John Trapp on Psalms 39:5

Verſ. 5. Behold, thou haſt made my dayes as an handbreadth] i. e. Four fingers broad, (which is one of the leaſt Geometricall meaſures, or a ſpan-long) as ſome interpret it. Now to ſpend the ſpan of this tranſitory life, after the wayes of a mans own heart, is to bereave himſelf of a room in that City of Pearl, and to periſh for ever. Or take it for an handbreadth; ſhould a man, having his lands divided into four parts (anſwerable to thoſe four fingers breadth) leave three of them untilled? ſhould he not make the beſt of that little time that he hath? that he be not taken with his task undone? Themiſtocles dyed about an hundred and ſeven years of age; and when he was to dye, he was grieved upon this ground, Now I am to dye faith he, when I begin to be wiſe. But Stultus ſemper incipit vivere, ſaith Seneca; and ſuch complaints are bootleſſe. O live quickly, live apace and learn of the Devil at leaſt to be moſt buſy as knowing that our time is ſhort, Rev. 12.12. To complain of the miſeries of life, and to wiſh for death, as David here ſeemeth to do (and as did Job, chap. 3.19. & 6.9. & 7.15. and Moſes, Num. 11.11, 15. Elias, 1 King. 19.4. Jeremy, chap. 20.14. Jonas 4.3.) is a ſign of a prevailing temptation, and of a ſpirit fainting under it. We muſt fight againſt ſuch impatiency; and learn to do the like by life, as we do by a leaſe, wherein if our time be but ſhort, we rip up the grounds, eat up the graſſe, cut down the copſes, and take all the liberty the leaſe will afford.

Mine age is as nothing] Heb. My world, that is my time of aboad in the World is but a magnum Nibil, as one ſaith of honour; Punctumeſt quod vivimus, & puncto minus, a meer Salve vale, a non-entity.

Verily every man at his beſt eſtate] When hee is beſt conſtituted and underlaid, ſet to live,Profecto omnimoda vani tas omnis homo eſt quantumvis conſtitutus maxime. Tremel. Kimchi. as one would think, firmus & fixus, ſetled on his beſt bottom, yet even then he is all over vanity; All Adam is all Abel, as the originall runs elegantly, alluding to thoſe two proper names, like as Pſal. 144.3, 4. Adam is Abels mate, or man is like to a ſoon vaniſhing vapour; ſuch as is the breath of ones mouth. See Jam. 4.14. a feeble flaſh, a curious picture of Nothing.