As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Parallel translations
- WEB As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
- BSB As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;
- NKJV As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
- NASB ¶As for man, his days are like grass; Like a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
- NLT Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
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
Human life is fleeting, like grass and a wildflower that quickly flourishes. Our brief days highlight our dependence on God.
Overview
David contrasts frail, short-lived humanity with the eternal God just described. Like grass and field flowers, people bloom briefly and fade. This sobering truth, echoed in 1 Peter 1:24, drives us to find lasting hope not in passing life but in the everlasting love of God in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Pet 1:24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
- Jas 1:10–11But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
- Isa 51:12I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
- Isa 28:1Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
- Isa 40:6–8The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
- Job 14:1–3Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
- Nah 1:4He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
- Ps 90:5–6Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
- Isa 28:4And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 103:15 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
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