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John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 144 A Psalm of David. This psalm was written by David; not on account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, by a spirit of prophecy, as Theodoret; but on his own account, after he was come to the throne, and was king over all Israel; and was delivered from the was between him and Israel, and from the war of the Philistines, as Kimchi observes, having...
John Gill
Man is like to vanity,.... Is vanity itself, in every age, state, and condition; yea, in his best estate, Psalms 39:5; or, "to the breath" (h) of the mouth, as Kimchi; which is gone as soon as seen almost: or, to a vapour (i); to which the life of man is compared, James 4:14; his days [are] as a shadow that passeth away; as the former denotes the frailty and mortality of man, this the shortness...
Matthew Henry
The four preceding psalms seem to have been penned by David before his accession to the crown, when he was persecuted by Saul; this seems to have been penned afterwards, when he was still in trouble (for there is no condition in this world privileged with an exemption from trouble), the neighbouring nations molesting him and giving him disturbance, especially the Philistines, 2 Sam. v. 17. In...
Charles H. Spurgeon
Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away. You know that a shadow is nothing; it is rather the absence of something than anything in itself. Shadow is the absence of light; and what is man but, as it were, the absence of light, the absence of anything that is substantial? He is but the fleeting shadow of some earthly object, which soon passes away. Having thus magnified...