1. For the music director, for Jeduthun, a psalm of David.
2. I said: “I will guard my ways, so I will not sin with my tongue. I will muzzle my mouth while the wicked are before me.”
3. So I became utterly speechless, kept silent even from good, but my anguish was stirred up.
4. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
5. “Let me know, Adonai, my end and what the number of my days is. Let me know how short-lived I am.
6. Behold, You made my days mere hand-breadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Surely all humanity is but vapor. Selah
7. Everyone goes about as a mere phantom. Surely they are making an uproar in vain, heaping up stuff— yet not knowing who will gather it.
8. And now, my Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
9. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of a fool.
10. I am speechless, not opening my mouth —for You have done it.
11. Remove Your scourge from me. I perish by the blow of Your hand.
12. With rebukes You chasten one for iniquity and You consume like a moth what he finds pleasure in. Surely all humanity is but a vapor. Selah
13. Hear my prayer, Adonai, and listen to my cry— do not keep silent at my tears. For with You I am an outsider, a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
14. Turn your gaze away from me, so I may smile again, before I go, and am no more.”