The Vanity of Life.
For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
I said, “I will aguard my ways
That I bmay not sin with my tongue;
I will guard cmy mouth as with a muzzle
While the wicked are in my presence.”
2 I was amute and silent,
I refrained even from good,
And my sorrow grew worse.
3 My aheart was hot within me,
While I was musing the fire burned;
Then I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Lord, make me to know amy end
And what is the extent of my days;
Let me know how btransient I am.
5 “Behold, You have made amy days as handbreadths,
And my blifetime as nothing in Your sight;
Surely every man at his best is a mere cbreath. Selah.
6 “Surely every man awalks about as a phantom;
Surely they make an buproar for nothing;
He camasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
7 “And now, Lord, for what do I wait?
My ahope is in You.
8 “aDeliver me from all my transgressions;
Make me not the breproach of the foolish.
9 “I have become amute, I do not open my mouth,
Because it is bYou who have done it.
10 “aRemove Your plague from me;
Because of bthe opposition of Your hand I am perishing.
11 “With areproofs You chasten a man for iniquity;
You bconsume as a moth what is precious to him;
Surely cevery man is a mere breath. Selah.
12 “aHear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;
Do not be silent bat my tears;
For I am ca stranger with You,
A dsojourner like all my fathers.
13 “aTurn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again
Before I depart and am no more.”
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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