Psalm 39 - Modern English Version

For the Music Director. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

¹ I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will keep a muzzle on my mouth while the wicked are before me.”

² I was mute in silence; I held my peace to no avail, but my anguish grew worse.

³ My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “Lord, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am.

⁵ Behold, You have made my days as a few handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You. Surely every man at his best is as a mere breath.”    Selah

⁶ Surely every man walks around like a shadow; surely they make an uproar in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them.

⁷ Now, O 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 silent; I did not open my mouth, because it was You who did it.

¹⁰ Remove Your stroke from me; I am coming to an end by the hostility of Your hand.

¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for sin, You consume like a moth what is precious to him; surely every man is mere 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, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³ Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may become cheerful again, before I go away and am no more.