Psalm 146:4

I. On the "day" that is here referred to, when man's "breath goeth forth, and he returneth to the earth," the most affecting aspect in which you can look at him is that which is here presented. So far as the present life is concerned, and to all appearance, he has ceased to be a person, and has become a thing.

II. All the thinkings of men that are not really and thoroughly true, however beautiful and magnificent they may be, and whatever favour they may find with their parents or with man, to whom they are presented—when men come to die, they will find that they all perish and become nothing if they are not true; when the mind enters into the world of truth, pure truth and intellect, it will find it can carry nothing but truth with it.

III. We may apply this passage to purposes, projects, and intentions: "In that very day his thoughts perish."

We learn from this subject: (1) the very great importance to be attached to getting our minds filled with real truth, God's own truth; (2) the vast superiority of anything that is really done to anything that is merely thought.

T. Binney King's Weighhouse Chapel Sermons, 2nd series, p. 246.

References: Psalm 146:4.—C. S. Robinson, Sermons on Neglected Texts, p. 131. Psalm 146:6.—J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., pp. 177, 209. Psalm 146:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 484.