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Psalm 89:47

Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

45You have shortened the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.
46How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? Will your wrath burn like fire?
47Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!
48What man is he who shall live and not see death, who shall deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.
49Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses, which you swore to David in your faithfulness?
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← Psalm 89:46Psalm 89:48 →
Notice

“Remember” makes life's brevity an urgent plea to God, as the speaker confronts how futile human life seems while God's help is delayed.

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

What would you want God to remember about the shortness of your time?

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How do you respond to the speaker's claim that God has created human beings for vanity?

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What changes when you read these words as a plea spoken to the Creator?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

12 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.Both texts speak of life's brevity; James pictures that short span as a vapor that vanishes.
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 speakers address God about their short lives and extend that frailty to all human beings.
Psalm 103:14For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.Psalm 89 asks the Creator to remember human frailty; Psalm 103 says he remembers that human beings are dust.
Job 14:1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.Both texts describe the short span of human life with sorrow rather than ease.
Job 7:7Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.Both prayers begin with a plea to remember how brief the speaker's life is.
Job 10:9Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?Both speakers ask God to remember them and appeal to him as the one who made them.
Psalm 144:4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.Both texts name human life's brevity, with Psalm 144 comparing passing days to a breath and a shadow.
Job 9:25–26“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.Both speakers lament their passing time; Job describes his days as fleeing faster than a runner.
2 Kings 20:3“Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah …Both prayers ask God to remember, making a personal appeal to him in distress.
Psalm 119:84How many are the days of your servant? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?Both prayers bring limited human days before God while seeking his response to suffering.
Ecclesiastes 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.Both texts use the word “vanity” to express a bleak assessment of human life.
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 texts connect life's short duration with its apparent futility; Ecclesiastes pictures those days as a shadow.
Where this verse fits

Aging. waiting. death and what comes after.

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

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 89:47 aloud before bed

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Encouragement

You do not have to turn this lament into a cheerful lesson. The speaker asks the Creator to remember a life that is running out.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 89:47. 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 89 · 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).