Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 39:11

"When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: Surely every man is vanity. Selah" — Psalms 39:11 (ASV)

When thou with rebukes - The word here rendered “rebukes” means properly:

• proof or demonstration;
• confutation or contradiction;
• reproof or admonition by words;
• reproof by correction or punishment.

This is the meaning here. The idea of the psalmist is that God, by punishment or calamity, expresses his sense of the evil of human conduct; and that, under such an expression of it, man, being unable to sustain it, melts away or is destroyed.

Dost correct man for iniquity - You punish man for his sin, or you express your sense of the evil of sin by the calamities which are brought upon him.

Thou makest his beauty - Margin: “That which is to be desired in him.” The Hebrew means “desired, delighted in;” then, something desirable, pleasant; a delight. Its meaning is not confined to “beauty.” It refers to anything that is to man an object of desire or delight - strength, beauty, possessions, life itself. All are made to fade away before the expressions of the divine displeasure.

To consume away like a moth - Not as a moth is consumed, but as a moth consumes or destroys valuable objects, such as clothing. See the notes at (Job 4:19). The beauty, the vigor, the strength of man is marred and destroyed, as the texture of cloth is by the moth.

Surely every man is vanity - That is, he is seen to be vanity - to have no strength, no permanency - by the ease with which God takes away all on which he had prided himself. See the notes at (Psalms 39:5).