Job 10:12

Thou hast granted me life and favour,....

Thou hast granted me life and favorer - Thou hast brought me from my mother’s womb; given me an actual existence among men; by thy favor or mercy thou hast provided me with the means of life; and thy visitation - thy continual providential care, has preserved me in life - has given me the air I breathe, and furnished me with those powers which enable me to respire it as an agent and preserver of life.

IT is well, sometimes, to sit down and take a grateful review of all that God has done for us, and with us, from our first day until now. We must not be like hogs under the oak, that eat the acorns but never thank the tree, or the Lord who made it grow. We must not receive the dew and yet never think of the Heaven from which it comes. To be ungrateful is to be unmanly—to be ungrateful to God is to commit high treason against the majesty of His goodness.

BEFORE I speak upon these two verses, I will read the four which precede them, that you may note the connection in which they are found. Job is in great trouble, in sore distress of soul. His heart is very heavy and his unfriendly friends are casting salt into his wounds instead of trying to heal them. In his distress, he turns to his God and appeals to Him in this fashion (beginning at the 8th verse)—"Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet You destroy me.

IT is well, sometimes, to sit down and take a grateful review of all that God has done for us, and with us, from our first day until now. We must not be like hogs under the oak, that eat the acorns but never thank the tree, or the Lord who made it grow. We must not receive the dew and yet never think of the Heaven from which it comes. To be ungrateful is to be unmanly—to be ungrateful to God is to commit high treason against the majesty of His goodness. I think that an hour would be well spent, by any person here, in sitting quietly and going over his autobiography. Turn over the pages of your diary—if you have none written, turn over the pages of your memory—and think of all that God has done for you from the day when you hung upon your mother's breast until the present moment— "Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise." But God does not hear the songs ofpraise because we let the streams of mercy glide by unnoticed. Far too often, we— "Let His mercies lie Forgotten in unthankfulness, And without praises die." We do not even put a tombstone over their graves, but let them lie as dead things, uncared for, forgotten, out of mind. If there is any time when it is unlikely for us to think of God's mercies, but when it would be especially wise for us to do so. If there is one time more unlikely than another, it is when we are in great trouble. Here is poor Job, covered with sore boils, sitting on a dunghill, scraping himself with a bit of a broken pot. His children are dead. His property destroyed and even his wife not giving him a word of comfort—and his friends acting in a most unfriendly manner. Now it is that he talks to his God and says, "You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." You are very ill—think of the time when you were well.

BEFORE I speak upon these two verses, I will read the four which precede them, that you may note the connection in which they are found. Job is in great trouble, in sore distress of soul. His heart is very heavy and his unfriendly friends are casting salt into his wounds instead of trying to heal them. In his distress, he turns to his God and appeals to Him in this fashion (beginning at the 8th verse)—"Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet You destroy me. Remember, I beseech You, that You have made me as the clay; and will You bring me into dust again? Have You not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews." Then follows our text—"You have granted me life and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit. And these things have You hid in Your heart: I know that this is with You." You see that Job is appealing to the pity of God and this is the form of his argument—"You are my Creator—be my Preserver. You have made me—do not break me. You are dealing very harshly with me, I am almost destroyed beneath the pressure of Your hands. Remember that I am Your own creature. Weak and frail as I am, I am the creation of Your hands. Therefore, despise not Your own work. Whatever I am, with the exception of my sin, You have made me what I am. 'Tis You who has brought me into my present condition—consider, then, O God, what a poor, frail thing I am and stay Your hand and do not utterly crush my spirit." This is a wise prayer, a right and proper argument for a creature to use with the Creator. And when Job goes still further and, in the language of our text, addresses God not only as his Creator, but as his Benefactor, and mentions the great blessings that he had received from God, his argument still holds good.

Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit - Thy constant care; thy watchful providence; thy superintendence. The word rendered visitation (פקדה peqûddâh) means properly the mustering of an army, the care that is manifested in looking after those who are enlisted; and then denotes care, vigilance, providence, custody, watch. The idea is, that God had watched over him and preserved him, and that to his constant vigilance he owed the preservation of his life.