The Treasury of David
by C.H. Spurgeon
EXPOSITION OF THE PSALMS
(Psalms 102 Verse 11)
EXPOSITION
Verse 11. My days are like a shadow that declineth. His days were but a shadow at best, but now they seem to be like a shadow which was passing away. A shadow is unsubstantial enough, how feeble a thing must a declining shadow be? No expression could more forcibly set forth his extreme feebleness.
And I am withered like grass. He was like grass, blasted by a parching wind, or cut down with a scythe, and then left to be dried up by the burning heat of the sun. There are times when through depression of spirit a man feels as if all life were gone from him, and existence had become merely a breathing death. Heart-break has a marvellously withering influence over our entire system; our flesh at its best is but as grass, and when it is wounded with sharp sorrows, its beauty fades, and it becomes a shrivelled, dried, uncomely thing.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 11 (first clause). My days (my term of life) are as the lengthened shade, the lengthening shade of evening, that shows the near approach of night. The comparison, though not strictly expressed, is beautifully suggestive of the thought intended. Thomas J. Conant.
Verse 11 (last clause). The and I, in the Hebrew, stands in designed contrast to "But thou," Psalms 102:12. A. R. Fausset.
HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS
Verse 11-12. I and Thou, or the notable contrast.
- I: my days are like a shadow,
- Because it is unsubstantial; because it partakes of the nature of the darkness which is to absorb it; because the longer it becomes the briefer its continuance.
- I am like grass cut down by the scythe; scorched by drought.
- Thou. Lord. Ever enduring. Ever memorable. Ever the study of passing generations of men. C. D.