I love Ecclesiastes. Especially chapter 12.  I love that it is about being young, and then being old.  It is about life.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, “I have no pleasure in them”

(The evil days?  With sin, came death.  Aging is slow death.  As I visit my aged and weary friend in the nursing home, I believe it is true.  These are evil days for her, those at the declining end of a long  life).

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain;

(All is bright when we are young.  There are long sunny days full of promise stretching out before us, but later we begin to be aware of the darkening clouds of approaching old-age).

In the day when the keepers of the house (the hands) shall tremble, and the strong men (legs) shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few (teeth don’t work so well when there are gaps between them, they are meant to work as a full set)

And those that look out of the windows be darkened. (Eyesight fails).

And the doors shall be shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low.  (Besides loss of teeth in old age, there is also loss of hearing)..

And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird .  (The elderly do not sleep well, and often wake up in the early hours of morning unable to go back to sleep)  and all the daughters of music shall be brought low (can no longer hear the various musical notes and sounds)

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high (fear of falling because they are unsteady on their feet), and fears shall be in the way (may become confused even on a familiar road)

And the almond tree shall flourish (almond blossoms are silvery-white, like the hair of an elderly person)

And the grasshopper shall be a burden (how much does a grasshopper weigh, a gram? Weakness makes light burdens heavy).

And desire shall fail (as one ages and physically declines, they may begin to disengage, lose interest, become depressed)

Because man goeth to his long (eternal) home, and the mourners go about the streets;

Or ever the silver cord be loosed (the hypothetical tether that connects our spirit to our physical body) or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain (both refer to receptacles which can  no longer serve to contain any substance, as a body with no pulse) , or the wheel broken at the cistern (once the wheel is broken, the cistern is inaccessible and it’s stored water will evaporate, leaving no traces it was ever there).

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity.

Ecclesiastes is about the fact that even living life to the fullest, enjoying all life has to offer, will be no comfort when it is all said and done, for the only value and purpose to be found in Earthly existence is in pursuing God, learning of Him and living in obedience to Him.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.