Thou prevailest for ever against him
God is a more than a match for man, in anything, in everything;
there is no contending with him, or standing against him, he is
stronger than he, and always prevails; there is no withstanding
any disease, and the force of it, when he sends it; it is a
messenger and servant of his, it goes at his command, and does
what he bids it do; and all the art and power of man cannot
resist it, or hinder what God would have done by it; and so death
itself is irresistible; what is stronger than death? it is a king
that reigns with a despotic power; it reigns irresistibly,
victoriously, and triumphantly; it prevails over all men, in all
ages, and will do to the end of the world; no man has power over
his spirit to retain it one moment, when death comes to separate
it from the body: and this prevalence of God by death over men
will be for ever; the grave is man's long home, to which he is
brought by death, and he will never return from it more, to come
again into this world, and be about the business of it as now;
and he passeth;
out of the world, and is seen no more in it; death is a going the
way of all flesh, a departure out of this life, and to it man
never usually returns more; he goes to Hades, to the invisible
place, and makes his appearance no more here; see ( Psalms 37:35
Psalms
37:36 ) ;
thou changest his countenance;
at death; the forerunners of death will change a man's
countenance, pains, and diseases of body; by these God makes
man's beauty to consume like the moth; the fear of death will
change a man's countenance, as the handwriting on the wall did
Belshazzar's, ( Daniel 5:9 ) ; even such
who have out-braved death, and pretended to have made a covenant
and agreement with it, yet when the king of terrors is presented
to them, they are seized with a panic, their hearts ache, and
their countenances turn pale; but oh! what a change is made by
death itself, which for this reason is represented as riding on a
pale horse; ( Revelation
6:8 ) ; when the rosy florid looks of man are gone, his
comeliness turned into corruption, his countenance pale and
meagre, his eyes hollow and sunk, his nose sharp pointed, his
ears contracted, and jaws fallen, and his complexion altered, and
still more when laid in the grave, and he is turned to
rottenness, dust, and worms:
and sendeth him away;
giveth him a dismission from this world; sendeth him out of it,
from his house, his family, friends, and acquaintance: his birth
is expressed often by his coming into the world, and his death by
going out of it; for here he has no continuance, no abiding, no
rest; and yet there is no departure till God gives him dismission
by death, then he sends him away from hence; some in wrath, whom
he sends to take up their abode with devils and damned spirits;
others in love, to prevent their being involved in evils coming
upon the earth, and to be in better company, with God and Christ,
with angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect: Maimonides
interprets this of Adam F18, who, when he changed the object of
his countenance, and looked on the forbidden fruit, was sent out
of paradise.
F18 Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 2. p. 5.