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The Psalmist gives as a parenthesis the inward thought of these people. "Their inward
thought is that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all
generations": To effect this they:--
"call their lands after their names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not, he
is like the beast that perish. For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory
shall not descend after him.....They shall never see light."
Here again the dread of death and of being forgotten urges men to do all kinds of
things to perpetuate their memory. All the riches a man may accumulate, however, avail
but for this transient life, "for when he dieth he shall carry nothing away". Surely this
also is vanity?
Romans 8: 20, 21 says:--
"The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who
hath subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God."
Yet again we find vanity linked with the bondage of corruption with no release apart
from resurrection.
Let us now turn to Ecclesiastes. What makes the writer there emphasize the vanity of
all things? Precisely the same reason is found that we have read in Psalm and Epistle.
Death writes Ichabod across the labours of man. The very first observation of the book is
this, "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh", and the section ends
with the thought "There is no remembrance".
In chapter 2: 14-17 this observation is developed. He perfectly realized that wisdom
excelled folly as light does darkness, yet he is faced with this calling fact. Death comes
to the wise as well as the fool:--
"One event happeneth to them all. As it happeneth to the fool, so happeneth it to me,
even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is
vanity. For there is no remembrance (same word as `memorial', 1: 11) of the wise more
than the fool for the age (olam); seeing that in the days to come all will have been already
forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? AS THE FOOL! Therefore I hated life."
The writer not only hated life, but he hated all his labour by reason of the fact that
death would deal with it.
"Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun; seeing that I must leave
it to the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or
a fool. Yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I
have shewed wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity."
The theme is not dropped, for within a few verses we read, "For there is a man whose
labour is with wisdom, and with knowledge and with skillfulness". Yet he must leave it,
perhaps to a fool! Surely life and its labours are vanity!