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1 For the end, a Song of David, to Jeduthun.
2 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue:
I set a guard on my mouth,
While the sinner stood in my presence.
3 I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good words;
And my grief was renewed.
4 My heart grew hot within me,
And a fire would kindle in my meditation:
I spoke with my tongue,
5 O Lord, make me to know mine end,
And the number of my days, what it is;
That I may know what I lack.
6 Behold, thou hast made my days old;
And my existence is as nothing before thee:
Nay, every man living is altogether vanity. Pause.
7 Surely man walks in a shadow;
Nay, he is disquieted in vain:
He lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he shall gather them.
8 And now what is my expectation? is it not the Lord?
And my ground of hope is with thee. Pause.
9 Deliver me from all my transgressions:
Thou hast made me a reproach to the foolish.
10 I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; for thou art he that made me.
11 Remove thy scourges from me:
I have fainted by reason of the strength of thy hand.
12 Thou chastenest man with rebukes for iniquity,
And thou makest his life to consume away like a spider’s web:
Nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.
13 O Lord, hearken to my prayer and my supplication:
Attend to my tears: be not silent,
For I am a sojourner in the land,
And a stranger, as all my fathers were.
14 Spare me, that I may be refreshed,
Before I depart, and be no more.