My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
The psalm was composed by Asaph, Ethan and others during the latter portion of the Babylonian captivity, in the reign of Belshazzar when the persecution and distress of the Jews were greatest. It expresses the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives, joined with exhortation and encouragement and with assurance of divine help and final deliverance from their persecutors.
Its image of days like a declining shadow is of a lengthening shadow fading toward evening, and its image of withered grass is of the person himself weakened and dried up, together showing that human life is brief, frail, uncertain, weakened and passing away.
It is a plea for mercy that every true believer may adopt as his own. That shortness and frailty mean life can be cut off even at fifteen years of age, yet for one whose life was that of a Christian, beloved and faithful in worship, death is sleep in hope of a glorious immortality. Because life is so brief, with days passing like a fading shadow, wasting time is especially serious.
The psalm was composed by Asaph, Ethan and others during the latter portion of the Babylonian captivity, in the reign of Belshazzar when the persecution and distress of the Jews were greatest. It expresses the sorrows and afflictions of the Hebrew captives, joined with exhortation and encouragement and with assurance of divine help and final deliverance from their persecutors.
Its image of days like a declining shadow is of a lengthening shadow fading toward evening, and its image of withered grass is of the person himself weakened and dried up, together showing that human life is brief, frail, uncertain, weakened and passing away.
It is a plea for mercy that every true believer may adopt as his own. That shortness and frailty mean life can be cut off even at fifteen years of age, yet for one whose life was that of a Christian, beloved and faithful in worship, death is sleep in hope of a glorious immortality. Because life is so brief, with days passing like a fading shadow, wasting time is especially serious.