Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 89:47
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
47. Literally, if the text is right, O remember what a fleeting life I am! but it is possible that the letters of the word chled have been accidentally transposed and that we should read chdl, as in Psa 39:4: how frail, or, transitory, I am. As in that Psalm (cp. Psa 89:13) and in Job 7:6 ff; Job 14:1 ff, the shortness and uncertainty of life are pleaded as a ground for the speedy restoration of God’s favour. The Psalmist desires to see the solution of the riddle with his own eyes, and doubtless he gives utterance to the feelings of many pious souls in the Exile, whose faith was tried by the thought that they would not live to see the fulfilment of the prophecies of restoration.
wherefore &c.] For what vanity hast thou created all the sons of men! Must life end thus in unsatisfied longing? Cp. Psa 39:5; Psa 39:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Remember how short my time is – The word rendered time – cheled – means duration; lifetime. Psa 39:5. Then it means life; time; age; the world. Literally, here, Remember; I; what duration. The meaning is plain. Bear in remembrance that my time must soon come to an end. Life is brief. In a short period the time will come for me to die; and if these promises are fulfilled to me, it must be done soon. Remember that these troubles and sorrows cannot continue for a much longer period without exhausting all my appointed time upon the earth. If God was ever to interpose and bless him, it must be done speedily, for he would soon pass away. The promised bestowment of favor must be conferred soon, or it could not be conferred at all. The psalmist prays that God would remember this. So it is proper for us to pray that God would bless us soon; that he would not withhold his grace now; that there may be no delay; that he would (we may say it with reverence) bear in remembrance that our life is very brief, and that if grace is to be bestowed in order to save us, or in order to make us useful, it must be bestowed soon. A young man may properly employ this prayer; how much more appropriately one who is rapidly approaching old age, and the end of life!
Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? – As thou dost seem to have done, since they accomplish so little in the world, and since so many appear wholly to miss the great purpose of life! Nothing, in certain moods of mind, will strike one more forcibly or more painfully than the thought that the mass of people seem to have been made in vain. Nothing is accomplished by them worthy of the powers with which they are endowed; nothing worthy of so long living for; nothing worthy of the efforts which they actually put forth. In a large portion of mankind there is an utter failure in securing even the objects which they seek to secure; in numerous cases, when they have secured the object, it is not worth the effort which it has cost; in all cases, the same effort, or an effort made less strenuous, laborious, costly, and continuous, would have secured an object of real value – worth all their effort – the immortal crown!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 89:47-48
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain?
The sense of lifes brevity
I. That it is a right feeling, because it accords with fact. Human life is short, if you consider–
1. That an end must come to it here.
2. Its re-beginning after its earthly close. It is short in view of the new life. What is it to eternity? Nothing.
II. That it argues the underlying sentiment of immortality. A man could have no feeling of the length or brevity of time, with all its changes, unless he had within him a settled sentiment of permanence.
III. That it implies a deep interest in some purpose in life. He is anxious to see the work done; and he is so impressed with the brevity of life, that he works and labours with all diligence.
IV. That it involves an underlying belief that life on the whole is a blessing. Of all the million sufferers in the world, there are but few of the number who would have their life shortened even by one day.
V. That it serves to stimulate us to make the best use of it. One who feels that he is in the world only for a little time, will strike out for the best things. (Homilist.)
A homily for the closing year
God makes no man in vain, but he may choose to live in vain. He may turn his existence in this world to utter vanity and waste.
1. The true value of our life lies in its spiritual significance; and we save it from being vain and worthless only as we connect it with the spiritual and the eternal. We are accustomed to say that life is long or short, according as it is crowded with incidents and experiences, or is deficient in them. An eventful life is a long life. Some men live more in one year than others do in many. But then, what is the quality of the experience? Your life outwardly may be eventful enough, but inwardly it may be strangely destitute of all that is fitted to give it a distinctive and a noble character.
2. The value of our life lies in the nature of the work that has been given us to do in it; and we save it from being vain only by earnest and diligent attention to that work. It demands the cultivation in ourselves of the affections and energies of the life of God, and the diffusion of such an influence and the doing of such deeds as shall be for the enduring benefit and blessing of the world in which He has placed us. (Joseph Waite, M.A.)
Unfulfilled lives
That mens lives are vain is the universal complaint. Men are perplexed and overwhelmed by the mystery of life and the worlds misery. The Bible is full of it. Isaiah tells how we all do fade as a leaf, and that plaintive thought was the same felt so keenly by Homer, too–like leaves on trees the race of man is found. It is the solemn teaching and experience of the human heart, and of the sages and poets of all ages. Sadness, said Savonarola, besieges me day and night. Whatever I see, or hear, bears the standard of sadness. The memory of my friends saddens me, the meditation of my studies afflicts me, the thought of my sins sinks me down, and, as in a fever, the sweetest things taste as sadness in my mouth. It has been ever so; and apostles and prophets, however inspired, weep out the same sad notes. Christ alone, though he was the man of sorrows, indulges no morbid note on man, for he saw too clearly the destiny of man to utter any words that could sound like a dirge over his being.
I. Yet, I think, I may first attempt to collect and press upon you the evidence upon this common thought–the temptation to believe that man is made in vain. Everything rebukes vanity in man, since he himself, as well as the world, is vain. The idea often thrills through us that man is made in vain. Experiences are different, but the feeling is universal. All men feel it of all men. Job speaks of his being like a hidden, untimely birth. Yes, and what a mockery there is, apparently, in the birth and death of little children. But I do not think that these are the most startling views of the vanity of life. I would rather fix the argument upon the utter disproportion between the powers and the position of man. It is then, I say and see, that man is made in vain. Nothing has more perplexed me than the sight in life of angels–I must call them so–who have lost their way; their lives seem to have been altogether in vain; a gifted sensibility, perhaps, in a hard, coarse family; a soul sensitive to every impression of gentleness and beauty, with a body unable to second the designs and desires of the soul–the soul soaring, the body limping. Our thoughts crush us–man was made to mourn, and man was made in vain. Unsatisfactory and miserable world, may we well exclaim, where nothing is real, and nothing is realized; when I consider how our lives are passed in the struggle for existence; when I consider the worry of life; when I consider how the millions pass their time in a mere toil for sensual objects; when I consider the millions of distorted existences; and the many millions!–the greater number of the world by far–who wander Christless, loveless, hopeless, over the broad highway of it; when I consider life in many of the awakened as a restless dream; when I consider this, and much else, I can almost exclaim with our unhappy poet–
Count all the joys thine hours have seen,
Count all thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
Twere something better not to be.
I can conceive many a soul, and not an irreverent one, saying, O God! what is my life? What am I? What have I done? I am a failure. Why have I had given me unoccupied affections; they have never met their response, their realization, their fulfilment. How I could have loved, how I could have wrought; I feel these things in me. Now, it is the fashion of infidelity to believe that God has no details, no specialities, and this thought sometimes drives in with a panic on the spirit; for we are caught up by the huge engine of the machine-god, and torn amidst the wheels of what does not care more for hearts than it does for oaks. Our lives seem spent in vain. I know the reply to all this with many is a cold and icy sneer of contempt at the egotism and conceit of it all. The universe has done very well for you hitherto; trust the universe, let these inquisitive questions alone. To which I reply, Alas! they will not let me alone; moreover, if my fault is egotism and individuality, what is yours? Indifference, inhumanity, coldness, in a word–brutality. I do not desire to sink to the unconsciousness of beasts that perish.
II. Notice the structure of the question, Is it possible to reconcile the vanity of man with the greatness of God? This vanity of man, is it consistent with thee, and with what thou art?
1. I believe that thou hast not a chief regard to thine own power. God is not a mere power. What should we think of him who, able to stamp upon the canvas the forms of Murillo, the colours of Tintoretto, able to hew his marbles to the shape of Flaxman, or to mould his pottery to Etruscan loveliness, yet treated all as a freak, and destroyed remorselessly as readily as he created? But what is the artist of the canvas to the artist of flowers, to the artist of the human eye, the artist of the birds wing? The artist says, I made them, but I cannot preserve them; but the author of eternal beauty Thou art, and why hast Thou made not only things, but man himself in vain? The mother, indeed, goes to her little cot where the lamb of her bosom lies stretched out in its little shroud. She says, Yes, my darling, I bare thee, and nursed thee; but I could not keep thee; but God, Why hast Thou made men in vain?
2. God is not mere law. I believe Thou art not heedless of Thy creatures desire, though they seem to be mocked. We are not like children at play, blowing bubbles which break in non-existence even while they soar. This cannot be enjoyment to Thee.
3. Thou art pure being, Thou canst not, therefore, be pleased only to contemplate evanescence and decay. It is not consistent with Thy glory that the whole creation should groan and travail in pain together. Dost Thou not rejoice in Thy works? and canst Thou rejoice in these? Is not Thy world one huge stone coffin, where every piece of limestone is but the record of death, and the fairest things float loathsomely out of existence into corruption and decay. And now these are, as you well know, the soliloquies and cries of our nature; and the appropriate answer to all is, Man is not made in vain. Unless I have mistaken myself, I believe that some of the topics I have suggested will convey a reply to this question, and show that the absolute vanity of man is incompatible with the glory and with the promise of God. There is something in him which God does not regard as vanity. The sure mercies of David are not vanity; the covenant ordered in all things and sure is not vanity; the exceeding great and precious promises, by which we become partakers of the Divine nature, are not vanity. Mutation and change, indeed, surround us everywhere. But there are two immutable, unchangeable things–the will of God, and the Word of God, as the expression of His will. There is an image, over which change never passes. It can suffer no defacement; nothing can mar it. And as we are conformed to this, a growing joy steals over us, and steeps us in its blessedness as we become new creatures in Christ, Jesus; as the old things pass away, as the Word which gives light enters and sows itself in the heart, we gradually learn what it is for man not to be made in vain.
III. Hence I have conjoined with this poor human word; this elegy over unfulfilled lives; this other word; this word of repose on Divine intention and completed being–My times are in Thy hand. Nothing is more certain, nothing are men more indisposed to perceive than this–we have to
Wait for some transcendent life,
Reserved by God to follow this.
To this end Gods real way is made up of all the ways of our life. His hand holds all our times. My times are in Thy hand–the hand of my Saviour. He regulates our life clock. Christ for and Christ in us. My times are in His hand. My life can be no more in vain, than was my Saviours life in vain.
IV. And this truth rightly grasped and held, we shall never think it possible that any life can be unfulfilled which does not, by its own voluntary perversity, fling itself away. No doubt, men may be suicides to their own souls. Did not our Lord say, Better were it for that man that he had never been born? and there are beings for whom that would be the only appropriate epitaph. All in vain! O my soul, anything to escape that. Let life here seem increasingly vain; only save me from the vanity of eternity, and the horrors of that fearful looking for where nothing is realized but woe. Oh to reach the fulness of joy, so that I and mine may say as we gaze upon our Redeemer in light, No, through Thee and Thy merits, we have not been made in vain. But you solitary, suffering, disappointed hearts, take some comfort. The best is yet to be. (E. Paxton Hood.)
Suggestions of lifes vanity
There are many circumstances in life that tend to impress us with the vanity of our mortal existence on the assumption that there is no future.
I. The disproportion between the length of our existence and our longings.
II. The disproportion between our faculties and our achievements. All feel they can do vastly more than they can accomplish here.
III. The disproportion between our aspirations and our attainment. How much knowledge, power, influence we aspire to, but how little do we gain!(Homilist.)
Vanity of man, if not immortal
I. Some direct proofs of the vanity of human life.
1. The brevity of our mortal existence.
2. The positive evils that are in the world.
(1) Sickness and pain.
(2) Wars and fightings.
(3) Famine.
(4) Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, etc.
II. The real value of those things which seem to render our existence of most worth.
1. After all the failure, and fiction, and insincerity, and envy, that attend worldly possessions, we cannot surely suppose them of much real value. If we had only what they afford, we should be compelled to confess we were made in vain.
2. Knowledge is not necessarily happiness. We are not going to say, that increase of knowledge is always increase of sorrow (Ecc 1:18); but we believe most of the happiness that we find in knowledge, in exercising intellect, in discovering truth, springs from the hope we entertain of making our knowledge subserve our happiness in other respects. If our only felicity consisted in knowing, we believe it would be extremely small. And how little even men called learned succeed in making their acquisitions advance human felicity, the whole history of cultured intellect too sadly tells.
3. Some one might say to us, the joys of friendly attachment are neither few nor small; they are pure; they are peaceful; they are noble. But let us remember there are regions where the husband and the father is the tyrant; where the mother murders her offspring; where the wife is the slave; and where the widow burns on the funeral pile of her husband! Let us remember, too, how often friendships give place to enmity. When half the world is dressed in mourning, its friendships can scarcely convince us that, apart from another world, all men have not been made in vain.
4. Religion is vain, if the world is all. Its votaries are miserably deluded. They have renounced the world, but gained nothing.
III. Conclusions.
1. The amazing difficulties of that species of infidelity which denies a future state.
2. That the doctrine of immortality, and the truths of religion, are very needful to us, in order to make us happy even here. Remove immortality–and what is man? a distressful dream! a throb–a wish–a sigh–then, nothing! But, blessed be God, life and immortality are brought to light. Yes–
3. That the true Christian is the happiest man. He is not perplexed with a thousand doubts and difficulties that trouble the unbeliever. (I. S. Spencer, D.D.)
The vanity and value of human life
I. If we consider life as it is is itself, and form our estimate of its value only by the degree of temporal enjoyment it is capable of affording, it will appear to be very vain indeed; and man will almost seem to be made for nothing.
1. Consider how short life is!
2. Consider its uncertainty. Who can say of any project that he has formed, that he shall accomplish it?
3. Survey also the sufferings to which life is exposed in this short existence.
Take notice of the natural calamities which belong to man. Look at the history of man, and see what he suffers from his own species.
4. Look also at the business of life, the very end for which most men live, and the same reflection will forcibly recur. What is the end for which so much toil is endured, so many cares and anxieties suffered? Simply this; to go on suffering the same anxieties and cares, and enduring the same toil.
II. Let us look at life in another point of view, and we shall see that God has not made man in vain.
1. We live not to eat, and drink, and labour; but we eat, drink, and labour, in order to live; that is, to fulfil the will of our great Creator and to glorify His name. Now, this is done when His will is made the chief rule of our lives, and His glory the end of our actions; when we exercise dispositions proper to our stations in life and agreeable to the duties we owe to Him. In this light the events of life are comparatively of little consequence, the duties they call forth are what are of importance. In this view, life is not to be regarded as given in vain.
2. When we carry our view forward to that eternal state of which this life is but the beginning, and in comparison of which it is but a moment; when we consider that this eternal life will be either miserable or happy according to the manner in which we spend our short existence here; surely this life is not in vain: it becomes of infinite importance–an importance proportioned to that infinite happiness or woe with which it is necessarily connected.
3. What a value is stamped upon life; what dignity upon the world, when we behold the only Son of God taking upon Him that life, and coming into that world! Are men made in vain, when the only begotten of the Father gave His life as a ransom for theirs?
4. Is life of such unspeakable moment, and yet is it so short in its duration? What an additional value does it derive even from this circumstance, which may seem, at first sight, to detract from its worth! If life be so uncertain; if almost the only thing certain in life is that we shall die, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness! (John Penn, M.A)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 47. How short my time is] If thou deliver not speedily, none of the present generations shall see thy salvation. Are all the remnants of our tribes created in vain? shall they never see happiness?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My time, i.e. our time, the time of our king and kingdom, in whose name the psalmist puts up this petition, and about whom he was much more solicitous than about himself, as is evident, both from the following verses, and from the whole body of the Psalm. The sense seems to be this, Our king, and all his people, and I among the rest, are shortlived and perishing creatures, that of themselves and according to the course of nature must shortly die; and therefore there is no need that thou shouldst add further afflictions to sweep them away before their time.
Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? wherefore hast thou made us and our king (and consequently all other men, whose condition is in nothing better than ours, and in respect of thy grace and mercy is much worse than ours) in vain, or to so little purpose? Didst thou raise us and him, establish us for thy people, settle the crown upon David and his seed for ever by a solemn and unchangeable covenant, erect a magnificent and glorious temple, and vouchsafe so many and great promises and privileges, and all this but for a few years, that our crown and glory should be taken from us within a little time after it was put upon our heads; that our kingdom should be broken almost as soon as it was firmly established; that thy worship should be so soon corrupted, and thy temple quickly robbed, and not long after frequently abused, and polluted, and wasted, and now at last utterly demolished? It is not strange that such considerations as these did fill the psalmists mind with amazement, and sad and perplexing thoughts. Nor doth the psalmist accuse or upbraid God herewith, but only useth it as an argument to move God to repair and restore their decayed state, that they might live to praise, and serve, and glorify him, and not be such useless and insignificant creatures as now they were in this forlorn estate of things, and as they should be if they should go into the place and state of the dead before the restitution of their broken state and kingdom.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
47. These expostulations areexcited in view of the identity of the prosperity of this kingdomwith the welfare of all mankind (Gen 22:18;Psa 72:17; Isa 9:7;Isa 11:1-10); for if suchis the fate of this chosen royal line.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Remember how short my time is,…. In this world man’s time here is fixed, and it is but a short time; his life is but a vapour, which appeareth for a little while; his days are as an hand’s breadth; they pass away like a tale that is told; the common term of life is but threescore years and ten, and few arrive to that: to know and observe this is proper and useful; it may awaken a concern for a future state, excite to a vigorous discharge of duty, and animate to patience under afflictions: the clause in connection with the preceding verse seems to be a plea for mercy; that, since time was short, it might not be consumed in bearing the wrath of God; but be spent in peace and comfort, like that of Job 10:20: Compare with this Ps 103:13, the Targum is,
“remember that I am created out of the dust:”
but these words, with what follow, are the words of the psalmist, representing the apostles of Christ, and other saints, at the time of his sufferings and death, and when under the power of the grave, and when they were almost out of hope of his resurrection: see Lu 24:21, expostulating with the Lord on that account; and here entreat him to remember the shortness of their time, if there was no resurrection from the dead, as there would be none if Christ rose not; and therefore, as their life was a short one, it would be of all men’s the most miserable:
wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? none of the sons of men are made in vain; for they are all made for the glory of God, which end is answered, some way or another, in everyone of them; either in the salvation of them by Christ, or in the just destruction of them through their own sin; and though the time of life is short, and afflictions many, yet men are not made in vain, and especially those of them who believe in Christ; for, for them to live is Christ, they live to his glory: whether they live a longer or shorter time, they live to the Lord; and when they die, they die to him; and their afflictions are always for good, temporal, or spiritual, and eternal: indeed, if there was no future state after this, men might seem to be made in vain, and there might be some reason for such a question or complaint; but so it is not; there is an immortal life and state after this, either of bliss or woe: also, if there was no such thing as the redemption, justification, and salvation of any of the sons of men, through the sufferings and death of Christ, and which could not be without his resurrection from the dead, with a view to which the question is put, then there would seem some room for it; but there is a redemption of them, and therefore are not made in vain; and Christ, who was delivered for their offences, is risen for their justification.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
47 Remember how short my time is. After having confessed that the severe and deplorable afflictions which had befallen the Church were to be traced to her own sins as the procuring cause, the prophet, the more effectually to move God to commiseration, lays before him the brevity of human life, in which, if we receive no taste of the Divine goodness, it will seem that we have been created in vain. That we may understand the passage the more clearly, it will be better to begin with the consideration of the last member of the verse, Why shouldst thou have created all the sons of men in vain? The faithful, in putting this question, proceed upon an established first principle, That God has created men and placed them in the world, to show himself a father to them. And, indeed, as his goodness extends itself even to the cattle and lower animals of every kind, (558) it cannot for a moment be supposed, that we, who hold a higher rank in the scale of being than the brute creation, should be wholly deprived of it. Upon the contrary supposition, it were better for us that we had never been born, than to languish away in continual sorrow. There is, moreover, set forth the brevity of the course of our life; which is so brief, that unless God make timely haste in giving us some taste of his benefits, the opportunity for doing this will be lost, since our life passes rapidly away. The drift of this verse is now very obvious. In the first place, it is laid down as a principle, That the end for which men were created was, that they should enjoy God’s bounty in the present world; and from this it is concluded that they are born in vain, unless he show himself a father towards them. In the second place, as the course of this life is short, it is argued that if God does not make haste to bless them, the opportunity will no longer be afforded when their life shall have run out.
But here it may be said, in the first place, that the saints take too much upon them in prescribing to God a time in which to work; and, in the next place, that although he afflict us with continual distresses, so long as we are in our state of earthly pilgrimage, yet there is no ground to conclude from this that we have been created in vain, since there is reserved for us a better life in heaven, to the hope of which we have been adopted; and that, therefore, it is not surprising though now our life is hidden from us on earth. I answer, That it is by the permission of God that the saints take this liberty of urging him in their prayers to make haste; and that there is no impropriety in doing so, provided they, at the same time, keep themselves within the bounds of modesty, and, restraining the impetuosity of their affections, yield themselves wholly to his will. With respect to the second point, I grant that it is quite true, that although we must continue to drag out our life amidst continual distresses, we have abundant consolation to aid us in bearing all our afflictions, provided we lift up our minds to heaven. But still it is to be observed, in the first place, that it is certain, considering our great weakness, that no man will ever do this unless he has first tasted of the Divine goodness in this life; and, secondly, that the complaints of the people of God ought not to be judged of according to a perfect rule, because they proceed not from a settled and an undisturbed state of mind, but have always some excess arising from the impetuosity or vehemence of the affections at work in their minds. I at once allow that the man who measures the love of God from the state of things as presently existing, judges by a standard which must lead to a false conclusion;
“
for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” (Heb 12:6.)
But as God is never so severe towards his own people as not to furnish them with actual experimental evidence of his grace, it stands always true that life is profitless to men, if they do not feel, while they live, that He is their father.
As to the second clause of the verse, it has been stated elsewhere that our prayers do not flow in one uniform course, but sometimes betray an excess of sorrow. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the faithful, when immoderate sorrow or fear occupies their thoughts and keeps fast hold of them, experience such inattention stealing by degrees upon them, as to make them for a time forget to keep their minds fixed in meditation upon the life to come. Many think it very unaccountable, if the children of God do not, the first moment they begin to think, immediately penetrate into heaven, as if thick mists did not often intervene to impede or hinder us when we would look attentively into it. For faith to lose its liveliness is one thing, and for it to be utterly extinguished is another. And, doubtless, whoever is exercised in the judgments of God, and in conflict with temptations, will acknowledge that he is not so mindful of the spiritual life as he ought to be. Although then the question, Why shouldst thou have created all the sons of men in vain? is deduced from a true principle, yet it savours somewhat of a faulty excess. Whence it appears that even in our best framed prayers, we have always need of pardon. There always escapes from us some language or sentiment chargeable with excess, and therefore it is necessary for God to overlook or bear with our infirmity.
(558) This appeal respecting the universality of death, and the impossibility of avoiding it, meets with a ready response in the bosom of every child of Adam, however exalted or humble his lot. And, when death has once seized on its victim, all the wealth, power, and skill of the world cannot spoil the grave of its dominion. The admirable lines of Gray, in his celebrated Elegy, furnish a very good comment on this verse: —
“
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Await alike th’ inevitable hour: — The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
“
Can storied urn, or animated bust, Back to its mansions call the fleeting breath? Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flatt’ry soothe the dull cold ear of Death?”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(47) Remember.The text of this clause runs, Remember I how duration, which might possibly be an incoherent sob, meaning remember how quickly I pass. But since the transposition of a letter brings the clause into conformity with Psa. 39:4, how frail I am, it is better to adopt the change.
Wherefore hast thou . . .Literally, for what vanity hast thou created all men?
Count all the joys thine hours have seen,
Count all the days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
Twere something better not to be.BYRON.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
47. Remember how short my time is The psalmist speaks in his own person in behalf of the nation, which accords well with the supposition that this psalm is the second part of Psalms 88.
Made all men in vain If human life is so short, and to be filled up with utter disappointment and sorrow, wherein is its benefit?-what is its gain? This, like Solomon’s “ vanity of vanities,” (Ecc 1:2,) contemplates eternal life in the background, and human life a failure only as apart from the life to come.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 89:47. Remember how short my time is Remember, as to my own part, what my being is. See Psa 39:4, Or, Remember what my age is. All men, in the next clause, means “all of us who labour under this wretched captivity.” In vain, signifies as if we were made for nothing else but to be miserable, and die. The Psalmist makes use of the next verse as an argument to incline God to suffer the captive Jews to spend the short time which remained of their lives in a more comfortable condition. From the hand of the grave, is rendered very properly by Mudge, from the power of the grave.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 89:47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
Ver. 47. Remember how short ] See Psa 39:5 .
Wherefore hast thou, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
time = lifetime.
men = sons of Adam. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Remember: Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6, Psa 119:84, Job 7:7, Job 9:25, Job 9:26, Job 10:9
wherefore: Psa 144:4, Job 14:1, Jam 4:14
Reciprocal: Gen 47:9 – an hundred 2Ki 20:3 – remember Psa 103:14 – he knoweth Ecc 1:4 – One generation Ecc 2:17 – for Ecc 3:19 – for Ecc 6:12 – the days of his vain life Isa 63:11 – he remembered Lam 3:19 – Remembering
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 89:47. Remember how short my time is That is, our time, the time of our king and kingdom, in whose name the psalmist put up this petition, and about whom he was much more solicitous than about himself, as is evident, both from the following verses and from the whole body of the Psalm. The sense seems to be this: Our king and all his people, and I among the rest, are short-lived and perishing creatures, who of ourselves, and according to the course of nature, must shortly die, and therefore there is no need that thou shouldest add further afflictions to sweep us away before the time. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain? Wherefore hast thou made us and our king, and consequently all other men, (whose condition is in nothing better than ours,) in vain, or to so little purpose? Didst thou raise up us and him, establish us for thy people, settle the crown upon David and his seed by a solemn covenant, erect a magnificent and glorious temple, and vouchsafe so many and great promises and privileges, and all this but for a few years; that our crown and glory should be taken from us within a little time after it was put upon our heads? It is not strange that such considerations as these should fill the psalmists mind with amazement and sad perplexing thoughts. Nor doth he accuse or upbraid God here with, but only useth it as an argument to move him to repair and restore their decayed state, that they might live to praise, serve, and glorify him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
89:47 Remember {h} how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
(h) Seeing man’s life is short, and you have created man to bestow your benefits on him, unless you hasten to help, death will prevent you.