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Psalm 144:4
Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
2my loving kindness, my fortress, my high tower, my deliverer, my shield, and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.
3LORD, what is man, that you care for him? Or the son of man, that you think of him?
4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
5Part your heavens, LORD, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
6Throw out lightning, and scatter them. Send out your arrows, and rout them.
Notice
A breath and a passing shadow make the brevity of human life plain, touching the tension between days that feel full and years that vanish.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What part of your life feels most like a shadow that passes away?
Write on thisHow does the preceding verse’s mention of God’s care shape your reading of these brief human days?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
11 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Job 14:2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.Both compare human life to a passing shadow, with Job adding the image of a flower cut down.
Revelation 21:4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have …Both concern the passing of human life, though Revelation promises an end to death beyond the brevity Psalm 144 describes.
Ecclesiastes 1:2“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”The connection is broad: Psalm 144 describes life as breath, while Ecclesiastes declares the vanity of all things.
Psalm 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.Both describe human life as a breath; Psalm 39 also measures its short span before God.
Job 8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)Both compare human days to a shadow, while Job connects that short span with the limits of human knowledge.
Psalm 102:11My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.Both describe passing days through a shadow, with Psalm 102 making the comparison personal and adding withered grass.
1 Chronicles 29:15For we are strangers before you and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.Both compare human days to a shadow; Chronicles also describes people as strangers before God with no lasting place.
Ecclesiastes 6:12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under …Both picture human days as a shadow; Ecclesiastes adds questions about what is good and what comes afterward.
Psalm 109:23I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.Both use a fading shadow to describe human frailty, with Psalm 109 speaking from the distress of one person.
Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.Both describe how fast human days pass; Job adds the despair of spending those days without hope.
Ecclesiastes 9:9Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your …Both portray human life as fleeting; Ecclesiastes also speaks of love and labor within those passing days.
Where this verse fits
Aging. death and what comes after. grief.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Your days pass, and that can be hard to face. In the surrounding prayer, the God addressed as refuge is also the God who cares for people.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).