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What a picture of boundless variety is called up by "thy days" — even the days of a single life! Who shall delineate the manifold, chequered, ever-changing lights and shadows of the days of man? Yet amidst all the varieties, there is a general unity. There are great interests that are common to all lives, and which bind up in unity all the days of each individual life, weaving all its parts into one texture. This opens to us a plain distinction among the days. "Thy days" may be viewed collectively, as the sum of thy life — all the days of thy life, — or they may be viewed distributively, as special days, distinctive days.

I. THY DAYS ARE ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE, HAVING GREAT RELATIONS, PURPOSES, OR INTERESTS, TO WHICH THE STRENGTH IS ADJUSTED.

1. Thy days are for salvation, and thy strength shall be proportioned to thy days' task. The days of life are the steps of the ladder by which we are to ascend the skies.

2. Thy days are for spiritual progress, and thy strength shall be proportioned to the task. Days are given to us on earth to educate us for heaven, for the acquisition of suitable excellence. Let us therefore go on to larger acquisitions. We shall never have cause, like the world's conqueror, to sit down and weep that there are no more worlds to conquer.

3. Thy days are for service and duty, and thy strength shall be proportioned to thy service.

II. THY DAYS ARE SPECIAL, DISTINCTIVE DAYS, DEMANDING SPECIAL STRENGTH. Thy days maybe special, as affected by events which can only be met by strength from the Fountain of strength, and the strength shall be proportioned to the emergency. That is not an assurance which man of himself could give. For life is so full of startling events, that we dare not, from all we see and experience, promise ourselves strength to cope with all possible events. No doubt some lives, in comparison of others, are tranquil to outward appearance, without almost any change, like some mountain tam, now bright, now clouded, but showing the same features through all the seasons; and others are like the ocean, never resting, often tossed by terrible tempests; but to all the promise applies — "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

1. There are days dark with care, not merely selfish, but generous care. "Cast thy burden on the Lord," etc.

2. Then there are days dark with sorrow, when a man must sit alone under God's hand. And the strength is not mere endurance. There is a kind of dogged endurance of all the trials and ills of life, to which a man can accustom himself. He may not die under them, but he comes out of them with no increased capacity for action, for comfort, for hope. But we cannot suppose the Divine promise fulfilled in such a case. The strength promised will not only turn off the edge of calamities, but will make us more than conquerors over them, and turn their power into a tributary to our own enlargement.

3. Last of all, there is the day of our death. Not only in stormy seas or devouring fires does it need strength to master one's self, but on the most ordinary commonplace deathbed. Ah! it needs God-given strength to enable the father or mother dying to leave their little helpless children in a cold and wicked world.

(J. Riddell.)

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KJV: Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

WEB: Your bars shall be iron and brass. As your days, so your strength will be.