Psalms 39:5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; -
That is a very short measure, the breadth of a hand, the space that we can span with one of our hands, yet that is the true measure of our life: "Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;" -
Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee: -
What are seventy or eighty years, even if we live so long as that, out of the thousands of years that men have lived on the face of the earth? One man’s life seems but a drop in the great ocean of human history. Yet what an insignificant thing human history itself is! Some thousands of years ago, there were no men upon this earth; yet what is the history of the whole world compared with eternity? It is not worth speaking of, it is scarcely one tick of the clock of eternity. Why, this world is only like a newly blown bubble, and the sun is but a spark fresh from the eternal fire. As compared with the eternal God, man is a non entity, a nullity, and David was right when he said to the Lord, "Mine age is as nothing before thee."
Psalms 39:5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
When he is strongest, calmest, happiest, when he is in his prime, when he is at his best, of which he is so vain, is itself vain. Whatever there may be true about man, this is true, that he is unstable, and soon passes away. He is constant in nothing but his inconstancy. "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity."
Psalms 39:5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; -
That is a very short measure, the breadth of a hand, the space that we can span with one of our hands, yet that is the true measure of our life: "Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;" -
Psalms 39:5. And mine age is as nothing before thee: -
What are seventy or eighty years, even if we live so long as that, out of the thousands of years that men have lived on the face of the earth? One man’s life seems but a drop in the great ocean of human history. Yet what an insignificant thing human history itself is! Some thousands of years ago, there were no men upon this earth; yet what is the history of the whole world compared with eternity? It is not worth speaking of, it is scarcely one tick of the clock of eternity. Why, this world is only like a newly blown bubble, and the sun is but a spark fresh from the eternal fire. As compared with the eternal God, man is a non entity, a nullity, and David was right when he said to the Lord, "Mine age is as nothing before thee."
Psalms 39:5. Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
When he is strongest, calmest, happiest, when he is in his prime, when he is at his best, of which he is so vain, is itself vain. Whatever there may be true about man, this is true, that he is unstable, and soon passes away. He is constant in nothing but his inconstancy. "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity."