- I 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. I was dumb with silence. I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned.
- Then spoke I with my tongue, Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days as a handbreadth and my age is as nothing before you. Truly every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. Surely every man walks in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up riches and knows not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. I was dumb and opened not my mouth because you did chasten me. Remove your stroke away from me or I shall be consumed by the blow of your hand. When you, with rebukes, do correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not your peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with you and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. O spare me that I may recover strength before I go from here and be no more.
Psalm 39
To the chief musician, even to Jeduthun, a psalm of David.