Psalms 102:11

11 My days decline like an evening shadow; I am drying up like grass.

Psalms 102:11 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 102:11

My days are like a shadow that declineth
Or, "that is stretched out" ^F19, which, though it may appear long, is soon at an end; as it does appear longer when the sun sets ^F20, and departs from the earth: he reckons his life not by months and years, but by days; and these he compares to a "shadow", which has no substance in it; his age being as nothing before the Lord, and has much darkness and obscurity in it; his days being days of darkness, affliction, and trouble, and quickly gone, as man's life is; there is no abiding; see ( 1 Chronicles 29:15 ) ( Job 14:2 ) . Pindar ^F21 calls man the dream of a shadow:

and I am withered like grass;
which in the morning is flourishing, is cut down at noon, and withered at evening: this is the case of all flesh, however beautiful and goodly it may look; it is weak, frail, and mortal; cannot stand before the force of afflictions, which quickly consume strength and beauty, and much less before the scythe of death; see ( Psalms 90:5 Psalms 90:6 ) ( Isaiah 40:6-8 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (ywjn) "inclinata", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Musculus, Cocceius; "extensa", Michaelis.
F20 "Et sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras", Virgil. Bacol. Eclog. 2.
F21 Pyth. Ode 8.

Psalms 102:11 In-Context

9 For I have been eating ashes like bread and mingling tears with my drink

10 because of your furious anger, since you picked me up just to toss me aside.

11 My days decline like an evening shadow; I am drying up like grass.

12 But you, ADONAI, are enthroned forever; your renown will endure through all generations.

13 You will arise and take pity on Tziyon, for the time has come to have mercy on her; the time determined has come.