So vain.

Spurgeon's comments on Psalm 9:20:

“One would think that men would not grow so vain as to deny themselves to be but men, but it appears to be a lesson which only a divine schoolmaster can teach to some proud spirits. Crowns leave their wearers but men, degrees of eminent learning make their owners not more than men, valour and conquest cannot elevate beyond the dead level of “but men;” and all the wealth of Crœsus, the wisdom of Solon, the power of Alexander, the eloquence of Deomosthenes, if added together, would leave the possessor but a man. May we ever remember this, lest like those in the text, we should be put in fear.”

(Spurgeon, C.H. The Treasury of David, Volume I, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988, p. 101.)