Psalm 39

Prayer for Wisdom and Forgiveness
 To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

¹ I said, “I will guard my ways,
 Lest I sin with my tongue;
 I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,
 While the wicked are before me.”
² I was mute with silence,
 I held my peace even from good;
 And my sorrow was stirred up.
³ My heart was hot within me;
 While I was musing, the fire burned.
 Then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “LORD, make me to know my end,
 And what is the measure of my days,
 That I may know how frail I am.
⁵ Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
 And my age is as nothing before You;
 Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.
 Selah
⁶ Surely every man walks about like a shadow;
 Surely they busy themselves in vain;
 He heaps up riches,
 And does not know who will gather them.
⁷ “And now, Lord, what do I wait for?
 My hope is in You.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions;
 Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.
⁹ I was mute, I did not open my mouth,
 Because it was You who did it.
¹⁰ Remove Your plague from me;
 I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.
¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,
 You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
 Surely every man is vapor.
 Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O LORD,
 And give ear to my cry;
 Do not be silent at my tears;
 For I am a stranger with You,
 A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength,
 Before I go away and am no more.”