Psalms 39
1 For the chief musician, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David. I decided, “I will watch what I say so that I do not sin with my tongue. I will muzzle my mouth while in the presence of an evil man.”
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.”
2 I kept silent; I kept back my words even from saying anything good, and my pain grew worse.
I was mute [with] silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited.
3 My heart became hot; when I thought about these things, it burned like a fire. Then finally I spoke.
My heart [is] hot within me, In my meditating the fire burns, I have spoken with my tongue.
4 “Yahweh, make me know when will be the end of my life and the extent of my days. Show me how transient I am.
“Cause me to know, O YHWH, my end, And the measure of my days—what it [is],” I know how frail I [am].
5 See, you have made my days only the width of my hand, and my lifetime is like nothing before you. Surely every man is a single breath. (Selah)
Behold, You have made my days handbreadths, And my age [is] as nothing before You, Only, every man set up [is] all vanity. (Selah)
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow. Surely everyone hurries about to accumulate riches although they do not know who will receive them.
Only, each habitually walks in an image, Only, [in] vain, they are disquieted, He heaps up and does not know who gathers them.
7 Now, Lord, for what am I waiting? You are my only hope.
And now, what have I expected? O Lord, my hope—it [is] of You.
8 Rescue me from my sins; do not make me the reproach of fools.
Deliver me from all my transgressions, Do not make me a reproach of the fool.
9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth, because it is you who has done it.
I have been mute, I do not open my mouth, Because You have done [it].
10 Stop wounding me; I am overwhelmed by the blow of your hand.
Turn aside Your stroke from off me, From the striving of Your hand I have been consumed.
11 When you discipline people for sin, you consume the things they desire like a moth; surely all people are nothing but vapor. (Selah)
With reproofs against iniquity, You have corrected man, And dissolve his desirableness as a moth, Only, every man [is] vanity. (Selah)
12 Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and listen to me; listen to my weeping! Do not be deaf to me, for I am like a foreigner with you, a refugee like all my ancestors were.
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.
13 Turn your gaze from me so that I may smile again before I die.”
Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not!
