What is the context?
The speaker calls his soul to praise for as long as he lives. The next warning concerns trust placed in mortal rulers.
Their breath departs, they return to earth, and their plans perish. Political rank does not make human life permanent or its intentions certain.
The warning challenges ultimate reliance on mortal power. It does not prohibit ordinary cooperation with people or claim that every human promise is deliberately deceitful.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley reads the perishing thoughts through plans and endeavors ending at death. That explanation should not be turned into a complete doctrine of postmortem consciousness from one poetic line.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.