Psalms 39:5

Behold, thou hast made my days [as] an handbreadth,.... These words, with the following clause, are the psalmist's answer to his own inquiries; or rather a correction of his inquiry and impatience,

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

As an handbreadth, which is one of the least measures, i.e. very short. These and the following words are either, 1. A continuance of his complaint, that although his days were of themselves very short, yet God seemed to grudge him their natural length, and threatened to make them shorter, and to cut him off before his time. Or rather, 2. A consolation, and correction of his last words, as if he said, Why am I so greedy to know the end of my life, seeing I do already know this, that my life cannot last very long, and therefore if my troubles be sharp, they will be but short? Nothing; next to nothing for substance and for continuance. Before thee, i.e. in thy judgment, and therefore in truth and reality; or, if compared with thee, and with thy everlasting duration: compare . Every man, prince or peasant, wise or fools, good or bad. At his best state; Heb. though settled or established; when he stands fastest, and likely to continue longest, in regard of his health and strength, and all possible means whereby life may be secured, supported, or prolonged. Altogether vanity; all that he is or hath is as light, and vain, and unstable as vanity itself; there is nothing but vanity and uncertainty in all his outward enjoyments, in the constitution of his body, yea, in the very temper and endowments of his mind: by which general condition of all mankind he endeavours to quiet and compose his mind to bear the common lot.

Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days [as] an handbreadth; and mine age [is] as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state [is] altogether vanity. Selah.Ver. 5. Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth] i.e. Four fingers broad (which is one of the least geometrical measures, or a spanlong), as some interpret it. Now, to spend the span of this transitory life after the ways of a man’ s own heart is to bereave himself of a room in that city of pearl, and to perish for ever. Or take it for a handbreadth; should a man, having his lands divided into four parts (answerable to those four fingers’ breadth), leave three of them untilled? should he not make the best of that little time that he hath, that he be not taken with his task undone? Themistocles died about a hundred and seven years of age; and when he was to die he was grieved upon this ground: Now I am to die, saith he, when I begin to be wise. But stultus semper incipit vivere, saith Seneca; and such complaints are bootless. Oh live quickly, live apace, and learn of the devil at least to be most busy, as knowing that our time is short, Revelation 12:12. To complain of the miseries of life, and to wish for death, as David here seemeth to do (and as did Job, Job 3:19; Job 6:9; Job 7:15; and Moses, Numbers 11:11; Numbers 11:15; Elijah, 1 Kings 19:4; Jeremiah, Jeremiah 20:14; Jonah, Jonah 4:3), is a sign of a prevailing temptation, and of a spirit fainting under it. We must fight against such impatience; and learn to do the like by life, as we do by a lease, wherein, if our time be short, we rip up the grounds, eat up the grass, cut down the underbrush, and take all the liberty the lease will afford. Mine age is as nothing] Heb. My world, that is, my time of abroad in the world, is but a magnum Nihil, as one saith of honour, Puncture est quod vivimus, et puncto minus; a mere salve vale, hello and goodbye a nonentity. Verily every man at his best state] When he is best constituted and underlaid, set to live, as one would think, firmus et fixus, settled on his best bottom, yet even then be is all over vanity. Profecto omnimoda vanltas omnis homo est quantumvis constitutus maxime (Tremel.). All Adam is all Abel, as the original runs elegantly, alluding to those two proper names, like as Psalms 144:3-4, Adam is Abel’ s mate, or man is like to a soon vanishing vapour; such as is the breath of one’ s mouth, a feeble flash, a curious picture of nothing.

(5) Handbreadth.—Better, some spans long. The plural without the article having this indefinite sense. Mine age.—Literally, duration. (See Psalms 17:14.) The LXX. and Vulg. have “substance.” Before thee.—Since in God’s sight “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” “If nature is below any perception of time, God, at the other extremity of being, is above it. God includes time without being affected by it, and time includes nature, which is unaware of it. He too completely transcends it, his works are too profoundly subject to it, to be otherwise than indifferent to its lapse. But we stand at an intermediate point, and bear affinity with both extremes” (J. Martineau, Hours of Thought).Verily every man . . .—Better, nothing but breath is every man at his best. (Literally, though standing firm.) Comp. “Reason thus with life— If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art. : Measure for Measure.

Verse 5. My days as a handbreadth] My life is but a span; σπιθαμητουβιου. And mine age is as nothing] כאין keein, as if at were not before thee. All time is swallowed up in thy eternity. Verily every man at his best state] כל אדם נצב col adam nitstab, "every man that exists, is vanity." All his projects, plans, schemes, &c., soon come to nothing. His body also moulders with the dust, and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men.

5. as a handbreadth] Better, a few handbreadths long. The shortest measure is enough to reckon life by. The ‘handbreadth’ = four ‘fingers’ (Jeremiah 52:21 compared with 1 Kings 7:26) or less than half a ‘span.’ mine age &c.] The same word as that rendered ‘world’ in Psalms 17:14, denoting life in its fleeting, transient aspect. In the sight of the Eternal man’s existence shrinks into nothing. Cp. Isaiah 40:17. verily &c.] The particle ak, which is characteristic of this Ps. and of Psalms 62, may be used affirmatively to introduce the whole clause (verily, or surely, as in Psalms 39:6; Psalms 39:11), or restrictively, to emphasise the words which immediately follow it (only). The order of the words points to the latter sense here. ‘Only altogether a breath’, i.e. nought but mere vanity are all men at their best estate: lit. when standing firm: however securely they may seem to be established. Cp. Psalms 144:4; James 4:14.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth - literally, “Lo, handbreadths hast thou given my days.” The word rendered “handbreadth” means properly the spread hand; the palm; the hand when the four fingers are expanded.

5. Handbreadth—Hebrew, hand-breadths, to correspond to days. A measurement of four fingers’ breadth, proverbially used for a brief period.Mine age is as nothing— “Age” is put for the whole period of life.