What does it mean to "remember your Creator in the days of your youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:1)?

Once more he speaks of youth and exhorts, "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." This advice is given in connection with the thought expressed in chapter 11:9, "God will bring thee into judgment." Yet the natural man cannot obey this command. He then points to that which is inevitable. The balmy days of youth and energy will be followed by years in which man says, "I have no pleasure in them, the days of old age. Then death stalks in and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit to God who gave it (verse 7). The description of the approach of old age is extremely beautiful. Clouds begin to cast a shadow over the spirit; sorrows multiply, one comes after the other as "clouds return after rain." The keepers of the house (the hands) tremble with weakness, and the strong men (the knees) become feeble. But a few of the grinders (the teeth) are left and those that look out of the windows (the eyes) are darkened. Then the doors are shut in the streets, the ears become dull and can no longer hear the familiar sound of the grinding at the mill; he is troubled with sleeplessness and no longer enjoys pleasure. He is troubled with fears. His hair becomes snow-white like the almond tree in bloom and the least thing becomes a heavy burden; the appetite is gone. Age has come and man is ready to go to his "age-long home." The silver cord is snapped (the spinal column), the gold bowl is broken (the brain), the pitcher is broken at the fountain (the heart), and the wheel broken at the cistern (the blood and its circulation). But if he speaks of an age-long home, what is that home? And he speaks now of the spirit returning to God, but what does it mean? There is no answer, no light on these questions, for the natural man, even at his best, and in highest wisdom, cannot find the truth for himself about that "home" nor what it means--the spirit return to God. And thus he ends, "All is vanity."

But if we turn to the gospel, the gospel of God, the gospel of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel which is from above the sun, which reaches down to lost man under the sun, that blessed gospel lifts man higher and higher, till redeemed, saved by grace, washed in the blood of the Lamb, he reaches the place above the sun, the Father's house with its many mansions, the eternal home of the saints of God.

"Remember also thy Creator(s) in the days of thy youth before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh of which thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, be darkened, and the clouds return after the rain: in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of song shall be brought low; yea, they shall be afraid of [that which is] high, and terrors [shall be] in the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: before the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern; and the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return to God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all [is] vanity" (vers. 1-8).

It is an affecting call from early days to set God before the soul on the one hand, and to forget not on the other the frailty of fallen man, with death and judgment its portion, as man is. Although it is the fashion to doubt and deny that there is an allegorical description, in itself it seems manifest, suitable to the writer, and worthy of the inspiring Spirit. There may be difficulty as to every detail in the application; but this is so true of scripture generally that none need wonder if it be so here.

Ver. 2 expresses external objects and conditions of the greatest power by day or night no longer influencing as they did; then in ver. 3 the infirmity of man's members, once strong to guard or sustain, no less than the feebler ones, so necessary for the nourishment of the body, and the perception of things great or small. Then in ver. 4 is described the failure of human powers for action or speech in public, or to revive what gave pleasure once; while ver. 5 represents the growing inability and fears and decay. The sign of old age is the hoary head and the shrinking from burden or effort, betokening the approach of the grave, with its accompaniments, when the internal powers all fail, and the body returns to its kindred dust, the spirit to Him Who breathed His immortalising breath into man alone on earth. So pungent a description of human decay, where the word of God is honoured, may well warn of the danger of deferring the heed due to Him from such as we are. If fallen man, made in God's image, sink into infirmities more overwhelming than any creatures set under him in God's order, what folly to defer the prime wisdom of fearing God!

God must be honoured, and the king also, to whom God has given authority. We see too in Ecclesiastes 9 and 10, how little everything here meets the apparent capacity of man; and, even when this capacity is real, how little it is esteemed. Nevertheless the wisdom of the upright, and the folly of the fool, have each its own consequences, and, after all, God judges. To sum up the whole, God must be remembered, and that before weakness and old age overtake us. For the manifest conclusion of all that has been said is "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man."

But amid all that spoke of vanity there was another subject he touched on, for, being wise, he taught the people. He had spoken at length about man and his works; he speaks briefly about God and what He does. And what he says about God (for the name Jehovah does not occur in the book) only brings out in higher relief the ruined condition of man. Man abides not, his thoughts perish, his works crumble to dust, and his name is forgotten. Created originally not for death, he is now born to die; but God abides. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him" (Chap. 3:14). Here in the midst of what is transient is something permanent. This he had found and desired to impress on others (Chap. 5:1-7; 11:9; 12:1). He would tell the creature of the Creator. It is not grace that he is charged to proclaim; it is not salvation he is empowered here to offer; but to God's creatures, responsible as such to Him that made them, he would speak. The Creator will take cognisance of, and make judicial inquiry into, the actions of His creatures. This none can escape, and of this all need to be reminded. And now that he has exposed the vanity of all things that are done under the sun, he opens out the only word for man to follow: "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Chap. 12:13). The fuller light that we possess confirms all that Solomon said of man, and tells us likewise more about God; but the principle here enunciated is true for all time - the creature should own the authority of God and yield implicit obedience to all He is pleased to enjoin. "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Chap. 12:14).

The Creator is to be remembered in the days of youth. Decrepitude and death are described: man is overtaken by death ere he has found out true wisdom. In Ecc. 12: 8 the gropings of the philosopher under the sun are over: he comes back to his starting point, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity." A distinct division follows. Sinful man should not expect happiness except in God. "The whole of man " (not his duty, but the one thing for man, the one principle of life), is to "fear God and keep his commandments." God will bring every work into judgement.

Ecc. 12. The Creator is to be remembered in the days of youth. Decrepitude and death are described: man is overtaken by death ere he has found out true wisdom. In Ecc. 12:8 the gropings of the philosopher under the sun are over: he comes back to his starting point, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity." A distinct division follows. Sinful man should not expect happiness except in God. "The whole of man " (not his duty, but the one thing for man, the one principle of life), is to "fear God and keep his commandments." God will bring every work into judgement.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth;" this was followed by His creating all that has breath, and finally man; who is exhorted to remember his Creator in the days of his youth. Ecc. 12:1. The heathen world are charged with serving the creature more than the Creator. Rom. 1:25. Of the Son of God it is said, "all things were created by him and for him." John 1:3; Col. 1:16. This has been deemed a difficulty by some minds, but Heb. 1:2 should entirely remove this, where it is stated that God has spoken by "his Son . . . . by whom also he made the worlds." Therefore God is the Creator, and the Son is the Person in the Godhead by whom the whole universe was created. To his Creator man owes allegiance. The Psalmist devoutly said, "Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker," Ps. 95:6; whereas of the wicked it is said, "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker." Isa. 45:9.

Many a grey-headed old man would give all he possesses to have the opportunity of giving to God the best of his days. Yes, and strong able men in the prime of life, have frequent regrets that they turned not to God in their youth. Oh, it is a privilege far beyond what you my youthful reader can at present understand, to be the Lord's while you are young! "Turn ye, turn ye . . . . for why will ye die?"

Procrastination. When the lamp is almost out, the strength exhausted, and old age comes on, then mourning for sin will be in season. Men do not argue thus in other cases; they do not say, it is too soon to be rich; they will not put off the getting of riches to old age; no, here they take the first opportunity. When God calls for mourning and thou art deaf, when thou callest for mercy God may be dumb (Prov. 1:24, 28). God may take the latter time to judge thee in because thou didst not take the former time to repent in. Though true mourning for sin be never too late, yet late mourning is seldom true. That repentance is seldom true-hearted which is grey-headed. The mariner in a storm throws his goods overboard, not but that he loves them, but he is afraid they will sink the ship; when men fall to weeping, work late, and would cast their sins overboard, it is for the most part only for fear lest they should sink the ship and drown in hell.

Old age is no good age to repent in. A tender plant is easily removed, but it is hard to pluck up an old tree that is rooted. It were a very unwise course for a mariner, while the ship is sound, the tackling strong, the wind favourable, the sea calm, to lie idle at anchor; and when the ship begins to leak, and the tempest to rise, now to launch forth and hoist up sails for a voyage; so is he who neglects the time of health and strength, and when old age comes, and his tackling is even broken, now begins his voyage towards heaven. How unworthy is this, for men to give the devil their strength and marrow, and then come and lay their old bones upon God's altar? A sinner in the time of his old age, sleeps between death and the devil. It is just, that he who forgets God in the time of health, God should forget him in the time of sickness.

There is nothing out of heaven so necessary for you as Christ. And ye cannot be ignorant but your day will end, and the night of death shall call you from the pleasures of this life: and a doom given out in death stands for ever — as long as God lives! Youth, ordinarily, is a post and ready servant for Satan, to run errands; for it is a nest for lust, cursing, drunkenness, blaspheming of God, lying, pride, and vanity. Oh, that there were such an heart in you as to fear the Lord, and to dedicate your soul and body to His service! When the time comes that your eye-strings shall break, and your face wax pale, and legs and arms tremble, and your breath shall grow cold, and your poor soul look out at your prison house of clay, to be set at liberty; then a good conscience, and your Lord's favour, shall be worth all the world's glory. Seek it as your garland and crown.