Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psalms 103:5
In other words, he is saying, God will fill your life with good things, so that you will stay young and strong like an eagle. The eagle is a unique and fascinating bird amongst all the flying creatures. As other animals age and cease to be, oftentimes because they can no longer do those things that they once carried out for their survival such as hunting and sustaining. But the eagle in its old age, it is once again renewed.
Observe the psalmist’s use of the phrase, the mouth. Of which in this case it is the source of wherewith substances are provided to the body. The importance of such a phrase is better understood when we examine the (Genus Aquila) Eagle closely. At one point in its life at an old age, the eagle will travel to a mountain top. Being oppressed with old age, it can no longer maintain its steady diet due to the deformed of its bill (mouth) caused by age. There, at the top, the eagle goes through a process during its old age at which time the eagle will smite its bill against a stone until it is broken off. The outgrowth that once prevented it from consuming substance is now broken off.
However, it can no longer consume its usual diet. In essence, this magnificent bird becomes young like a baby again. Through time and process the once powerful bird learns to live by the simple food for life, as it patiently observes and waits until a new stronger bill has grown back. With a new stronger bill, patience persists, the bird doesn’t simply fly out. Instead, the eagle then plucks out its talons (claws) Therein it waits until a brand-new, more powerful claws are back. Yet it doesn’t leave, but for the third stage, the eagles plug out its old age feathers. Thereafter, new feathers are back in place, for the protection and supremacy of its being.
Let us recapitulate this unique process. Through old age, the eagle is carried away into a place of isolation. In isolation, the great bird still stays up on high, through the location of the mountain wherewith it rests. Such should be the believer who is here compared to the eagle.
When life is but a misery, and no longer are those things that are good for us in the sight of us. In isolation let the believer learn to be patient by not looking at the current condition wherewith they find themselves, but looking forward to the results which lies ahead by faith, patience, and the establishment of dependency on the Lord. Like the eagle, the great bird has to learn to become like a baby once more. No longer out hunting its food through its might and strength, but waiting for the simplest of food to come to it. Even when its bill is restored, it knows without a stronger claw, meat cannot be fed into its mouth, so the eagle once again waits. Too often, the believer has the right idea and speaks prosperity in his or her life, but without first grasp by which these things must become a reality (Hence the claws) Therefore, even when we know that which is right from that which we confess with our mouth, may we also learn to take hold of the truth which is Jesus Christ our Lord before we fly from our place of isolation.
Lastly, even with a new bill and a new claw, the eagle still remains in its place of isolation, but for preparation. For what good is a new strong bill and a powerful claw if its body is exposed to the elements and it knows not how to glide the vast heavens? Therefore, the bird let go of its old feathers so that new feathers might grow and replace the old.
Too often, you as a believer are holding on to your old feathers of those things you ought to let go of so that you may regrow new feathers for better things, but not until you let go of your old feathers. This is the last process, for it is the most difficult thing to do. For you as a Christian, the antidote for that which seems difficult is the applying of faith to your problems. True faith is letting go of your ways of thinking and your will power and trusting the Lord. Like the eagle, without a bill, it can fly out of danger. Even without a strong claw it can temporarily survive on lower substances. But without its feathers, the once mighty bird is vulnerable to all. Nevertheless, the eagle trusts the process and so should you as the believer, trust in the Lord for the renewal of what you are and what you ought to be by the Lord’s will.
Like David the writer of the psalms wrote, to this we echo once again.
It is the Lord who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
