My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering away like grass.
Parallel translations
- WEB My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
- KJV My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
- BSB My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- NKJV My days are like a shadow that lengthens, And I wither away like grass.
- NASB My days are like a lengthened shadow, And I wither away like grass.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
His days are like a lengthening evening shadow, and he withers like grass. He feels his life slipping toward its end.
Overview
The image of a declining shadow and fading grass underscores the brevity and frailty of the psalmist's life. He senses death drawing near. This honest acknowledgment of mortality sets the stage for the psalm's turn to God's eternity in the verses that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 14:2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
- Ps 109:23I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.
- 1 Pet 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
- Jas 4:14Whereas 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.
- Jas 1:10and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
- Isa 40:6–8The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
- Eccl 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 the sun?
- Ps 39:5–6Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
- Ps 102:3–4For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.