Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”...in the day that the watchmen of the house tremble, and the mighty men stoop, the grinding ones stand idle because they are few, and those who look through windows grow dim; and the doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low, and one will arise at the sound of the bird, and all the daughters of song will sing softly. Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road; the almond tree blossoms.
(Ecclesiastes 12:1, 3-5a)
And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.
(2 Timothy 3:15-16)
We have two verses, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament; one concerning your Creator and one concerning the Scriptures, the Bible. “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,” and, “From childhood you have known the sacred writings.”
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth.” God is our Creator. This verse tells us we have to remember God because we are created by God. God is our source. In the days of your youth, when you are young, you need to remember God.
“Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them.’” Young people do not understand what the evil days here are, because the evil days are days of trouble that come to the old men, to the old people. When people become old, every day is a day of trouble. They have all kinds of trouble.
When you are young, you don’t have many troubles. You enjoy yourself every day. The younger you are, the more you enjoy your life. But the older you become, the more trouble you will have. Everyone knows that parents have more troubles than their children have. For the most part, children do not have troubles. Troubles are all evil, so evil days are just days of trouble. When you are young, the evil days have not come yet. You should remember God when you are young, when you don’t have that many troubles, before the evil days come. This is the time to remember your Creator.
“The years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no delight in them.’” Here delight means pleasure. This verse means that I will have no pleasure in those years. The younger you are, the more pleasure you have. All the young ones only know how to play, to have pleasure, to enjoy themselves. But old people do not have as much pleasure as the young ones do. Before these years draw near, before you become old, you need to remember God.
All the verses from Ecclesiastes 12:1 through 7 tell us to remember God when you are still young. Don’t forget Him. Don’t wait until you become old. When you become old, your days will be evil days, and your years will be years of no pleasure. Verses 2 through 7 give you a picture of the old people, of what it is like to be old.
Verse 3 says, “In the day that the watchmen of the house tremble.” This is a parable, and the house is your body. Here your body is compared to a house. This house has watchmen to protect it. These watchmen are your hands and your arms. You have seen people raise their arms to protect themselves when someone tries to hit them. When people become old, their hands and their arms tremble, they shake.
Then the verse says, “And the mighty men stoop.” The watchmen are the hands, and the mighty men are the legs. Young people stand straight and tall, but old ones are bent over because their legs stoop. You have seen old men whose hands tremble and whose legs stoop.
“The grinding ones stand idle because they are few.” People used to have the job of grinding wheat and other grains before they cooked them. In the picture in these verses, the teeth are the grinding ones because they grind the food in your mouth. But the grinding ones stand idle because they are few. Old people may lose so many teeth that they have only a few left, one here, one there, and another there. Even the ones they have are not useful because they don’t have the ones to match them. So the few teeth they have left become idle. This means that you have become old. Don’t forget God. You have to remember Him in your youth. Don’t wait until you lose all your teeth.
“Those who look through windows grow dim.” Your eyes are the windows of your house. As you grow older, your eyes grow dim and your vision is not so keen.
“The doors on the street are shut as the sound of the grinding mill is low.” This is your mouth. Because your teeth are missing and you cannot chew very well, you keep your mouth closed.
“One will arise at the sound of the bird.” Young people have no trouble sleeping, and they can sleep through anything. But old people wake up at the slightest noise, even at the sound of a bird, and they have trouble going back to sleep.
“All the daughters of song will sing softly.” Young people like to sing and to shout, but older ones are not able to sing so well or to shout. The daughters of song are your throat.
“Furthermore, men are afraid of a high place.” Grandmothers may be afraid even to climb up to stand on a chair, but little boys often love to climb up on top of the roof. Boys like to climb on top of anything they can jump off of, but old people are afraid of high places.
“Men are afraid of a high place and of terrors on the road.” Young people go anywhere they want without any thought of fear, but old people are frightened by every shadow. They are easily startled, and even traffic on the streets bothers them.
“The almond tree blossoms.” Almond blossoms are white, just like the white hair of old people.
Remember your Creator while you are young. Don’t wait until you are old. Your arms are not trembling, your legs are not stooping, and your teeth are still complete. Your eyes are clear. Your mouth can still give sound, and your throat allows you to sing so well. Your hair is still not gray. You are young, so young. The number one thing for you to do is to remember your Creator when you are so young.
The second thing for you to do is to know the Bible in your childhood. Paul once wrote these words to Timothy: “And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”
The sacred writings are the Scriptures, the Bible. From childhood we all have to know the Bible, which is able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Here we have two portions of the Bible, and we are charged with two things: first, to remember your Creator in the days of your youth, and, second, to know the Bible in your childhood. In these verses, we have two points: concerning your Creator, concerning God, you have to remember Him; and concerning the Bible, you have to know it.
The way to get to know the Bible is to read it. In your reading of the Bible, there are three points that will make your reading profitable.
In addition to reading the Bible, you have to love the Lord. This is the number one point. Unless you love the Lord, no light will come when you read the Bible. But when you do love the Lord and you read the Bible, the light comes and you see light in the Bible.
You have to read slowly and carefully. Don’t try to read too fast, and don’t take your reading too lightly.
You need to love the Lord, you need to read the Bible slowly and carefully, and you need to read the Bible with prayer. While you read the Bible, pray what you read. This is what we call pray-reading. You read and pray, and you pray what you read. Make the Bible verses you read your prayer. You don’t need to compose a prayer, but pray the verses you read. You may pray, “Lord, help me to remember You, to remember You in the days of my youth.” In this way, if you do mean business in reading the Word with prayer, you will gain a lot of profit from the Bible.
To remember the Lord is to love Him. You could never forget certain things or certain people that you love. To remember your Creator means to love the Lord in the days of your youth, while your eyes still have their keen sight, while your teeth are still complete and perfect, while you are still so strong, and while your hair is not gray. Don’t wait until it is too late to love the Lord, but love Him now, in the days of your youth.
“Lord, we thank You for all these young people. How we thank You, Lord, in Your recovery, You have gained so many young ones. We thank You for all these young ones. They do love You and they do love the ministry. They like to serve You in the sending out of Your Word.
“Lord, we pray this morning that they would really remember You, remember You by loving You, that no one among them would remember You too late. Lord, we pray that they all would love You right now, right now in the days of their youth, that they would also like to study the Bible, to know the Word in their childhood.
“Lord, we present, we offer, and we consecrate all these dear young ones this morning to You. Lord, we believe they are in Your hands. Lord, take hold of all of them, and Lord, keep them all the days in the future in Your hands, in Your grace, even, Lord, in Your church, in the recovery. We ask this in Your precious name.”
(Tune: #536, “The Church Is the House”)
1 Remember your Creator while you are young.As a child, know the Scriptures and seek out God’s truthRemember your Creator while you are young.Let Him have a way in the days of your youth.
2 Remember your Creator while you are young — To remember our Creator means to love Him.The Lord is the Creator, our source of life.In the days of our youth we would love only Him.
3 We treasure the Word of God while we are young.As a child, we may read it and read it again.The Scriptures are able to make us wise,Wise unto salvation in Jesus the Lord.
4 We come to the light when we open God’s Word,But this light only shines when we really love God.As we love Him and seek Him, God will open His Word,So that light shines on ev‘ry page of the holy Word.
5 We like to spend time to get into the Word,We mean business! We read it with diligent care,We read and we pray, and we pray what we read — In the days of our youth, we would take God’s Word in.
6 Remember your Creator while you are young.From a child, know the Scriptures and seek out God’s truth.Remember your Creator all your life long.Let Him have a way all your days on the earth.
