1 Chronicles 29:15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For we are strangers before thee, &c. Poor, despicable creatures. The land which we possess is thine, not ours; we are not the proprietors, but only thy tenants: and as our fathers once were mere strangers in it, even before men, so we at this day are no better before thee, having no absolute right in it, but only to travel through it, and sojourn in it for the short time we live in the world. This is equally true of all men, who on earth are but strangers and sojourners; while angels and saints in heaven are there at home. Our days on earth are as a shadow David's days had as much of substance in them as most men's: for he was upon the whole a good man, a useful man, and now an old man. He lived long, and to good purpose; and yet he puts himself in the front of those who must acknowledge that their days on the earth are as a shadow: which speaks our life a vain life, a dark life, a transient life, and a life that will have its period, either in perfect light or perfect darkness. And there is none abiding Hebrew, מקוה, mickve, expectation. We cannot expect much from earth, nor can we expect any long continuance in it. This is mentioned here as that which forbids us to boast of what we give to God and his cause, or to our poor and destitute fellow-creatures, or of the services we perform to him. We only give what we must shortly leave, and what we cannot keep to ourselves: and our services are confined to a mere scantling of time: they are the services of a short, uncertain life. What, therefore, can we pretend to merit by such gifts or services? and what right have we to boast, or think highly of ourselves, on account of them? Surely God does us a great favour that he will accept such offerings and services from us.