its miraculously-healing waters–wonderful and adventurous as those in quest of the Sangreal, or the treasure hid at the foot of the rainbow. Rejuvenescence is the one great poetic idea of the universe. All the phenomena of the spiritual and material worlds are illustrations of it. The dream of humanity is the fact of creation; the longings that in the human world have been expressed in myths and romances have been symbolized in the objects of nature, in the epic poem of the seasons and the ages. Geology is the history of rejuvenescence on our earth. It reveals to us continual disintegration counterbalanced by continual construction; decay everywhere followed by renewal; so that all things have continued as they were from the beginning, and the earth looks as young to-day as it did on the first morning of creation. Every spring there is a rejuvenescence of the vegetable kingdom. But although most apparent at this season,–showing itself in the tender verdure of green grass, and fresh beauty of bright leaves and blossoms,–it is not the work altogether of spring. The labour of renovation begins at an earlier period; and the breath of spring only unfolds that which was preparing in silence and secrecy during the dark chill season of winter. The illustrations of rejuvenescence which zoology affords are still more interesting, because connected with a more complex organization and a higher function of life. Animal growth differs very widely from vegetable growth. The vegetable grows by means of additional cells; the animal by means of substituted cells. The cells of the plant die as soon as they are produced and have served their purpose, but they are retained in the structure and help to build it up; there being no provision made in the economy of the plant for the expulsion of dead cells. The cells of the animal on the other hand also die, but they are expelled from the body, and new ones take their place. Many animals have periodical and most curious replacements of entire organs and parts of their structure. Every one is familiar with the process of moulting in birds, in which the old feathers drop off every year and new ones are formed; this change in the plumage being accompanied by corresponding constitutional changes. Lizards, serpents, and spiders statedly cast their entire skin, and are furnished with a new one. The crab even replaces its stomach, forming a new one every year and casting away the old one. Just as plants rejuvenize by the annual renewal of their leaves and flowers, so animals rejuvenize by the annual renewal of some of their parts or organs. Passing on to man, who sums up in himself all animal and vegetable types of structure and function, and connects them with the spiritual world, whose existence is the aim to which the infinite rejuvenescences throughout all nature strive, we find that his body is subject to the same laws of growth which rule in the bodies of other animals. He, too, grows by the substitution of new particles for the old. But besides this particular and general molecular renovation, there are also periodical renewals of some organ or conspicuous portion of the body itself. The body renews its youth through fever, producing new hair and new skin, and becoming stronger and healthier afterwards. Sleep is one of the most wonderful phenomena of rejuvenescence. The mind in sleep relaxes its hold of the outward world, and becomes a mere passive mirror to reflect its images and sensations in dreams; but in this state of passivity it gathers itself into new force–into a renewed recollection of its specific purpose–and rearranges in an orderly manner all the confusions and perplexities of its waking state. It is also through the soft soothing sleep which occurs at the crisis of severe diseases that the rejuveneseence of the body occurs. Humanity rejuvenizes itself in the birth of every child; and grows young again in the youth of its children. Our own character fixed, our opinions become prejudices–this young generation with plastic minds comes forward to carry on the work of the world a few steps, and to become stereotyped in turn. In the rise and fall of nations, in the birth and death of individuals, humanity rejuvenizes itself. But the greatest of all rejuvenescences was the origin of Christianity. In the person of the child Jesus, humanity became young again. By His works the world became a new creation. Every rejuvenescence which man experiences is an additional assurance to him that, as he has borne the image of the earthy, so he will bear the image of the heavenly. This is the glorious hope set before us in the Gospel; this is the climax and consummation of all rejuvenescences here–the renewal of nature–of mans body–of his mind–his heart–his soul. All these renewals are leading to and preparing for the great renewal of heaven. The kingdom of heaven in its highest sense is the restitution of all things. It is the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness–not another physical world specially created for the dwelling-place of glorified humanity; but this earth itself which in all its various phases has been so closely united and bound up with the nature of man, and hallowed by the footsteps, yea, oven by the tears and blood of the Son of God Himself, and which in the end shall share in the new and wondrous birth of redemption,–put on its glorious resurrection robes and minister delight to the ennobled senses of the redeemed. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Recovered youthfulness
A famous Roman once penned a delightful treatise intended to reconcile himself and the friend to whom it was dedicated, to the approach of old age. Much in his cheerful philosophy is worthy of the study of Christian people, though some things are superfluous; for the Bible shows to us a more excellent way. The humiliations and bitter distresses of old age need never come to us if an inward process of spiritual repair is affected to compensate the disabilities of outward decay. True religion is always fresh and glowing as the day-dawn, and if it has lost its youthfulness, decay and oblivion are inevitably before it. The Apostle Paul is pre-eminent for his unfailing youthfulness of character; no tribulation could quench the fire of his enthusiasm or destroy the buoyancy of his spirit. He speaks of himself as Paul the aged, but neither in his mental nor spiritual life is there the slightest sign of abating vigour or failing vitality. A tree of tenacious hardihood called the tree of life grows in the Central American forests. If the leaf be cut, new buds will at once form themselves on the shorn, bleeding edge thereof, and its tenacious vitality and productiveness will be asserted in face of the fiercest injury. As we read the catalogue of the ills that failed to daunt the spirit of the apostle, we feel he must surely have eaten of the fruit of that tree. And the Giver of life repeats His wonder to those who wait in His presence. If our youth is renewed, the sorrow that has cut us to the heart will not prove itself a death-wound nor hinder our after-fruitfulness. True religion must be young, for it is an expanded childhood. Recovered youthfulness is in itself meetness for immortality. Our doctrine of an endless being would be repulsive apart from that rejuvenation of the powers which makes ready for the enjoyment of it. The sense of jadedness may weigh upon our anticipations of heaven. For the appreciation of this world as well as that which is beyond it, we need a replenished inward life. In nine cases out of ten when Alexander weeps it is not that he has no more worlds to conquer, but because he has so worn himself out that he cannot possess the world which lies at his feet. We have come to speak of the activities of heaven as various, including widely differentiated ministries as well as worship; and rightly so, for a monotonous immortality would be a curse grievous to bear. But the cure for monotony often lies within. The ever-lengthening duration of life apart from its replenishment with new faculties and new enthusiasms would be intolerable. There must be that constant renewal of the youth of which devout worshippers of God in every period of the worlds history have had experience. And the writer of the Apocalypse, in describing his visions, is mindful of this need. Life blooms with a vernal freshness that never stales. The river that flows through the celestial city and the fountains to which the Shepherd King leads His redeemed flock are symbols of vitality and perpetual renewal. It is always springtide, for the trees yield their fruit every month. Let us live in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, and be baptized with His Spirit, and we shall then be ever renewing our life. Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. The dreams of old men who receive the Spirit are as rich, as far-ranging, as many-hued as the visions of the young men. Cherishing this Spirit, however deep our wounds and fierce and wasting our conflicts, we shall not fail in warmth and hope and fresh springing force. (T. G. Selby.)
Rejuvenescence
All occupations and professions have afforded illustrations of rejuvenescence. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, lived one hundred and nine years, and among those eminent in the medical profession who became septuagenarians, and octogenarians, and nonagenarians, were Darwin, Gall, Boerhaave, Jenner and Ruyseh, observing themselves the laws of health that they taught their patients. In art, and literature, and science, among those who lived into the eighties were Plato, and Franklin, and Carlyle, and Goethe, and Buffon, and Halley. Sophocles reached the nineties. You cannot tell how old a man is from the number of years he has lived. I have known people actually boyish in their disposition at eighty years of age, while Louis II, King of Hungary, died of old age at twenty. Haydns oratorio, The Creation, was composed at seventy years of age. Humboldt wrote his immortal work, The Cosmos, at seventy-five. William Cullen Bryant, at eighty-two years of age, in my house, read without spectacles Thanatopsis, which he had composed when eighteen years of age. Isocrates did illustrious work at ninety-four. Leontinus Gorgias was busy when death came to him at one hundred and seven years of age. Herschel, at eighty years of age, was hard at work in stellar exploration. Masinissa, King of Numidia, at ninety years of age, led a victorious cavalry charge against the Carthaginians. Titian was engaged on his greatest painting when he died, in his one hundredth year. How often they must have renewed their youth! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The oldest become the youngest
Commenting upon the words, Thy youth is renewed like the eagles, Mr. Jowett paid a beautiful tribute to The youngest deacon of my church, the old man who is always the child of the morning, the revolutionary, and the Radical in his party. I have never heard him speak about sunsets. He is a child of God, his youth is renewed every day, he will die with his face to the east, looking for the morning.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Who satisfieth thy mouth]
5. For continual communications of spiritual and temporal good; so that the vigour of his mind was constantly supported and increased.
Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.] There is such a vast variety of the eagle, or genus Falco, that it is not easy to determine which is meant here. The Hebrew neser is a general name for such as were known in the land of Judea; which were probably such as belong to the genus Aquila, comprehending forty-one species and seven varieties.
There are as many legends of the eagle among the ancient writers, as there are of some saints in the calendar; and all equally true. Even among modern divines, Bible Dictionary men, and such like, the most ridiculous tales concerning this bird continue to be propagated; and no small portion of them have been crowded into comments on this very verse. One specimen my old Psalter affords, which, for its curiosity, I shall lay before the reader: –
Trans. Newed sal be als of aeren thi youthed.
Par. The arne when he is greved with grete elde, his neb waxis so gretely, that he may nogt open his mouth and take mete: bot then he smytes his neb to the stane, and has away the solgh, and than he gaes til mete, and be commes yong a gayne. Swa Criste duse a way fra us oure elde of syn and mortalite, that settes us to ete oure brede in hevene, and newes us in hym.
The plain English of all this is: –
“When the arne [eagle, from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.], a word which Dr. Jamieson has not entered in his dictionary] is oppressed with old age, his bill grows so much that he cannot open his mouth in order to take meat. He then smites his bill against a stone, and breaks off the slough – the excrescence that prevented him from eating; and then he goes to his ordinary food, and becomes young again. So Christ takes away from us our old age of sin and death, and gives us to eat of that bread which comes down from heaven: and thus gives us a new life in himself.”
I believe the meaning of the psalmist is much more simple: he refers to the moulting of birds, which, in most, takes place annually, in which they cast their old feathers and get a new plumage. To express this, he might as well have chosen any bird, as this is common to all the feathered race; but he chose the king of the birds, because of his bulk, his strength, and vivacity.
The long life of the eagle might have induced the psalmist to give it the preference. An eagle was nine years in the possession of Owen Holland, Esq., of Conway, in Wales, and had lived thirty-two years in the possession of the gentleman who made it a present to him: but of its previous age, for it came from Ireland, we are not informed. Keysler relates that an eagle died at Vienna, after a confinement of one hundred and four years!
The eagle can subsist a long time without food. That first mentioned above, through the neglect of a servant, was twenty-one days without food, and yet survived this long fast.
The meaning and moral of the psalmist are not difficult of comprehension. The Israelites, when redeemed from their captivity, should be so blessed by their God that they should re-acquire their political strength and vigour; and should be so quickened by the Divine Spirit, that old things should be passed away, and all things become new.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Who satisfieth all thy just desires and necessities.
Like the eagles; either,
1. As the eagle reneweth her youth by casting all her old feathers, and getting new ones, whereby it seems to grow young again. But this, being common to all birds, would not have been appropriated to the eagle. Or rather,
2. Like the youth of an eagle. As the eagle lives long in great strength and vigour, so that the
old age of an eagle is used proverbially for a lively and vigorous old age; so this is a promise of a long and comfortable life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. By God’s provision, the saintretains a youthful vigor like the eagles (Ps92:14; compare Isa 40:31).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things,…. With the good things in the heart of God, with his favour and lovingkindness, as with marrow and fatness; with the good things in the hands of Christ, with the fulness of grace in him, with pardon, righteousness, and salvation by him; with the good things of the Spirit of God, his gifts and graces; and with the provisions of the Lord’s house, the goodness and fatness of it; these he shows unto his people, creates hungerings and thirstings in them after them, sets their hearts a longing after them, and then fills and satisfies them with them: hence the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions render it, “who filleth thy desire with good things”: the word used has sometimes the signification of an ornament; wherefore Aben Ezra interprets it of the soul, which is the glory and ornament of the body, and renders it, “who satisfieth thy soul with good things”; which is not amiss: “so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s”; not the youth of the body, or the juvenile vigour of it; nor the outward prosperity of it; but the youth of grace, or a renewal of spiritual love and affection to divine and heavenly persons and things; of holy zeal for God, his ways and worship; for Christ, his Gospel, truths, and ordinances; of spiritual joy and comfort, strength, liveliness, and activity, as formerly were in the days of espousals, in the youth of first conversion, or when first made acquainted with the best things; so that though the outward man may decay, yet the inward man is renewed day by day: and this is said to be “like the eagle’s”, whose youth and strength are renewed, as some observe a, by dropping their feathers, and having new ones, by feeding upon the blood of slain creatures; and whereas, when they are grown old, the upper part of their bill grows over the lower part b, so that they are not able, to eat, but must die through want; Austin c says, that by rubbing it against a rock, it comes to its use of eating, and so recovers its strength: but there is no need to have recourse to any of these things; for as the old age of au eagle is lively and vigorous, like the youth of another creature; so it is here signified, that saints through the grace of God, even in old age, become fat and flourishing, and fruitful, and are steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, run and are not weary, walk and faint not, Isa 40:31, all which are inestimable mercies, and the Lord is to be praised for them.
a Ambrosii Opera, tom. 5. p. 78. b Aristot. de Animal. l. 9. c. 32. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 3. c Opera, tom. 8. in Psal. 102. fol. 474. c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(5) Mouth.On the Hebrew word thus rendered, see Psa. 32:9. The word there adopted (trappings, or ornaments) would Commend itself here, from the evident allusion in the next clause to the moulting of the bird, and its appearance in new plumage, if the expression to satisfy ornament with good were in any way intelligible. The LXX. and Vulg. have desire; the Syriac body; but the Chaldee, age, which is supported (Gesenius) by the derivation, gives the best sense:
Who satisfleth thine age with good, so that
Thy youth renews itself like the eagle.
The eagles.Heb., nesher; properly, the griffon, or great vulture. See Exo. 19:4; and Note to Oba. 1:4.
The rendering of the Prayer Book, like the eagles, follows the LXX. The idea that the eagle renewed its youth formed the basis of a Rabbinical story, and no doubt appears also in the myth of the Phnix. But the psalmist merely refers to the fresh and vigorous appearance of the bird with its new plumage.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s The allusion is to the fresh plumage of the eagle after moulting. The figure of Isa 40:31, is based on the eagle’s breadth and strength of wing. Instead of, “They shall mount up on wings as eagles,” the Septuagint erroneously has it, “They shall put forth new feathers like eagles.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 103:5. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s Dr. Delaney observes, that it is generally understood of the eagle, when his feathers moult and fall off gradually and new ones succeed, that his youth is renewed with his plumage; and “I am well assured, (says he,) that these feathers fall by pairs, one in each wing; and that those which fall at once are the two feathers exactly corresponding to each other in each wing; and that this pair is renewed by a new growth, before the next pair falls: a plain appointment of providential wisdom and goodness! for by thus preserving the exact balance of the wings, which a very little inequality (the difference of less than half a feather) in either would destroy, the eagle is never utterly disabled from pursuing his prey; though it be evident, he cannot pursue it with full vigour, till all his feathers be renewed; and therefore his youth is then said to be restored.” The fact is, that all birds have yearly their moulting-time, when they shed their old, and are afresh furnished with a new stock of feathers. This is most observable of hawks and vultures, and especially of eagles; which, when they are near one hundred years old, cast their feathers, and become bald like young ones, and then new feathers sprout out.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Ver. 5. Who satisfieth thy mouth ] Heb. thy jaws, so that thou art top full, eating as long as eating is good. God alloweth thee an honest affluence of outward comforts; open thy mouth wide, and he will fill it, Psa 81:10 .
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s] The eagle is of all birds the most vegetous and vivacious, renewing her youth and health, they say, at every ten years’ end, by casting her old feathers, and getting new, till she be a hundred years old ( Aquilae senectus. Proverb). Augustine observeth that when her bill is overgrown, that she cannot take in her meat, she beateth it against a rock, and so excutit onus rostri, she striketh off the cumbersome part of her bill, and thereby recovereth her eating. That which hindereth our renovation, saith he, the rock Christ taketh away, &c. See Isa 40:31 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
satisfieth: Psa 23:5, Psa 63:5, Psa 65:4, Psa 104:28, Psa 107:9, Psa 115:15, Psa 115:16, 1Ti 6:17
thy youth: Isa 40:31, Hos 2:15, 2Co 4:16
Reciprocal: Gen 48:15 – fed me Jos 14:11 – General Job 29:20 – renewed Job 33:25 – return Job 39:27 – the eagle Joe 2:26 – ye shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
LIFES PERPETUAL RENEWAL
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
Psa 103:5
How may we recover in manhood, but in a wiser way, what was noble in our youthrecover our manifold interests, our poetic feeling towards the history of man and nature, our ideal of the goodness, truth, and love of man?
I. The restoration of manifold interests.Youth teaches us diversity, the first entrance into middle age concentration; in later life we ought to combine both, to recover the interests of the one and to retain the power of the other. I think one can do it best by the means of two great Christian ideas. One is that, as God has called us to perfection, we are bound to ennoble our being from end to end, leaving no faculty untrained. The other is that as Christ lived for mans cause, so should we. The first will force you to seek for manifold interests in order to make every branch of your nature grow; the second will lift you out of the monotonous and limited region of self into the infinite world of ideas. An infinite tenderness and grace belongs to every work whose highest aim is the aim of Christthe good of man. Life then becomes delightful, even of passionate interest; and the whole of being unfolds like a rosefull of colour, scent, and beauty.
II. Restoration of poetic feeling.In the old dreamland we can never live again, but we may live in an ideal and yet a true world; we may restore the poetry of youth to our life in its relation both to man and nature. (1) As to the first, there is no idea which will so rapidly guide us into a larger and more imaginative view of the history of man as the great Christian thought, which we owe to Christ, that all the race is contained in God; that all are bound together into unity in Him; that as all are children of one Father, so all are brothers, existing in and for the good of one another. (2) Again, in our relation to nature, we can get back what we have lost. There are different paths to this recovery, but none lead to it more directly and rapidly than the true conception of God. Once we have realised the thought of one Divine will as the centre of the universe, we can no longer abide in the realm of unconnected facts. We hear no longer isolated notes, but the great symphony of naturetwo or three themes infinitely varied, and the themes themselves so subtly connected in idea that all together they build up a palace of lovely and perfect harmony. This is the restoration in a truer form of the ideal majesty and the poetic feeling of our youth.
Illustration
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle, as the Revised Version has it, avoids making the Psalmist responsible for the fable of the eagle renewing its youth. The believer renews his youth in feeding daily on the bread of life. He finds the secret here of perpetual youth. There is an allusion, no doubt to the yearly moulting of the feathers of the eagle and other birds, the eagle being selected as the liveliest image of strength and vigour. Every loss of youthful taste and pleasure, it has been said, is a partial death. The Christian has no such losses. He goes from strength to strength.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy {d} youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
(d) As the eagle, when her beak overgrows, sucks blood and so is renewed in strength, even so God miraculously gives strength to his Church above all man’s expectations.