Psalm 39:3-6

The insistent voice of the Holy Spirit reminds mortal man frequently in the Scriptures of the brevity of his life. By the repeated use of similes, the Spirit of the Lord impresses on us that our days are limited and passing swiftly.

For instance, He likens life to a weaver's shuttle (Job 7:6), the device that darts back and forth in the loom almost faster than the eye can follow.

Job speaks of life as wind (

The world is passing away, and the lust of it. § Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. § What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. § I want you to be without...

Every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. § Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. § Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.They do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable...

All the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. § For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then...

The body is sown in corruption … It is sown in dishonor … It is sown in weakness … It is sown a natural body. § The first man was of the earth, made of dust. § Dust you are, and to dust you shall return. § One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and secure …  Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them.My flesh … will rest in hope. § After my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in...