Psalms 73:26

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Immortality

The especial point of this whole psalm lies in the contrast between the present and the future, between the transitory and the eternal. His bodily frame, or “flesh,” the psalmist feels, is breaking up. For the moment it might seem that his “heart” was partaking in the depressing sense of coming dissolution. The “heart” with the Hebrews means, speaking generally, the centre or inner seat of life, whether physical or spiritual. It is indeed used in one well-known passage of the Psalter in the physical sense of animal life-power which is quickened by food and made glad by wine. More commonly it is the centre from which the life-stream of thought and feeling pours through the soul. Thus the “heart” is said to “speak,” to “think,” to “conceive within self,” to “meditate,” to “desire,” to “cry out in song and jubilee,” to be heated with intense thought, to be grieved, to be desolate, to be smitten and withered like grass, to be wounded, to be broken. Especially is the heart the seat of the moral life, of its movement and repose, of its conquests and failures, of its final victory or death. Thus the heart is said to be “ready,” or “clean,” or “fixed,” or “whole” and “perfect,” or “converted,” or “hardened,” as the case may be. As the seat of the moral life the heart is described as “deep.” God knows its mysterious secrets. Thus, then, in the passage before us, “the flesh” is in contrast to the “heart,” as the animal frame of man might be contrasted with the life of consciousness, feeling, and moral effort. The former is yielding to the slow, certain action of time, and has already upon it the presentiment of death. The latter seems for one instant to lose the sense of its real indestructibility in its profound sympathy with the weakly body which yet encases it. But the darkness lasts for a moment only; for “God is the strength of my heart,” etc. The contrast is too perfect to be evaded. On the one side the perishing body; on the other, the undying soul. And it is this vision which removes the difficulty he had felt in regard to the ways of God. It melts away altogether beneath the rays of light which stream from one cardinal truth, it is solved by the doctrine of the immortality of the soul of man. (Canon Liddon.)

A common fact and a special privilege

I. A fact in the history of all men. The fact is the decay of man as a citizen of this earth. The seed of death is planted in us all, and as the seed grows, man decays. “All flesh is grass.” This inevitable decay of our nature shows two things:--

1. The absurdity of worldliness.

2. The necessity of spirituality. Without this, man has no interest in a life beyond this mortal state. With this, brighter worlds loom before him. This spirituality, however, can only be obtained through Christ. This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God.

II. A privilege in the history of some men. “God is the strength (rock) of my heart.”

1. God is the soul’s power. Without Him it has no moral strength to resist the wrong, to pursue the right, to endure trials, to welcome death, to serve humanity, and to honour God. God is the strength. As sap in all the branches of the tree, He is strength to all the faculties of the soul. “Our sufficiency is of God.”

2. God is the soul’s portion. “My portion for ever.” A loving heart can be satisfied with nothing less than the object of its affection. The object may give to the lover all he has, but unless he gives himself the hunger of love is not allayed. Even so man’s soul cries out for the living God, and nothing less will do. He is the portion

(1) most satisfying;

(2) most exhaustless;

(3) most enduring. (Homilist.)

The believer’s consolation in death

I. What the psalmist means by the flesh and heart failing.

1. By the flesh failing, we are to understand death.

(1) We die daily; are gradually decaying and wearing away (Job 14:10).

(2) Universally (Ecclesiastes 6:6).

(3) With great variety; in some early; in others in their bloom; with others, not till the shadows of the evening come upon them (1 Samuel 20:3).

(4) Most certainly, without a possibility of prevention; neither food nor physic will always avail (Ecclesiastes 8:8).

(5) Swiftly (James 4:14; Job 14:1).

(6) In death, the flesh fails irrecoverably, as to its being restored to its former state upon earth (Hebrews 9:27; Psalms 39:13).

2. When the flesh is thus failing in a dying hour, the heart may be ready to sink into a state of despondency; and this may be owing--

(1) To severity of affliction (Job 16:12).

(2) To the recollection of past sins, although forgiven, without eyeing the sacrifice of Christ (Job 21:6).

(3) To the temptations of Satan (1 Peter 1:6).

(4) To the loss of our evidence, as to our acceptance with God (Psalms 42:5).

(5) To a suspension of the sensible presence of Christ.

II. The source of our dependence in such awful circumstances, God. “God is the strength of my heart.” This may be inferred--

1. From His love to them (Psalms 11:7).

2. From His ability (Isaiah 59:1).

3. From His infinite presence with them (2 Chronicles 16:9).

4. From His faithfulness to His kind promises made to them, and on which He has caused them to hope (Isaiah 43:1).

5. From their interest in Him, their portion for ever, “The Lord is my portion,” etc. (Lamentations 3:24).

6. What kind of a portion God is, no creature can fully describe (Job 11:7).

(1) God is a suitable portion, suited to man’s spiritual nature (Psalms 73:25).

(2) All-sufficient portion (Genesis 17:1; Ephesians 3:20).

(3) Infinite portion: and this is the ground of His being all-sufficient. Infinite mercy to pardon, infinite wisdom to counsel, infinite power to support, infinite grace to enrich, infinite glory to bestow (Psalms 84:11).

(4) He is an eternal portion (Genesis 15:1). And on this ground it is, the children of God make their boast (Psalms 48:14). Improvement:

1. Let the consideration of our flesh failing daily excite us to a daily preparation for eternity.

2. As God is the strength of our hearts, let us trust in Him, in life and death, that He may be our portion for over. (T. Hannam.)