For its size, spider silk is one of the strongest materials know. Large insects are held firmly in seemingly fragile webs, and the spiders suspend themselves by one strand. Some tropical spiders weave webs that are as much as six feet in diameter. These giant webs are used as nets, and are capable of holding three or four pounds of fish.

Depending on the species, a spider has six or eight spinnerets, fingerlike organs that produce threads of silk from the secretion of the silk glands inside the abdomen. The various silk glands secrete different kinds of silk, each of which may be used for a specific purpose such as parts of the web or the egg cocoon.

Spider silk will stretch one fifth of its length before breaking. Thus the insect may safely launch itself without danger of its dragline snapping. As a spider walks around, it plays out this dragline from the spinnerets, attaching it at various spots on his travels. When the spider climbs up the dragline, it catches the strand on one of its legs and rolls it into a ball. This ball is either discarded, or, if the spider is hungry, is eaten and recycled.

It was once believed that spider silk could be woven into clothing, but this is not practical, because thousands of spiders would be needed to produce one pound of usable silk. But today spider silk is used for the cross hairs and lines of reference in various optical instruments such as telescopes, levels, and surveying equipment.

Spider's silk is relatively strong, yet, when we consider the many, far greater forces in the world that can destroy it, we realize, as our text suggests, that it is frail indeed. So trusting in our own strength to survive in a world of sin is like trusting in a spider's web. We may say that our will to do right is strong, but if we trust to that will to be good we will find that Satan can snap it as easily as we break a spider's web. So "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man" (Psalm 118:8).