Psalms 39

For the Chief Musician, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

¹I said, I will take heed to my ways,

That I sin not with my tongue:

I will keep my mouth with a bridle,

While the wicked is before me.

²I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good;

And my sorrow was stirred.

³My heart was hot within me;

While I was musing the fire burned;

Then spake I with my tongue:

⁴Jehovah, make me to know mine end,

And the measure of my days, what it is;

Let me know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;

And my life-time is as nothing before thee:

Surely every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. [Selah

⁶Surely every man walketh in a vain show;

Surely they are disquieted in vain:

He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

⁷And now, Lord, what wait I for?

My hope is in thee.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions:

Make me not the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth;

Because thou didst it.

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me:

I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.

¹¹When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,

Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:

Surely every man is vanity. [Selah

¹²Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry;

Hold not thy peace at my tears:

For I am a stranger with thee,

A sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,

Before I go hence, and be no more.