Psalms 4:2
O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah. O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.
The verse belongs to David's prayer asking God to hear him, uttered as his complaint in sickness. The psalm is poetry built on parallelism of thought with a song-like cadence and rhythm, set to Neginoth, meaning stringed instruments. It closes with Selah, which concerns the music and means amen, directing the singers to be silent or pause for an instrumental interlude.
The question is how long people will turn the speaker's glory into shame and dishonor. It rebukes them for loving what is empty and pursuing falsehood, and presses how long they will continue in it.
Vanity here means temporary, changeable, worldly things that draw the heart away from God. It includes preferring human friendship over divine friendship, earthly riches over heavenly riches, carnal honor over spiritual honor, and brief pleasures over eternal joy, with intoxicating drink, costly clothing, and trifling with Sabbath hours as further examples. Loving such vanity keeps God out of thought and binds people to earth despite warnings and the nearness of death and eternity. Therefore the how long presses for an end to this love before mercy is lost, before affliction comes, before the Spirit ceases to strive, or before sin leads to death.