He sealeth up the hand of every man
That is, by deep snows and heavy rains being on the earth; where,
as travellers are stopped in their journeys, and cannot proceed,
so various artificers are hindered from their work, and
husbandmen especially from their employment in the fields; so
that their hands are as it were shut up and sealed, that they
cannot work with them. Sephorno interprets this of the fruits and
increase of the earth being produced and brought to perfection by
means of the snow and rain, and so gathered by and into the hands
of men; whereby they are led to observe the work of God and his
goodness herein, and so to love and fear him; which he takes to
be the sense of the following clause,
that all men may know his work;
either their own work; what they have to do at home when they
cannot work abroad; or that they may have leisure to reflect upon
their moral ways and works, and consider how deficient they are:
or rather the work of God; that they may know and own the snow
and rain are his work, and depend upon his will; or that they may
have time and opportunity of considering and meditating on the
works of God, in nature, providence, and grace. Some choose to
read the words, "that all men of his work may know" F12; may
know him the author of their beings, and the God of their
mercies. For all men are the work of his hands; he has made them,
and not they themselves; and the end of all God's dealings with
them is, that they may know him, fear, serve, and glorify him.