1 I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”
2 I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:
4 “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
5 Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
6 “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.
10 Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.
11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
12 “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”
Study Psalm 39
Read the complete chapter before isolating one sentence, and note the reference and edition beside anything you quote. Then take a focused next step: a passage-note method or a memory practice method .
Edition and source notes
This is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, in its own numbering: 13 verses of Psalm 39, with punctuation and line breaks as published. Source notes are labelled separately; the publisher’s headings and cross references are not part of the text. WEB edition notes.
Read Psalm 39 in the King James Version or the Berean Standard Bible .
Open Psalm 39 in the study app to take notes, make review cards or map the passage; it requires an account.