Behold, thou hast made my days [as] hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before thee; verily, every man, [even] the high placed, is altogether vanity. Selah.
The psalmist breaks a long silence, and what he asks God for is the measure of his own days. The answer is not comfort but a measurement: a lifetime is a few handbreadths, and even a man at his best is only a breath.
This prayer is not idle curiosity. Two pressures produce it.
When at length he speaks, it is to the Lord. His own failure brings home to the godly soul how frail man is. So does the wickedness of men, who use the failure of God's people as their chance to exalt themselves. Through this trial he wants to learn the shortness of life, the weakness of the flesh, and the vanity of the world.
A handbreadth is the width of a hand — the smallest ruler a man carries with him. Set against God, that measure shrinks to nothing. What alarms the psalmist is not only his frailty but how little he feels it.
He cries out to know his end, his days that are measured, and yet he does not know the measure. His frailty alarms him, and how little he realizes that frailty alarms him too. His days are only handbreadths. God has fixed their limit — a short space that is nothing before the Eternal. It is the common condition of man: take the most stable, what is he? A puff of air — a breath.
The lesson lands hardest on the confident, and the New Testament repeats the verdict. These writers quote older translations: where the ESV says all mankind is "a mere breath," they read "every man at his best state is altogether vanity," or "but vapour."
If we think we are capable, let us consider the measure of our days. Old age exposes how useless our ability was! And sickness often comes before old age. Our frailty is always with us, however strong we think we are. Verse 5 shows that our age is as nothing, even if it runs to 100 years — and "every man at his best state is but vapour." James 4:14 confirms it: "For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."
The verse does not measure the worst of men. It picks the finest sample available and weighs that.
So we take up the great men of earth to see what is in man. We take the best sample, a man in whom natural character, opportunity and education have combined to produce the nearest thing to perfection. Having learned what he is, we remember that most of humanity are only poor samples of the same class.
One writer sees the verse proved in the prophet Isaiah.
Here we see the statement shown true, "Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Ps. 39:5). This happened to Isaiah in the year King Uzziah died — one of the better kings, who ended his days a leper because he dared to push his way into the temple of God. Standing before God in His temple, Isaiah confessed that he was unclean, and at once the way of cleansing appeared. A live coal, which had touched the sacrifice, was put to his lips, and his sin and uncleanness were taken away. Only sacrifice can cleanse sin; a foreshadowing of the death of Christ.
Short days make everything inside them unreal — including the savings a man cannot keep.
Then the unreality this gives to things, even while they last! Vain worry; vain heaping up of what must soon be left to others, he knows not whom. This is a well-worn story, but we are certainly actors in it, so its familiarity must not lessen our interest.
The psalm does not stop at the bleak sum. Reaching zero frees the man to look elsewhere.
At last his heart bursts out; but it is to bring to God the nothingness he has now come to feel. He desires to know his days. How little he is! He sees that all is vanity. But he also sees his own transgression and sin in the presence of One whose rebuke consumes the beauty of man like a moth… There is great beauty when vanity finds its level in coming to nothing, and then trusting God to deliver from the pride of men.
"Every man" is a total verdict, and only one Man stands outside it.
Satan's influence enslaved every other man. Christ lived by the word of God, and He defeated him completely (Matt. 4:1-10). "Every man at his best state is altogether vanity" (Psalm 39:5). The children of men have become "altogether filthy" (Psalm 53:3). But He is "altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:16).
- Measured — Life is a handbreadth. Even a hundred years is nothing to God, and the danger is how little we notice it.
- Best — The verse tests the best of us, not the worst. If the peak is a breath, the rest are poorer samples of the same class.
- Empty — Short days make worry and hoarding empty. A man piles up what he must leave to someone unknown.
- Level — Coming to nothing is not despair. The man who reaches zero stops defending himself and trusts God to deliver him.
- Altogether — Every man at his best is altogether vanity. Christ alone is altogether lovely, and only sacrifice can cleanse.
Verily, man walketh in a vain show; verily they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up [riches], and knoweth not who shall gather them.
The psalmist has kept silent under God's discipline. When he speaks at last, he speaks only to God, and asks Him to show how short his days are. Verse 6 is his verdict on the whole human scene: a shadow moving about, noise over nothing, wealth piled up for a stranger. (Older translations render the lines "vain show" and "disquieted in vain.")
This is not detached philosophy. It is what a man sees after his own failure, and the pride of others, have humbled him.
When at last he speaks, it is to the Lord. His own failure brings home to the godly soul how frail man is. So does the wickedness of men, who use the failure of God's people as their chance to exalt themselves. He would gladly learn through this trial the shortness of life, the weakness of the flesh, and the vanity of the world. It is only a vain show. Men put themselves to endless trouble to heap up riches that they have to leave behind.
The picture is not of something evil. It is of something with nothing in it.
Verse 6 uses another comparison: everyone walks like a shadow. Of course, a shadow has no substance, and in the same way our lives have no lasting substance, for we are here and gone. We occupy ourselves with temporal things, which are really in vain. We heap up riches. What for? Whoever inherits them will find the same experience of futility!
One writer reads the verse as a portrait gallery — three lives, sometimes mixed in one person, more often each running its own course.
In Psalm 39:6 we have three great types of character: the "vain show," the "vain disquiet" and the "heaping up." Sometimes these types are combined in one person. Very often each one develops on its own.
The second type is the person in turmoil over nothing. Here is what that looks like from the inside.
You will never find them at ease — never satisfied, never happy. There is always some terrible thing coming, some catastrophe in the distance. The mere thought of it keeps them in a constant fever of anxiety. They are troubled about property, about friends, about trade, about children, about servants… They worry themselves about troubles that may never come, difficulties they may never meet, and sorrows they may never live to see. They do not remember the blessings of the past or rejoice in the mercies of the present. Instead they look ahead to the trials and sorrows of the future.
The third type is the one nobody would call a dreamer.
Finally, you will meet another class, quite different from the first two. They are keen, shrewd, hard-working, money-making people who would live where others would starve. There is not much "vain show" about them. They are too solid, and life is too practical a reality for anything of that sort. Neither can you say there is much disquiet about them… "They heap up, and know not who shall gather."
Everyone knows this ending. Knowing it is not the same as escaping it.
Then think of the unreality this gives to things, even while they last! vain disquiet; vain heaping up of what soon has to be left to others, he does not know whom. This is a familiar story; but we are too certainly actors in it to let its familiarity dull its interest for us.
One writer turns to Jesus, who watched people wear themselves out for what they could not enjoy.
The sixth verse of this Psalm is full of deep and mournful power. Jesus knew the rest of the Father's bosom. He had come out to reveal Him, and He offered Himself as the open door into that rest. He might well marvel, then, to see the vain disquiet of the men of this world. He saw them working hard to heap up what they could not hope to enjoy. They were working hard for death… "You refuse to come to me that you may have life," was the complaint of the One who stood ready to give the gift of God.
If nothing here holds the heart, the search has to move somewhere else.
But remember, on all three alike the Spirit has stamped "vanity."… Turn where you will "under the sun" and you will not find anything the heart can rest on. You must rise on the steady, strong wing of faith to regions "above the sun." There you will find "a better and an enduring substance."… Only Jesus can give "substance." Only He can "fill." Only He can "satisfy."
- Shadow. A shadow moves, but it has nothing in it — the verse says our lives, and the things we fill them with, have no lasting substance.
- Show. One life is all display — the "vain show." It looks like something, and there is nothing solid behind it.
- Stir. Others are never at ease, worrying over troubles that may never come instead of counting present mercies — turmoil over nothing.
- Stockpile. The hardest-headed look the most solid of all, yet they heap up wealth and do not know who will gather it.
- Substance. Nothing under the sun holds the heart; faith rises above it to Christ, who alone gives substance, fills, and satisfies.