- 39I 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 spoke I with my tongue, 4Lord, make me to know my end and the measure of my days, what it is, that I may know how frail I am. 5Behold, 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. 6Surely every man walks in a vain show. Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up riches and knows not who shall gather them. 7And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. 8Deliver me from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9I was dumb and opened not my mouth because you did chasten me. 10Remove your stroke away from me or I shall be consumed by the blow of your hand. 11When you, with rebukes, do correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is vanity. Selah. 12Hear 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. 13O 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.