2). His concern was with his awareness of his own frailty and of the fact that life appears on the whole to be vain and that a man does not know what will happen to the possessions that he has built up once he is dead. Thus as he lies on his sickbed it raises the question of the very meaning and purpose of life (Psalms 39:4-6).
‘YHWH, make me to know my end,
And the measure of my days, what it is,
Let me know how frail I am.
Behold, you have made my days as handbreadths,
And my lifetime is as nothing before you,
He calls on YHWH to bring home to him how short his life is, what the measure of his days is, and how frail he is. Indeed he recognises that each of his days are but a handsbreadth, a tiny length of time in the great ocean of time, and that his whole life from start to finish is as nothing before God.
Surely every man at his best estate,
Is altogether vanity.' Selah.
Only in an image does a man walk,
Only (for) a breath do they make a noise,
He heaps up riches,
And knows not who will gather them.
And meanwhile what value does that life have? Even at a man's very best it is simply vanity. Man's life is like a dream, a passing image, only for a fleeting breath can men make a noise and enjoy themselves. And during this passing dream he builds up wealth and possessions only for them to fall into other hands in a way which is out of his control. And who knows what they will do with them? Such is life without God.