Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 146:4
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
4. Cp. Psa 104:29; Isa 2:22.
to his earth ] The ‘ground’ ( d mh) from which he was taken and ‘of which his name ( dm = ‘man’) reminds him.
his thoughts ] Or, purposes. The word is common in Aramaic, but occurs here only in the Heb. of the O.T.
The author of 1 Macc, appears to have had both this passage and Psa 104:29 in his mind when he wrote ( 1Ma 2:63 ), “To-day he will be exalted, and to-morrow he will not be found, because he is returned to his dust, and his thought is perished.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
His breath goeth forth – He dies like other people, no matter how exalted he is. See the notes at Isa 2:22.
He returneth to his earth – See the notes at Psa 90:3. The earth – the dust – is his –
(a) It is his, as that from which he was made: he turns back to what he was. Gen 3:19 : dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
(b) The earth – the dust – the grave is his, as it is his home – the place where he will abide.
(c) It is his, as it is the only property which he has in reversion. All that a man – a prince, a nobleman, a monarch, a millionaire – will soon have will be his grave – his few feet of earth. That will be his by right of possession; by the fact that, for the time being, he will occupy it, and not another man. But that, too, may soon become another mans grave, so that even there he is a tenant only for a time; he has no permanent possession even of a grave. How poor is the richest man!
In that very day – The very day – the moment – that he dies.
His thoughts perish – His purposes; his schemes; his plans; his purposes of conquest and ambition; his schemes for becoming rich or great; his plans of building a house, and laying out his grounds, and enjoying life; his design of making a book, or taking a journey, or giving himself to ease and pleasure. Luk 12:19-20 : and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry; but God said unto him, Thou fool! this night thy soul shall be required of time. Such are all the purposes of men!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 146:4-5
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth.
The philosophy of death
The text refers to–
I. The destiny of all.
1. A special day–the day of death.
2. A striking view of death.
3. Mans last earthly home.
4. The cessation of mental activity.
II. The peculiar privileges and happiness of a certain description of character.
1. Sustained by the God of Jacob.
2. Expecting all good in and from God.
3. The blessedness of this character. (J. Burns, D. D.)
The mortality of human thought
I. All hypothetical thoughts are mortal. They are like the leaves of the forest, whilst some of them begin to wither and fall ere autumnal winds have touched them, they all fall dead at last. The heaps of dead leaves which the gardener every day in autumn sweeps up from the well-wooded swards under his care are emblems of these hypothetical thoughts. Do I undervalue such thoughts? No! Each of these rotting leaves had its charm and has its use. At first it quivered with life and sparkled in the sun; and its decay, no doubt, plays a useful part in the economy of nature. Hypothetical thoughts! Do not despise them. Who can tell the quickening impulses, the beneficent sciences and arts that have come out of them, and will come again? Albeit they must all perish as they touch reality. As the grandest billow, when it breaks on the rocky shore, falls to pieces, so the most majestic hypotheses of men are wrecked as the mind touches the stern realities of eternity.
II. All sensuous thoughts are mortal. In the Scriptures we read of the fleshly mind, fleshly wisdom, and of those who judge after the flesh. How much of human thought is started, shaped, and swayed by the senses! Their springs of movement are in the senses. Their horizon is bounded by the sensuous. Now, such thoughts are mortal. They must perish. They are dying by millions every moment, and they must all die at death. In that very day his thoughts perish.
III. All mercenary thoughts are mortal. I mean those thoughts that are taken up with the question, What shall I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed? Thoughts that are concerned entirely with mans material interest in this world, and are limited entirely to time. The worldly schemes and plans of men are all perishing and perishable. Were all the wrecked purposes of all the business men in London for one day fully registered, we could almost say the world itself would not contain the books. (David Thomas, D. D.)
Lost thoughts
At death a man sees all those thoughts which were not spent upon God to be fruitless. A Scythian captain having, for a draught of water, yielded up a city, cried out, What have I lost? What have I betrayed? So will it be with that man when he comes to die who hath spent all his meditations upon the world; he will say, What have I lost? What have I betrayed? I have lost heaven, I have betrayed my soul. Should not the consideration of this fix our minds upon the thoughts of God and glory? All other meditations are fruitless; like a piece of ground which hath much cost laid out upon it, but it yields no crop. (I. Watson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. His breath goeth forth] His existence depends merely, under God, on the air he breathes. When he ceases to respire he ceases to live; his body from that moment begins to claim its affinity to the earth; and all his thoughts, purposes, and projects, whether good or evil, come to nought and perish. He, then, who has no other dependence, must necessarily be miserable.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He returneth, in his body, Ecc 12:7,
to his earth; to that earth from which all mankind, princes not excepted, had their original.
In that very day, as soon as ever he is dead, his thoughts perish; all his designs and endeavours, either for himself or for others.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
His breath goeth forth,…. That is, the breath of a son of man, of any and everyone of the princes; it goes forth continually, and is drawn in again as long as a man lives; but at death it goes forth, and returns no more till the resurrection: the breath which the Lord breathed into man, and which is in his nostrils while he lives, and is very precarious. And when it is taken away, he dies, and
he returneth to his earth; from whence he was taken, and of which he was made; upon which he lived, where he dwelt, and in which he took delight and pleasure, minding earth and earthly things, and which is now all he has; who, though he may have had many large estates and possessions, nay, have ruled over many kingdoms and countries, yet his property of earth is now no more than the length and breadth of a grave; he returns to earth as soon as he dies, becoming a lump of clay; and particularly when he is interred in it, and when by corruption and worms he is turned into it;
in that very day his thoughts perish; in the day, hour, and moment he dies: not that the soul ceases, or ceases to think at death; it is immortal, and dies not; and, as it exists in a separate state after death, it retains all its powers and faculties, and, among the rest, its power of thinking; which it is capable of exercising, and does, as appears from the case of the souls under the altar, Re 6:9. But the meaning is, that at death all the purposes and designs of men are at an end; all their projects and schemes, which they had formed, and were pursuing, now come to nothing; whether to do good to others, or to aggrandize themselves and families; and therefore such mortal creatures are not to be depended upon, since all their promises may fail; nay, even their good designs may be frustrated; see Job 17:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) In that very day . . .Comp. Antonys words:
But yesterday the word of Csar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
SHAKSPEARE, Julius Csar.
Thoughts.The Hebrew word is peculiar to this passage. Fabrications would reproduce its etymological meaning.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. His breath goeth In Hebrew rhetoric the first clause is often a condition. When “his breath,” etc. His thoughts perish, means, not the destruction of the thinking faculty, the mind, but the ruin of his plans.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 146:4. His thoughts perish His projects perish. Mudge. “All the designs which he had formed in favour of his dependants are frustrated and disappointed.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
Ver. 4. His breath goeth forth ] It is but in his nostrils at best; every moment ready to puff out; cease from him, therefore, Isa. ii. Man, say the Rabbis, is but a bladder full of air, which can stand on no ground; but, pricked with a pin, it shriveleth to nothing. Man, saith a Father, is nothing else but soul and soil, breath and body; a puff of wind the one, a pile of dust the other, no solidity in either (Naz.).
He returneth to his earth
In that day his thoughts perish
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
His breath, &c. This verse occurs in the Apocrypha (1 Mace. Psa 2:63); but why is it assumed that this verse is taken from the Book of Maccabees, instead of this verse in Maccabees being taken from this Psalm?
breath = spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9. Not the same word as in Psa 150:6.
returneth. See Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19, and compare Ecc 12:7. Ecc 104:29.
earth = ground, or dust. Hebrew. ‘adamah. Not ‘erez = the Earth.
thoughts = purposes, or plans.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
His breath: Psa 104:29, Gen 2:7, Gen 6:17, Job 14:10, Job 17:1, Job 27:3, Dan 5:23
he returneth: Psa 90:3, Gen 3:19, Ecc 12:7
his thoughts: Job 14:21, Job 17:11, Isa 2:22, Lam 4:20, 1Co 2:6
Reciprocal: Gen 48:21 – Behold Job 4:19 – crushed Job 4:21 – excellency Job 12:10 – the breath Psa 144:3 – or the son Pro 11:7 – General Ecc 9:6 – their love Isa 39:2 – was glad Isa 51:12 – that thou Jer 2:13 – broken cisterns Jer 17:5 – Cursed Eze 29:7 – thou didst Mic 1:14 – houses Heb 2:6 – the son Jam 2:26 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
146:4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his {c} thoughts perish.
(c) As their vain opinions, by which they flattered themselves and so imagined wicked enterprises.