Bible Strands
Psalms 39:5
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the LORD directly, answering his own request in verse 4 for divine revelation regarding the measure and end of his life.
The words — The text emphasizes טְפָחֹת (tefachot, handbreadths) and כְּאֵין (ke'eyn, like nothing) to describe how God has measured the psalmist's days and lifespan.
The thread — This theme of human brevity appears in Psalms 89:47, which notes the futility of creation and short lifespan, and in Psalms 144:4, which compares man to a breath and days to a passing shadow.
Why it lands — It demands that a reader confront the reality that human achievement and longevity are negligible before God, requiring a shift from self-reliance to divine perspective.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Cross-references
- Psalms 89:47 Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
- Psalms 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Psalms 62:9 Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 90:9 For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.
- Psalms 39:11 You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
- Ecclesiastes 2:11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
- Job 14:1 “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- James 4:14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Psalms 90:4 For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.
- Genesis 47:9 “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”