Psalms 103:15
in Psalms 103As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field;
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As for man, his days are as grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
KJV
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
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This verse in Psalms 103
Commentary
10 notes on this verseConcerning the resurrection more will be said later; but now let us return to our immediate subject. We have shown that even holy people have, without any consideration for their merits, suffered many difficult things in this world, together with toil and misery. So David, in self-reflection, says, "Remember, Lord, that we are dust; as for [a] man, his days are but as grass"; and in another place, "[A] man is like a breath, his days pass away as a shadow."
This site's exposition
his days are like grass
on Psalms 103:15-16
Man gets grass and a wild flower of the field for his picture. The flower blooms, and the wind passes once and takes it. The ground it grew on keeps no record that it stood there.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
A commentator
Gregory of NazianzusON HIS BROTHER ST. CAESARIUS, ORATION 7:19 · Written before 390.
proposed
Our life on earth, brothers, is such that our existence is very transitory. We play, as it were, a game on earth: we do not exist, and we are born, and being born we are dissolved. We are like a fleeting dream, an apparition without substance, the flight of a bird that passes, a ship that leaves no trace on the sea. We are dust, a vapor, the morning dew, a flower growing but a moment and withering in a moment. "[A] man's days are as grass: as the flower of the field, so shall he flourish." Beautifully has blessed David meditated on our weakness. Again he says, "Declare to me how few are my days." He defines the days of humankind as the measure of a handbreadth. What would you say to Jeremiah, who, complaining of his birth, even blames his mother, and that, for the failings of others? "I have seen everything," says Ecclesiastes. I have reviewed in my mind all human things, wealth, luxury, power, glory that is not stable, wisdom that eludes us more often that it is mastered.
"Man, his days are but as grass" [Psalm 103:15]. Let man consider what he is; let not man be proud. "His days are but as grass." Why is the grass proud, that is now flourishing, and in a very short space dried up? Why is the grass proud that flourishes only for a brief season, until the sun be hot? It is then good for us that His mercy be upon us, and from grass make gold. "For he flourishes as a flower of the field." The whole splendour of the human race; honour, powers, riches, pride, threats, is the flower of the grass. That house flourishes, and that family is great, that family flourishes; and how many flourish, and how many years do they live! Many years to you, are but a short season unto God. God does not count, as you do. Compared with the length and long life of ages, all the flower of any house is as the flower of the field. All the beauty of the year hardly lasts for the year. Whatever there flourishes, whatever there is warmed with heat, whatever there is beautiful, lasts not; nay, it cannot exist for one whole year. In how brief a season do flowers pass away, and these are the beauty of the herbs! This which is so very beautiful, this quickly falls. [Isaiah 40:6-8] Inasmuch then as He knows as a father our forming, that we are but grass, and can only flourish for a time; He sent unto us His Word, and His Word, which abides for evermore, He has made a brother unto the grass which abides not. Wonder not that you shall be a sharer of His Eternity; He became Himself first a sharer of your grass. Will He who assumed from you what was lowly, deny unto you what is exalted in respect of you?
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
As for man, his days are as grass,.... He himself is like the grass which springs out of the earth; continues on it for a time, and then drops into it; the continuance of the grass is very short, it flourishes in the morning, is cut down at evening, and withers; see Psa 90:
Such a thing is man: God considers this, and pities him; let him consider it himself, and be humble, dead to this world and thoughtful of another. (2.) How long and lasting God's mercy is to his people (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
As for man, his days are as grass. He lives on the grass, and lives like the grass. Corn is but educated grass, and man, who feeds on it, partakes of its nature. The grass lives, grows, flowers, falls beneath the scythe, dries up, and is removed from the field: read this sentence over again, and you will find it the history of man.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
As for man, his days are as grass. He lives on the grass, and lives like the grass. Corn is but educated grass, and man, who feeds on it, partakes of its nature. The grass lives, grows, flowers, falls beneath the scythe, dries up, and is removed from the field: read this sentence over again, and you will find it the history of man. If he lives out his little day, he is cut down at last, and it is far more likely that he will wither before he comes to maturity, or be plucked away on a sudden, long before he has fulfilled his time. As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. He has a beauty and a comeliness even as the meadows have when they are yellow with the king-cups, but, alas, how short-lived! No sooner come than gone, a flash of loveliness and no more! Man is not even like a flower in the conservatory or in the sheltered garden border, he grows best according to nature, as the field-flower does, and like the unprotected beautifier of the pasture, he runs a thousand risks of coming to a speedy end. A large congregation, in many-coloured attire, always reminds us of a meadow bright with many hues; and the comparison becomes sadly true when we reflect, that as the grass and its goodliness soon pass away, even so will those we gaze upon, and all their visible beauty. Thus, too, must it be with all that comes of the flesh, even its greatest excellencies and natural virtues, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, "and therefore is but as grass which withers if but a breath of wind assails it. Happy are they who, born from above, have in them an incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.
His days are as grass - See the note on Psa 90:5.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As for man - literally, “Man; like the grass are his days!” The thought is fixed on man: man so frail and weak; man, not only made originally of earth, but man delicate, feeble, soon to pass away like the springing grass, or like the fading flower. His days are as grass - See the notes at Psa 90:5-6; compare Isa 40:6-8, notes; 1Pe 1:24, note. As a flower of the field - As a blossom. It opens with beauty and fragrance, but soon fades and perishes. So he flourisheth - Rather, “So he blossoms.” That is, he is like a flower that is fresh and beautiful, and that soon withers away.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
He remembers that we are dust He remembers and has not forgotten that we are dust and He knows that: “As for manhis days, etc.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֱ֭נוֹשׁ | ʾenoosh | humankind | H582 → | 566 times |
| כֶּחָצִ֣יר | kechatzir | [are] like <the> grass | H2682 → | 21 times |
| יָמָ֑יו | yamav | days his | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| כְּצִ֥יץ | ketzitz | like [the] flower of | H6731 → | |
| הַ֝שָּׂדֶ֗ה | hasadeh | the field | H7704 → | 334 times |
| כֵּ֣ן | ken | so | H3651 → | 771 times |
| יָצִֽיץ׃ | yatzitz | he flourishes | H6692 → | 9 times |
אֱ֭נוֹשׁhumankind
ʾenooshH582 →566 times
כֶּחָצִ֣יר[are] like <the> grass
kechatzirH2682 →21 times
יָמָ֑יוdays his
yamavH3117 →2304 times
כְּצִ֥יץlike [the] flower of
ketzitzH6731 →
הַ֝שָּׂדֶ֗הthe field
hasadehH7704 →334 times
כֵּ֣ןso
kenH3651 →771 times
יָצִֽיץ׃he flourishes
yatzitzH6692 →9 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
it leads to
- Isaiah 40:6–8
A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.
- James 4:14
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- James 1:10–11
But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
- Psalms 37:2
For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.
- Isaiah 40:6–8
Through
Isaiah 51:12“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?
it leads to
- Psalms 118:6
The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
- 1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Isaiah 2:22
Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?
- John 14:26–27
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
- Psalms 118:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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On this verse
About Psalms
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On the Death of Satyrus 2.29; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 103; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Gregory of Nazianzus, ON HIS BROTHER ST. CAESARIUS, ORATION 7:19; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.