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((To the Chanter for Iduthun, |praising| a Psalm of David.)) I said: I will keep my ways that I offended not in my tongue. And so I shut my mouth, while the ungodly laid wait for me.
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I held my tongue, I was dumb, I kept silence, yea even from good words, but it was pain and grief to me.
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My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus musing, the fire kindled: so that I spake with my tongue:
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LORD, let me know mine end, and the number of my days: that I may be certified what I want.
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Behold, thou hast made my days a span long, and my life as it were nothing before thee. O how vain are all men living? Selah
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Yea every man walketh as it were a shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain: he heapeth up riches, and can not tell to whom he gathereth them.
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And now Lord |LORDE| wherein shall I comfort me? my hope is in thee.
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Deliver me from all mine offenses, and make me not a scorn unto the foolish.
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I keep silence, and open not my mouth, for thou hast done it.
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Turn thy plagues away from me, for I am consumed thorow the fear of thy hand.
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When thou punishest man for sin, thou chastenest him: so that his beauty consumeth away, like as it were a moth. O how vain are all men. Selah.
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Hear my prayer O LORD, and consider my calling: shew not thyself as though thou sawest not my tears. For I am a stranger and pilgrim with thee, as all my forefathers were.
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Oh spare me a little that I may refresh myself, before I go hence, and be no more seen.