Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

Below is a concise sermon summary followed by a sample Bible study shaped for congregational or small-group use, written from a Reformed theological perspective and grounded in Ecclesiastes 12:1–7.

Sermon Summary

Text: Ecclesiastes 12:1–7
Title Theme: Remember Your Creator

Big Idea:
Solomon calls both the young and the old to remember their Creator before the realities of aging, suffering, and death arrive, and to live with hope grounded in God, not in fading earthly pleasures.

Key Points:

• Remember God early: Youth is a season of strength and enjoyment, but it is temporary. Remembering the Creator means living humbly before God, acknowledging that life is a gift and not self-made.

• Aging is honest, not morbid: Solomon uses vivid imagery to describe the decline of physical strength, senses, sleep, desire, and mobility. These images are realistic, not cynical.

• Earthly pleasures fade: God gives good gifts to enjoy, but when pleasure becomes ultimate, it becomes empty and eventually unsatisfying.

• Life includes storms: As years pass, hardships may stack one upon another. The temptation is despair, but the call is remembrance and hope in God.

• Death is certain: The “silver cord” will be loosed. The body returns to dust, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

• Christian hope reframes death: For believers, death is not the end but entrance into God’s presence. This passage is read in light of Christ’s resurrection.

• Future resurrection: Heaven is the intermediate state. Our final hope is the bodily resurrection and life in the new heavens and new earth with Christ.

• Central question: Are you remembering your Creator now, and is Jesus your hope in life and in death?

Remembering Our Creator in Life and Death

1. Text and Structure

• Ecclesiastes 12:1–7

• Movement of the passage:

  1. Call to remember God (v. 1)

  2. Poetic description of aging and decline (vv. 2–5)

  3. Reality of death (vv. 6–7)

2. Biblical and Theological Themes

Creation and Dependence

• God is our Creator; we are contingent and dependent (Gen. 2:7).

• Remembering God is covenantal faithfulness, not mere mental recall.

The Fall and Frailty

• Aging and death are not morally evil, but they are consequences of living in a fallen world (Rom. 5:12).

• The body’s decline reminds us that we are not yet home.

Enjoyment with Limits

• Ecclesiastes affirms enjoyment of God’s gifts, but condemns living for pleasure as an end in itself (Eccl. 2; 11:9).

Death and Hope

• Death separates body and soul, but not the believer from Christ (Phil. 1:23).

• The spirit returns to God; the body rests, awaiting resurrection (1 Cor. 15).

3. Christological Fulfillment

• Jesus is the true wisdom greater than Solomon.

• Christ entered death and emerged victorious, redefining death for believers.

• Ecclesiastes 12 finds its hope fulfilled in:

  • John 14:1–3 (Christ prepares a place)

  • 1 Corinthians 15 (resurrection)

  • Revelation 21–22 (new creation)

4. Westminster Standards Connections

Westminster Confession of Faith

• WCF 32.1 – The state of men after death: souls return to God; bodies rest in the grave.

• WCF 33 – The last judgment and resurrection confirm ultimate hope beyond decay.

Westminster Larger Catechism

• WLC 86 – Communion with Christ in glory at death.

• WLC 87 – Resurrection of the body unto glory.

Westminster Shorter Catechism

• WSC 1 – Man’s chief end: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

• WSC 37 – Benefits believers receive at death.

• WSC 38 – Benefits believers receive at the resurrection.

5. Practical Applications

• Cultivate habits of faith early; don’t postpone godliness.

• Receive aging not with bitterness, but with trust and hope.

• Resist the idol of pleasure and productivity.

• Face death honestly, but not fearfully, if you are in Christ.

• Encourage the elderly with resurrection hope, not mere nostalgia.

Will you please turn your Bibles with me to Ecclesiastes Chapter 12. Ecclesiastes Chapter 12. If you're using your pew Bibles, you'll find that on page 595. Ecclesiastes Chapter 5, and this morning, We will be looking at verses 1 through 7. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, beginning at verse 1. We'll read through verse 7. Hear now God's perfect word. Remember now your creator in the days of your youth before the difficult days come. And the years draw near when you say, I have no pleasure in them.

While the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are not darkened and the clouds do not return after rain, and the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down, when the grinders cease because they are few and those that look through the windows grow dim, when the doors are shut in the streets and the sounds of grinding is low, when one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of music are brought low. Also they are afraid of height and of terrors in the way. When the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is a burden and desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home and the mourners go about the streets.

Remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed or the golden bowl is broken. or the pitcher scattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well, then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

That ends this portion of the reading of God's word. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Every single part of it is perfect and true. So Father, we pray that you would please open our hearts. Father, we pray that you would teach our minds and it would seep deep into our souls. And that Father, we might be filled with hope. Lord, we thank you for your word, but we need your spirit to apply it. that we might store it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. Help us, God, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There were two routes I could take with this passage. One route was either going to be morose and somber and just kind of scowling at you, but literally in my notes I wrote down, Ryan, smile and encourage.

Because this is a serious passage, but I think that the author, I think Solomon himself is old and gray-headed. And I don't think it's sorrowful and morose for him, it's just honesty. Because see, Solomon's grown old. And he's talking to old people and to young people. And he doesn't hide the realities of the challenges of life.

And I know some of you know what that's like here. I remember hearing one guy talk about how the more you stay in church and the longer you stay in church, it changes from a prayer list to really it's an organ list. My heart has these problems, my livers have these problems, my kidneys, and people's prayer requests are about my body is failing. You see, life is short. So how are you going to live it?

You live it before the face of God. We live our lives before the face of God, knowing that we're gonna go back to him. So look with me first at where Solomon starts in verse one. Remember your creator. Verse one, remember now your creator in the days of your youth.

Right, when you're young, you may be tempted to just act like you're gonna live forever. It's not going to last forever. You won't live forever. Before you know it, joints are going to hurt, memory's going to fade, your youth is going to be gone. And you may have a temptation to just forget about God as you're enjoying life. That's all I'm saying here.

While you're young, remember your creator. There may be a temptation to forget the Lord, but there's a blessing, like we talked about last week, young people, there's a blessing to abide in Christ early in your life, to rest in the Lord, to remember that you're not the center of the universe, but that God is God and we are people. We didn't make ourselves, it's he who made us. So we rejoice in him. We remember our creator.

Because difficulties will come, and that's where Solomon spends the bulk majority of this part of the chapter. There's going to be difficult days that are going to come in verses 1 through 5. He actually uses 11 different images to talk about what he feels or what he's seen as age creeps up. The first one is that there's not going to be pleasure in days. My difficult days, before the difficult days come. Now there's a scene in 2 Samuel chapter 19. I'm going to turn there because I thought this was a beautiful picture of an old guy talking to a less old guy. In 2 Samuel chapter 19, beginning at verse 31.

David, so the king said to him, and Brazili the Gileadite came down from Regolim and went across the Jordan with King David to escort him across the Jordan. Now Brazili was a very aged man, 80 years old. And he had provided the king with supplies while he stayed in Mahanaim. For he was a very rich man.

And the king said to Brazili, come across with me and I will provide for you while you are with me in Jerusalem. He's telling this old guy, leave home, come with me to Jerusalem. I'll set you up in the capital. It's going to be great for you. He's saying this to an 80-year-old man. How does Brazili respond in verse 34? But Brazili said to the king, how long have I to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am today 80 years old.

Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any longer the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king? Your servant will go a little way across the Jordan with the king. And why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant turn back, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and mother. But here is your servant, Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord, the king, and do for him as what seems good to you.

Did you hear, Brazili? What David is offering him is, you'll have rich food, it'll be a great life, and he says, I'm too old for that. I remember talking to my grandpa one time, and he said, you know, Brian, when you get older and older, you have to eat spicier and spicier food, because you can't taste it anymore. And I thought, wow, that's going to be fun. This is what Brazilia is saying, right? Even if I went to Jerusalem, I can't hear the singing. I can't enjoy the good things. That's a note for us. Solomon has been painting this picture, this whole book about God gives us good things and that season of your life when you have those good things, enjoy them to the glory of God.

But don't live hedonistically. Don't live trying to just chase down enjoyment your entire life because it's a fool's errand. Eventually, even the things that you enjoy, if you chase them as an end of themselves, they become an idol. And they become less and less satisfying. And as you get older, you may not even be able to enjoy those things anymore. So remember your Creator. Remember your Creator who gives you good things in this life. Enjoy those good things He gives you, but understand that those good things are meant to draw you to Him. A difficult days will come.

And then Solomon goes on with this imagery. The second image of growing old is in verse 2. When light is darkened. While the sun and the moon, or sorry, while the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened. This is the picture that he's, especially in the ancient years.

I need you to remember that modern dental care and medical care isn't around at this point. And so cataract surgery and stuff like that, that's still centuries and centuries and centuries away. And so it was extremely common that as you got older, your eyesight got dimmer and darker and darker and darker, and you just couldn't see. We find this even when you think about Isaac, right? Why did he not know? who Esau and Jacob were. Why do you have to feel for the hair and smell for the scent? Because his eyes grew dim, he couldn't see anymore. So, maybe you're 80 years old and you can still see, or maybe you're eight years old and you can see. God is kind to you. Remember who gave you your eyes. Rejoice in your creator, remember him.

But then also there's a hardship that comes here in the second half of verse two. One of the things you recognize as you grow old is sometimes the storms just keep on coming. And the clouds do not return after the rain. The literal Hebrew would go something better along the lines, as the clouds keep returning after the rain. Again, in an agricultural type environment, you get a little bit of rain, that's OK. But if you get rain, and rain, and rain, and rain, it ruins things.

I was talking to somebody a while back. I'm not going to throw them under the bus. But they said they never wanted to move back to a certain city. I thought, well that's interesting, why not? And their answer was, because it's always cloudy. You never saw the sun. It was just cloudy. They felt like every day was just clouds. And just glum and doom. Where's the sun to brighten your soul?

That's what Solomon's getting at here. Sometimes life is like that. And I want to encourage you, even those of you who are much older than me, by the way, I know I'm a whippersnapper up here talking to some of you who are much more gray hair than I have. So I'm asking you to lean into Solomon and just ignore me. But Solomon is saying, sometimes life is hard. And it just seems like there's one storm after another.

So you have an option in that situation. You either give in to the storms and just be depressed and morose your whole life, or you remember your creator. You remember that someday, yeah, there won't be a sun and a moon or the stars, but there will be the light and his name will be Jesus. and there will be no more need, and there will be no cloud that could overshadow his glory, but you shall see him as he is. So remember your glorious and gracious creator, even as the storms seem to roll on. The fourth image he uses here is that strength is not always going to last in the first part of verse three. In the days when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men bow down, These are guys who were once strong, iron in their backs. They were able to fight wars. They were able to keep the city safe. They were able to protect.

And now, I remember I was. when we were at Eastville, there was this elder that I would, as I've spent time in the RP church now, have heard story after story after story about what a wonderful pastor he was. But when I met this elder, his name was John McMillan.

When I met him, his fingers were turning sideways and his back was bent over. He walked around like this. He had not always walked like that. At one point he had a straight back. At one point he walked and gave courage and encouragement to people. There's a reality to growing old in life. So if you have strength, remember your creator who's given you that strength. He's generous.

But then also notice in verse 3 that when the grinders cease, because there are few, There are times that you could hitch your donkey up to a grinding wheel and you could move around, but it wasn't always the case. There was often young guys or strong men that you would put behind the wheel and they would push and they would grind the grain. This is what the Philistines did to Samson, if you remember. When they plucked out his eyes and they put him and they treated him like a donkey, like an ox or something. But those guys who were once strong, they're not going to be able to grind anymore. They can't push the wheel anymore.

You know, I used to think when I was enlisted in the Navy, I thought it was really silly that they had like certain age requirements, like cutoff points. Like you couldn't join the Navy if you were over, I think it was like 37 or something. I thought, oh, that doesn't make much sense. Why would they put that cap there? Well, now that I'm over that cap, I think, because we used to take 40-pound boxes and throw them down flights of stairs to each other when we would bring on cargo on the ship. And we would do that for eight hours. I don't want to do that for 20 minutes.

The strong men are those who have strength. Their strength grows weak. And then there's the failing eyesight he brings up again. And those that look through the windows grow dim. Maybe you're at that stage in your life where you're feeling your strength going by the wayside, where you can't do what you once did, where you feel the aches and the pains. Remember your creator. Remember the God who made you. The fifth image he gives is fear. One of the parts of growing old, he says in verse 4, is the windows or the doors are shut in the streets.

It's this idea that there's fear. You shut things up because you're worried about what may happen to you. And as I've met more and more elderly people, There is a certain amount of natural healthiness of caution and fear. But there's other people that I've met that they became more and more and more protective, more afraid of any strangers, more afraid of any danger right around the corner.

Solomon says this is one of those hardships that come. But then he also talks about a different thing that's interesting. In verse four, right after that, when the doors are shut in the streets, he says, and the sound of grinding is low. Now you had the grinders in verse three. I'm convinced that's the wheel, but here it's this double meaning, right? Because the word for grinding can be like the millstone, but this word can also mean the molars. Yeah, you grind down with your back teeth.

And as there's been archaeological evidence, one of the things that would happen is as you would grind bread, making the flour, it would make it in these stone mills. Well, what would happen? You would end up with little fine bits of stone in your bread. And the primary thing people ate was bread. And so as you eat the bread and you're chewing down and it's got little bits of rocks in it, what do you think is going to happen to your teeth? Smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller to the point that again this is in an era that Solomon is talking about where there aren't dentures. Becomes harder and harder to chew. And maybe I'm putting this too much in the ancient Near East, right? I could just pull this forward to today, right?

In a country I was in recently, there was a guy, I was talking to him and he was trying to get something out of his teeth in a mirror. And I thought, well, I had these flossers, you know, in a Ziploc bag. So I gave him a flosser and he took this flosser. Oh, what is this? And I was like, well, if you bend it like this, it's a pick. But if you use the other side, you're able to stick that little, thing, that little rope in between your teeth and you're able to get that out. And he went over to the mirror and he did that. This is amazing.

I thought, well, they're like, they're not very expensive. And he said, oh, this is great. And he said, can I keep this? I said, yes, you can keep it. He put it in his pocket. And a month later, I'm talking to him and he says, I still have it. I thought, I need to send that guy a whole bag of these.

But the point being is, In cultures where there's poor dental hygiene, part of growing old is the teeth that the Lord, your creator, gave you wear down, wind away. And Solomon says, remember the one who gave you your teeth. Remember the one who knit you together in your mother's womb, who blessed you with that ability to chew. Yeah, your body may be failing. Yeah, your teeth may be becoming more quiet than they once were. But you can remember your creator. But in the middle part of verse 4, the seventh image he uses is that there's when one rises up at the sound of a bird.

My grandmother really struggled with this. I think she only got something like three hours of sleep a night at best towards the end of her life. That's because every single sound woke her up. So whether it was just a bird on the wall outside her window or whatever, she'd just wake out of sleep, just light sleep. And she'd just, okay, well, I'm up. I can't fall back asleep. So she'd go putter around the house or go turn on the TV.

Solomon says that sleep can be elusive. And that's a difficulty, right? Because Psalm 127 tells us that the Lord gives his loved ones sleep. And so maybe, maybe you're at that stage where you're struggling for sleep. Pray to the Lord for that gift, but if he doesn't give it to you, remember those days that he does give you sleep and rejoice. Rejoice in your creator. Also, I wanna just encourage you, right, this is a little blip to where we're gonna go. Someday your exhaustion and your tiredness won't persist continually. The last image he uses, the eighth image in verse four, And all the daughters of music are brought low.

Now that's a, that's an interesting one, isn't it? You have waking up at the sound of a bird, but not being able to hear the music of the lady singing. And some commentators, like if they're more cynical of Solomon here, they're like, well, he doesn't, obviously this is a contradiction. I'm like, how many old people have you been around? I think this is very true. I've met people who can't enjoy the words that people are singing, and yet are such light sleepers that any sound wakes them up.

Solomon is telling us, especially while you're young, just know that these days are coming. And then he goes on in verse 5. The next image he uses is, also they are afraid of height. And if terror is in the way, there's a fear of heights. And there should be a healthy fear of heights. We should have a certain amount of healthiness of saying, I don't want to go there because I could get hurt. And yet, I remember.

Olivia and I went to go, we were looking to buy a house and I was on the roof inspecting and I went out of this window and onto this balcony roof type thing and it was built on a hill and I thought, well, I'll just jump down from the roof onto the hill because I didn't have a ladder handy. And the house inspector looked at me and just went, you're gonna regret doing that, buddy. And I thought, what do you mean? I was only like a six foot jump or something.

And he was like, yeah, you're not going to want to take that type of risk with heights once you get over 40. And even today, I was overhearing again. I'm not going to say who, but I was overhearing two people talking. And they were talking about, well, it's not going upstairs that concerns me, but it's going downstairs that scares me.

Well, have you fallen? Yeah, I've fallen before. There's a real fear of heights that grips the soul. And you got two choices here, right? Do you remember your creator who's made you, given you your bones, knit you together in your mother's womb, or do you just, I can't believe I can't even go upstairs anymore. I can't do X, Y, or Z anymore. No, remember your creator and look forward to the resurrection.

One of my favorites here, one of my beautiful pictures in verse five, when the almond tree blossoms. The almond tree, when it blossoms, has these amazing white flowers all over it. I'm gonna show a picture at Chalk and Talk this afternoon. It's this picture of, you're gonna get old someday and your hair ain't gonna stay black, most likely. It's gonna turn white. It's gonna be like an almond tree that blossoms.

It's God who gave you that. Remember, all these things in your life as you grow older are meant to point you toward your creator. But then he keeps going in verse 5. It's like this guy knows what it's like to get old. The grasshopper is burdened. A more literal translation would be the grasshopper drags itself along. You just don't move as fast as you once did. Remember your creator. Even when you don't move as fast as you once did. And then even your desires change. Verse 5, and desires fail.

That was interesting to me as I read later this week the New King James translation because The Hebrew is more the caperberry shrivels. The caperberry shrivels. How did the caperberry shrivel turn into desire fails? Because the caperberry was an aphrodisiac. It was like the ancient Near East version of a little blue pill that guys would take to try to excite themselves. And eventually it just doesn't work. Solomon says, you're not going to be that young man you once were. So remember your creator.

And then he finishes this portion out with verses five and six. All the images are gone. And now he's just gonna talk straight to the point. For man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets. Remember your creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. Death is going to come, Solomon is saying. Man will go to his eternal home, Be'olam, the house of eternity. And this phrase is used especially in the book of Job, Job 7, 9, Job 14, 10, and 12, and then Job 17,

13. It's this idea of the grave. Your body is going to go down to the grave. It's going to have a different home. It's not going to be one above ground. It's going to be one below ground. And while you go down into the grave, the mourners will go about in the streets or the wailers will cry out in the streets.

In Jewish communities, when somebody dies, there is no cremation and neither is there any embalming. You die and there's a wood box, an orthodox Jewish tradition. You're put in the wood box as fast as possible and the whole community walks in the streets carrying you from your home to the graveyard. They dig your grave, and your family puts the dirt on top of the casket.

There's a certain amount of catharticness to this, a certain amount of healing and closure that happens, but as people go, they have no qualms about weeping and wailing. In America, we kind of distance ourselves a lot from death. We like to make it look pretty. But it's a sad thing. And Solomon is telling us there's death that comes. And people will weep and wail. And so remember your creator. And this is what he's trying to get at in verse 6.

He has four different images for this picture of death. The silver cord, meaning your life. Cut. A golden bowl. Again, your life is precious. It's like a bowl made out of gold, or overlaid with gold, but then it's broken. A pitcher that once was full of the promise of life that you'd carry water in. Eventually, a pitcher becomes brittle and is smashed and broken like a fragile jar. So is your life. or a water wheel that once was used to pull up water from the fountain from the well, now is broken and doesn't work anymore and doesn't have life in it.

Brothers and sisters, remember your Creator. Because once there's death, that enjoyment of God, it comes to a critical juncture. Because it's to dust we're from and to dust we will return. But notice that's not the end of it. Look with me at verse 7. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was. You should conjure up in your minds the picture of Adam being made out of the dust of the ground. and God giving him the breath of life. Then the dust will return to the earth as it was and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Someday, each and every one of us will return to the dust if Jesus doesn't come before then. We will someday die.

And so in this life, you could either live your life acting like you created yourself, and the world revolves around you, and it's all about your enjoyment, and you can just ignore the fact of reality that that cemetery next door testifies to us every single week that there is appointed a day for us to die.

But it doesn't have to scare us. Because you see, for the Christian, we don't weep and wail and mourn as those who do not have hope. But when we read Ecclesiastes chapter 12, we read it in the light of what Jesus has taught us. That death is not the end of the story.

For those who abide in Christ, it's the welcome home. We get to dwell with God forever. I love, and this is one, I think one of the proof texts for this question in the Shorter Catechism, but what benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? Well, at death, our souls are immediately made perfect. And we go with God in that perfection. We're not stuck here. Our bodies, still being united to Christ, do rest in the grave. But when you die, Christian, your spirit will return to God who made it. This is the hope of the gospel. This is why Jesus told his disciples that he was leaving them.

He said, I am going, and I'm going to my father's house, and in his house there are many rooms. If it was not so, I would have told you. Jesus went to prepare a place for us, but I want to talk to you just for a moment about heaven and what this is like.

Maybe you've seen these little figurines that were really popular in like the 1990s, little dreamsicle thingies that were like porcelain fat baby angels. And people even watch cartoons and they think like, oh, when I die, I'm going to get my wings. And maybe you've watched too much It's a Wonderful Life or something. But the point being, no, that's not what happens. Angels are angels and people are people. You're not going to turn into an angel. but you will go to heaven in your spirit. Your soul will be there with him. You will no longer struggle with sin.

It will be this amazing, beautiful place that the book of Revelation is so helpful giving us. There will be like streets of gold, a river that runs through it, and there's going to be the tree of life that spans both sides of the river, and all the seasons it's bearing fruit. This is an incredible place, but the focus of heaven is not the sea of jewels around the throne. It's not the throne itself, but it's the Lamb who sits upon the throne that all the angels and the saints are enamored with. And we will get to see Jesus. And we will get to be with Him forever and rejoice with Him.

But heaven is isn't your final home. That's what theologians call the intermediate state. It's an in-between time. We live, our bodies go in the grave, our souls go to heaven, but you don't live for the rest of eternity as a disembodied soul. No, someday the last trumpet will blow, and he will come back as he went. And the dead will rise up from the grave.

And your soul will be united to Christ, or to your body, because you are united to Christ. And you will once again be body and soul, yet without the issues of sin and death that Solomon is talking about here. the aches in your bones will someday be no longer in your resurrected body. Maybe you will still have almond blossom hair, or maybe your black hair will return, I don't know. But what I do know is that those things that are a result of the curse and the fall will be no more, because there will not be death. And we will live with him forever. And so my question is, are you in Christ? Are you resting in him now? Do you remember your creator now?

And is Jesus, the firstborn of the resurrection, your hope in life and death? Are you ready to face old age in the grave? Do you have a certain amount of assurance in your heart, whether you are young or old? That though in this life there may come seasons where there just seems like it's cloudy weeks and years, yet you know someday the light is gonna break through and you will bask in his glory forever. Is Jesus your hope? Are you remembering your creator? Are you longing for the resurrection? May we be those who say, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that you don't hide hard truths from us. Lord, we don't wanna ignore the fact that we get old and we're gonna die. Nor does that mean we have to be morose and sad and morbid. But Lord, we get to rejoice always because we have Jesus. And we get to remember that you, our creator, have loved us and poured out your spirit in our hearts, that cries out, Abba, Father. And you have prepared a place for us, and we will dwell with you in the new heavens and the new earth. So God, we pray that you would renew in our hearts the joy of your salvation. And Lord, may we be those who give our account with joy at the last great day. because you have given us the joy of Jesus. In his name we pray.

• What does it practically mean to “remember your Creator” in daily life?

• Which of Solomon’s images of aging stood out to you most, and why?

• How does this passage challenge modern culture’s avoidance of death?

• How does the resurrection of Christ reshape how we view aging and decline?

• In what ways can younger believers learn from older saints in the church?

• Are you living as though this world is your final home?

• Creator – God as the sovereign origin and sustainer of life.

• Vanity – Transience, fleetingness, not meaninglessness.

• Intermediate State – The condition of believers between death and resurrection.

• Resurrection – The future bodily raising of believers unto glory.

• Eternal Home – The grave in Ecclesiastes, but ultimately redefined by Christ as eternal life with God.