Day 83

Psalm 39 part 2 

David was a champion, an accomplished Special Forces warrior, a leader, a celebrity, a skilled poet, a musical genius, a survivor, and a king. If anyone might have thought more highly of himself, David had the right to. Yet in vs5-6 he understood that he, like every man is – at his best state – merely a ‘vapor,’ ‘a shadow’ (RSV) a ‘phantom’ (NASB) a puff of steam or smoke. He knows that since life is short, the only real meaning of a person’s existence must be in his relationship to God, for God, is eternal. 

The idea in the Hebrew word ‘selah, (occurring 74 times in the OT) is for a reflective pause to meditate on the words just spoken. It may also be a musical instruction, for a musical interlude of some kind. This Selah of v5 is an appropriate call for each one to pause and think of the shortness and frailty of their life. It should drive us to great dependence upon God and great earnestness about life and doing good to others in the short time we do have.  

The ungodly ‘busy themselves in vain.’ Sounding very much like the later Book of Ecclesiastes, in v6 David, thought about the mass of humanity that lived ignoring the shortness and frailty of life. Each of them walks about, but like a shadow, living a life with no substance. (Reminds me of TS Elliot’s “Hollow Men” from my High School days.) They are busy, but in vain, being blind to eternal things. Each of them works hard and heaps up riches yet do not think beyond their own short and frail life. This is the land of shadows. Heaven is the land of reality. Every man that exists, is vanity. All his projects, plans, & schemes, soon come to nothing. His body also returns to the dust and shortly passes both from the sight and remembrance of men. With this shortness and fragility in mind, David puts his expectation & hope upon God; in this relationship, he could prepare for life beyond this life.v7 Lord, “Let me know how fleeting my life is.”V4 (RSV).