Psalms 39

1 Unto the end. For Jeduthun himself. A Canticle of David. I said, “I will keep to my ways, so that I will not offend with my tongue.” I posted a guard at my mouth, when a sinner took up a position against me.

For the choirmaster. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”

2 I was silenced and humbled, and I was quiet before good things, and my sorrow was renewed.

I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

3 My heart grew hot within me, and, during my (meditation) a fire would flare up.

My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

4 I spoke with my tongue, “O Lord, make me know my end, and what the number of my days will be, so that I may know what is lacking to me.”

“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.

5 Behold, you have made my days measurable, and, before you, my substance is as nothing. Yet truly, all things are vanity: every living man.

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath.

6 So then, truly man passes by like an image; even so, he is disquieted in vain. He stores up, and he knows not for whom he will gather these things.

Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

7 And now, what is it that awaits me? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is with you.

And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

8 Rescue me from all my iniquities. You have handed me over as a reproach to the foolish.

Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.

9 I was silenced, and I did not open my mouth, because it was you who acted.

I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

10 Remove your scourges from me.

Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

11 I fall short at corrections from the strength of your hand. For you have chastised man for iniquity. And you have made his soul shrink away like a spider. Nevertheless, it is in vain that any man be disquieted.

You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor.

12 O Lord, heed my prayer and my supplication. Pay attention to my tears. Do not be silent. For I am a newcomer with you, and a sojourner, just as all my fathers were.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

13 Forgive me, so that I may be refreshed, before I will go forth and be no more.

Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”