
Text -- Psalms 102:11 (NET)




Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics



collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
JFB -> Psa 102:11
Soon to vanish in the darkness of night.
Clarke -> Psa 102:11
Clarke: Psa 102:11 - -- My days are like a shadow that declineth - Or rather, My days decline like the shadow. I have passed my meridian, and the sun of my prosperity is ab...
My days are like a shadow that declineth - Or rather, My days decline like the shadow. I have passed my meridian, and the sun of my prosperity is about to set for ever. There may be here an allusion to the declination of the sun towards the south, which, by shortening their days, would greatly lengthen their nights. Similar to the exclamation of a contemporary prophet, Jer 8:20 : "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."There is now scarcely any human hope of our deliverance.
Calvin -> Psa 102:11
Calvin: Psa 102:11 - -- 11.My days are like the shadow which declineth 146 When the sun is directly over our heads, that is to say, at mid-day, we do not observe such sudden...
11.My days are like the shadow which declineth 146 When the sun is directly over our heads, that is to say, at mid-day, we do not observe such sudden changes of the shadows which his light produces; but when he begins to decline towards the west the shadows vary almost every moment, This is the reason why the sacred writer expressly makes mention of the shadow which declineth What he attributes to the afflicted Church seems indeed to be equally applicable to all men; but he had a special reason for employing this comparison to illustrate the condition of the Church when subjected to the calamity of exile. It is true, that as soon as we advance towards old age, we speedily fall into decay. But the complaint here is, that this befell the people of God in the very flower of their age. By the term days is to be understood the whole course of their life; and the meaning is, that the captivity was to the godly as the setting of the sun, because they quickly failed. In the end of the verse the similitude of withered grass, used a little before, is repeated, to intimate that their life during the captivity was involved in many sorrows which dried up in them the very sap of life. Nor is this wonderful, since to live in that condition would have been worse than a hundred deaths had they not been sustained by the hope of future deliverance. But although they were not altogether overwhelmed by temptation, they must have been in great distress, because they saw themselves abandoned by God.
TSK -> Psa 102:11
TSK: Psa 102:11 - -- My days : Psa 102:3, Psa 39:5, Psa 39:6, Psa 109:23, Psa 144:4; Job 14:2; Ecc 6:12; Jam 4:14
I am withered : Psa 102:4; Isa 40:6-8; Jam 1:10; 1Pe 1:24

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Psa 102:11
Barnes: Psa 102:11 - -- My days are like a shadow that declineth - The shadow made by the gnomon on a sun-dial, which marks the hours as they pass. See 2Ki 20:10. The ...
My days are like a shadow that declineth - The shadow made by the gnomon on a sun-dial, which marks the hours as they pass. See 2Ki 20:10. The idea is that the shadow made by the descending sun was about to disappear altogether. It had become less distinct and clear, and it would soon vanish. It would seem from this, that the dial was so made that the shadow indicating the hour ascended when the sun ascended, and declined when the sun went down. See the notes at Isa 38:8.
And I am withered like grass - See the notes at Psa 102:4.
Poole -> Psa 102:11
Poole: Psa 102:11 - -- My days my hopes, and comforts, and happiness; days being oft put for happy days, or a happy state, as Psa 37:18 Lam 5:21 , as elsewhere they are p...
My days my hopes, and comforts, and happiness; days being oft put for happy days, or a happy state, as Psa 37:18 Lam 5:21 , as elsewhere they are put more generally for the events which happen in those days; in both which cases it is a metonymy of the adjunct.
That declineth or, that is extended or stretched out to its utmost length, as it is when the sun is setting, when it speedily and totally vanisheth. And just so the hopes of our restitution, which sometimes we have, are quickly cut off and disappointed.
Haydock -> Psa 102:11
Haydock: Psa 102:11 - -- Earth. There is no proportion between God's mercy and our crimes. (Calmet) ---
Sins are perfectly washed away, (Worthington) and not barely covere...
Earth. There is no proportion between God's mercy and our crimes. (Calmet) ---
Sins are perfectly washed away, (Worthington) and not barely covered, as the east cannot be the west. (Berthier) ---
Sin remitted "sets for ever." (St. Augustine)
Gill -> Psa 102:11
Gill: Psa 102:11 - -- My days are like a shadow that declineth,.... Or, "that is stretched out" s, which, though it may appear long, is soon at an end; as it does appear lo...
My days are like a shadow that declineth,.... Or, "that is stretched out" s, which, though it may appear long, is soon at an end; as it does appear longer when the sun sets t, 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 1Ch 29:15. Pindar u 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 Psa 90:5.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Psa 102:11
NET Notes: Psa 102:11 Heb “my days [are] like an extended [or “lengthening”] shadow,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending s...

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Psa 102:1-28
TSK Synopsis: Psa 102:1-28 - --1 The prophet in his prayer makes a grievous complaint.12 He takes comfort in the eternity, and mercy of God.18 The mercies of God are to be recorded....
MHCC -> Psa 102:1-11
MHCC: Psa 102:1-11 - --The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, is often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has put words into our mouths. Here is a prayer p...
Matthew Henry -> Psa 102:1-11
Matthew Henry: Psa 102:1-11 - -- The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a prayer of the afflicted. It was composed by one that was himself afflicted, afflicted with the...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Psa 102:9-11
Keil-Delitzsch: Psa 102:9-11 - --
Ashes are his bread (cf. Lam 3:16), inasmuch as he, a mourner, sits in ashes, and has thrown ashes all over himself, Job 2:8; Eze 27:30. The infecte...
Constable: Psa 90:1--106:48 - --IV. Book 4: chs. 90--106
Moses composed one of the psalms in this section of the Psalter (Ps. 90). David wrote t...

Constable: Psa 102:1-28 - --Psalm 102
Another anonymous writer poured out his personal lament to Yahweh (cf. Pss. 22, 69, 79). He fe...
