Psalms 39:5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Behold, thou hast made my days as a hand-breadth The breadth of four fingers, a certain dimension, a small one, and the measure whereof we have always about us, always before our eyes. We need no rod, no measuring-line, wherewith to take the dimension of our days, nor any skill in arithmetic wherewith to compute the number of them; no, we have the standard of them always before us. “The age of man, or of the world, is but a span in dimension, a moment in duration; nay, it is less than both, it is as nothing,” before God in God's judgment, and, therefore, in truth and reality, or if compared with God's everlasting duration, with “the unmeasurable extent and the unnumbered days of eternity.” Verily every man Prince or peasant, high or low, rich or poor; at his best estate Even when young, and strong, and healthful; when in wealth and honour, and the height of prosperity: Hebrew, נצב, nitzab, settled, or established: though he be never so firmly settled, as he supposes, in his power and greatness; though his mountain appear to him to stand strong, and, considering his health and strength, and possession of all the means whereby life may be supported, prolonged, and secured, though he may seem very likely to continue long, yet it is certain he is mere emptiness and vanity: yea, altogether vanity The Hebrew is very emphatical, כל הבל כל אדם, cal hebel cal Adam, every man is every vanity: or, all men, or, the whole of man, is all vanity. He is as vain as you can imagine. Every thing about him is vanity; is uncertain; nothing is substantial, or durable, but what relates to the new man and to eternity. Verily he is so. This is a truth of undoubted certainty, but which we are very unwilling to believe, and need to have solemnly attested to us, as indeed it is by frequent instances. Selah is annexed as a note commanding observation. Stop here, and pause a while, that you may take time to consider and apply this truth, that every man is vanity. We ourselves are so.