Psalms 102:11

11 My days bowed away as a shadow; and I waxed dry as hay. (My days disappeared like a shadow; and I am dried up like the hay, or the 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 ate ashes as bread; and I meddled my drink with weeping. (For I have eaten ashes for food; and I have mixed my tears with my drink.)

10 From the face of the ire of thine indignation; for thou raising me [up] hast hurtled me down. (All because of thy anger, and thy indignation; for first thou hast raised me up, and then thou hast hurtled me down.)

11 My days bowed away as a shadow; and I waxed dry as hay. (My days disappeared like a shadow; and I am dried up like the hay, or the grass.)

12 But, Lord, thou dwellest [into] without end; and thy memorial in generation and into generation. (But, Lord, thou livest forever; and shalt be remembered by all generations.)

13 Lord, thou rising up, shalt have mercy on Zion (Lord, thou shalt rise up, and have mercy on Zion); for the time to have mercy thereof cometh, for the time cometh.