For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David.

• ¹I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue.
• I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”

• ²I was mute with silence.
• I held my peace, even from good.
• My sorrow was stirred.

• ³My heart was hot within me.
• While I meditated, the fire burned:

• I spoke with my tongue:
• ⁴“Yahweh, show me my end,
• what is the measure of my days.
• Let me know how frail I am.

• ⁵Behold, you have made my days handbreadths.
• My lifetime is as nothing before you.

• Surely every man stands as a breath.”

• Selah.

• ⁶“Surely every man walks like a shadow.
• Surely they busy themselves in vain.
• He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

• ⁷Now, Lord, what do I wait for?
• My hope is in you.

• ⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions.
• Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.

• ⁹I was mute.
• I didn’t open my mouth,
• because you did it.

• ¹⁰Remove your scourge away from me.
• I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

• ¹¹When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity,
• You consume his wealth like a moth.

• Surely every man is but a breath.”

• Selah.

• ¹²“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry.
• Don’t be silent at my tears.

• For I am a stranger with you,
• a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

• ¹³Oh spare me, that I may recover strength,
• before I go away, and exist no more.”