Psalms 9:19

"Arise, O Jehovah; let not man prevail:

Let the nations be judged in thy sight.

Put them in fear, O Jehovah:

Let the nations know themselves to be but men. (Selah)"

As Kidner noted, "These verses are a plea for God to put man in his place."[20] Man in his own strength alone is, as one infidel expressed it, an infant crying in the night with no language but a cry." His strength but emphasizes frailty and lasts for only a moment at best. His very life is only a breath in his nostrils, subject to cease at any time. "He struts and frets his brief hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more." On his own, man is a mere speck of dust, just a fleeting breath; and, along with that insignificance, his moral condition is enough to challenge God himself to put the hook of judgment into his upturned nose, not in worship, but in conceit, and drag him into the punishment which he so richly deserves. In this light, we cannot be surprised that Psalms 10 exposes man for just what he is, apart from God.