1. For the leader; for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
2. I resolved I would watch my step lest I offend by my speech; I would keep my mouth muzzled while the wicked man was in my presence.
3. I was dumb, silent; I was very still while my pain was intense.
4. My mind was in a rage, my thoughts were all aflame; I spoke out:
5. Tell me, O LORD, what my term is, what is the measure of my days; I would know how fleeting my life is.
6. You have made my life just handbreadths long; its span is as nothing in Your sight; no man endures any longer than a breath. Selah.
7. Man walks about as a mere shadow; mere futility is his hustle and bustle, amassing and not knowing who will gather in.
8. What, then, can I count on, O Lord? In You my hope lies.
9. Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the butt of the benighted.
10. I am dumb, I do not speak up, for it is Your doing.
11. Take away Your plague from me; I perish from Your blows.
12. You chastise a man in punishment for his sin, consuming like a moth what he treasures. No man is more than a breath. Selah.
13. Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my cry; do not disregard my tears; for like all my forebears I am an alien, resident with You.
14. Look away from me, that I may recover, before I pass away and am gone.
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