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I Will Watch My Ways

¹ For the choirmaster. For Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”² I was speechless and still; I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred.³ My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:⁴ “Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.⁵ You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah⁶ Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

⁷ And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.⁹ I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because it is You who have done this.¹⁰ Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.¹¹ You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah¹² Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a sojourner like all my fathers.¹³ Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”