Fathers

Psalms 39

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I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. 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. Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 39:6

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Albeit man walketh in the Image" [Psalm 39:6]. In what "Image," save that of Him who said, "Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness." "Albeit man walks in the Image." For the reason he says "albeit," is, that this is some great thing. And this "albeit" is followed by "nevertheless," that the "albeit" which you have already heard, should relate to what is beyond the sun; but this "nevertheless," which is to follow, to what is "under the sun," and that the one should relate to the Truth, the other to "vanity." "Albeit," then, …

Exposition on Psalm 39 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"Surely in an image." Here he shows the misery of the human condition with respect to occupation; and concerning this he does three things. First he shows that there is something in man that ought to resist vanity. Second he shows in general the vanity of his occupation, at "but in vain." Third he shows the same in particular, at "he heaps up treasures." He says therefore: "Every man is vanity; yet there is something fixed in man that always remains in him while he passes through; and this is the image." And this can be explained in …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗

Bernard of Clairvaux

The soul is great in that it is capable of eternal things, and upright in that it desires heavenly things: the soul which does not seek or savor the things that are above, but the things that are upon the earth, is plainly not upright, but crooked, even though on account of this it does not cease to be great, remaining as it does even so capable of eternity. …

Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon 80 ↗