Charles Spurgeon Commentary Ecclesiastes 12:3-4

"in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows shall be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;" — Ecclesiastes 12:3-4 (ASV)

In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

This is a wonderfully vivid description of the failure of our natural powers. The keepers of the house shall tremble; these are our arms, which are the guardians of the house of our body. We naturally thrust out our hands and arms to protect ourselves if we are likely to fall, so they are 'the keepers of the house.' The strong men shall bow themselves, that is, our legs and knees begin to shake. The grinders cease because they are few. Our teeth gradually decay, and at last fall from their places. They are like the first falling stones of a decaying wall, tottering to show how the rest will soon follow. Those that look out of the windows be darkened.

The eyes begin to lose their quickness of sight; and fresh windows – double windows – are sometimes needed to assist the failing sight. The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low. The voice fails. Then there comes sleeplessness, so that the first little bird that chirps in the morning wakes up the aged man; and as for music, his ears sometimes fail to catch the sweetest melody, and his own voice is unable to attune itself as once it did: All the daughters of musick shall be brought low.