Man's Vain Attempt To Perpetuate Himself Will Be In Vain Whatever He Does (Psalms 49:11-13).
Men do in their own ineffective way seek to perpetuate themselves. They think that they will live for ever in their children and their children. They set up establishments and foundations in their own name. And they vainly imagine that they will be perpetuated for ever. But it will always fail. Families die out, foundations fail, and any idea of the people themselves disappears into oblivion. Even Alexander the Great is but a bust and a name.
Their inward thought is,
That their houses will continue for ever,
And their dwelling-places to all generations,
They call their lands after their own names.
But man being in honour abides not,'
He is like the beasts which perish.
This their way is their folly,
Yet after them men approve their sayings. [Selah
Man's vanity and hopeless search for continued remembrance is well brought out here. They vainly hope that they will live on in their children's children, that their houses will continue for ever. They vainly hope that their family residence will abide for ever. They even call their lands after their own name. Surely that will last for ever? But it does not. Sooner or later it will vanish from the combined memories of man.
For no man's honour is permanently abiding. Even those whose memories abide are at the mercy of historians and wits. They are not remembered as they would wish to have been. So the truth is that in the end men are like the beasts that perish, with the result that all their attempts to perpetuate themselves turn out to be but folly. And yet after them other foolish men actually approve of their attempts to perpetuate themselves. Such is the folly of mankind.