The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
The verse portrays a massive beast resting in cool shade beneath overhanging trees, with its hiding place ringed all around by brookside willows. Set in its context among the unexplained wonders of the natural world, the scene declares that created things contain depths no finite mind can fathom. Human wisdom is therefore bounded, and much of what God has made remains beyond human grasp.
The same beast also stands as a figure of a devouring and persecuting force armed with jaws and teeth, the Romanist power confronting the faithful at Worms with threats of being burned alive and having the body turned to ashes. That hostile power was prepared to light a fire reaching from Worms to Wittenberg, with flames mounting toward heaven. Yet it can be faced and passed through in the name of the Lord, and by openly confessing Jesus Christ its open jaws can be entered and its teeth shattered.
The verse portrays a massive beast resting in cool shade beneath overhanging trees, with its hiding place ringed all around by brookside willows. Set in its context among the unexplained wonders of the natural world, the scene declares that created things contain depths no finite mind can fathom. Human wisdom is therefore bounded, and much of what God has made remains beyond human grasp.
The same beast also stands as a figure of a devouring and persecuting force armed with jaws and teeth, the Romanist power confronting the faithful at Worms with threats of being burned alive and having the body turned to ashes. That hostile power was prepared to light a fire reaching from Worms to Wittenberg, with flames mounting toward heaven. Yet it can be faced and passed through in the name of the Lord, and by openly confessing Jesus Christ its open jaws can be entered and its teeth shattered.