< Psalms 39 >

1 TO THE OVERSEER. FOR JEDUTHUN. A PSALM OF DAVID. I have said, “I observe my ways, Against sinning with my tongue, I keep a curb for my mouth, While the wicked [is] before me.”
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.
2 I was mute [with] silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited.
I was silenced and humbled, and I was quiet before good things, and my sorrow was renewed.
3 My heart [is] hot within me, In my meditating the fire burns, I have spoken with my tongue.
My heart grew hot within me, and, during my (meditation) a fire would flare up.
4 “Cause me to know, O YHWH, my end, And the measure of my days—what it [is],” I know how frail I [am].
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.”
5 Behold, You have made my days handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You, Only, every man set up [is] all vanity. (Selah)
Behold, you have made my days measurable, and, before you, my substance is as nothing. Yet truly, all things are vanity: every living man.
6 Only, each habitually walks in an image, Only, [in] vain, they are disquieted, He heaps up and does not know who gathers them.
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.
7 And now, what have I expected? O Lord, my hope—it [is] of You.
And now, what is it that awaits me? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is with you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions, Do not make me a reproach of the fool.
Rescue me from all my iniquities. You have handed me over as a reproach to the foolish.
9 I have been mute, I do not open my mouth, Because You have done [it].
I was silenced, and I did not open my mouth, because it was you who acted.
10 Turn aside Your stroke from off me, From the striving of Your hand I have been consumed.
Remove your scourges from me.
11 With reproofs against iniquity, You have corrected man, And dissolve his desirableness as a moth, Only, every man [is] vanity. (Selah)
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.
12 Hear my prayer, O YHWH, And give ear [to] my cry, Do not be silent to my tear, For I [am] a sojourner with You, A settler like all my fathers.
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.
13 Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not!
Forgive me, so that I may be refreshed, before I will go forth and be no more.

< Psalms 39 >