Fathers

Psalms 39

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I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.” I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue: “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather. Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish. I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it. Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were. Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist 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 ↗