Psalm 39

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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.”

 The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 39.