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Psalm 39:5

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.

3My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:
4“LORD, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
7Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
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← Psalm 39:4Psalm 39:6 →
Notice

Hand widths make a lifetime feel small enough to measure across a palm, while the words “before you” set that brief life before God.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What comes to mind when you picture your lifetime measured in hand widths?

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What would you want to say to God about standing “as a breath”?

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Connect

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
James 4:14Yet you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.Breath in the psalm and vapor in James describe how brief human life is; James also names uncertainty about tomorrow.
Psalm 90:4For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.Both measure time before God: a lifetime is as nothing before him, and a thousand years are like yesterday.
Psalm 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.Both compare people to breath, with Psalm 62 naming people of low and high rank within that frailty.
Job 14:1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.Both speak of the fewness of human days, while Job adds that those days are full of trouble.
Psalm 144:4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.Both compare a person to breath; Psalm 144 also pictures human days as a shadow that passes away.
Psalm 89:47Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!Both address God about life's shortness and connect that brief existence with his work as Creator.
Ecclesiastes 2:11Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and …The link is human limitation: Psalm 39 speaks of a brief lifetime, while Ecclesiastes considers the vanity of labor.
Genesis 47:9Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not …Jacob calls his days few even after one hundred thirty years, sharing the psalm's sober assessment of a lifetime's length.
Ecclesiastes 11:10Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.Psalm 39 compares a lifetime to breath; Ecclesiastes calls youth vanity, sharing a sober view of human life.
Job 8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)Both describe human days as brief; Job uses a shadow, while Psalm 39 uses hand widths and breath.
Job 9:25–26“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.Job pictures his days fleeing faster than a runner, sharing Psalm 39's sense of how brief a lifetime is.
Where this verse fits

Aging. death and what comes after. grief.

What the Bible says about death →What the Bible says about grief →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 39:5 aloud with your hand open before you

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Encouragement

The shortness of your life can be spoken to God without softening it. David addresses the One who made his days, even as he names their frailty.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 39:5. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 39 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

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).