"In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God: He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears" (Psalm 18:6).
"God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Gen. 1:27). "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).
Like the beasts, he was taken from the ground. He is but "dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27). He cannot boast at all, for it is simply by the power of God, who can make of the same clay a vessel unto honor and one unto dishonor, that he is any different from the beasts. The earth is the source whence all animate creatures spring. "All are from the dust, and all return to dust" (Eccl. 3:20).
After death and decomposition the dust of the prince cannot be distinguished from the dust of the pauper. If at the last he does not share the fate of the beasts and go into oblivion, it is only because he has had humility enough to accept the wisdom that comes from God, for "man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish" (Psalm 49:20). "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"
Man is made from the dust, that he may remember that he is nothing in himself; but also in the image of God, that he may know the infinite possibilities before him--association with God Himself. Of himself he has no more might than the dust upon which he walks, but is capable of the greatest things through the power and goodness of God. And, strange as it may seem, his capabilities are the greatest when he is most sensible of his weakness. "For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
How natural it is for us in extremity to turn for help to some other man, or to human power. And yet no one on earth has the power to make any change in his own physical condition. "Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever" (vss. 5,6). [1]
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