Prayer for Wisdom and Forgiveness

To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

39 I said, “I will guard my ways,Lest I sin with my tongue;I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,While the wicked are before me.”² I was mute with silence,I held my peace even from good;And my sorrow was stirred up.³ My heart was hot within me;While I was musing, the fire burned.Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴ “Lord, make me to know my end,And what is the measure of my days,That I may know how frail I am.⁵ Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,And my age is as nothing before You;Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah⁶ Surely every man walks about like a shadow;Surely they busy themselves in vain;He heaps up riches,And does not know who will gather them.

⁷ “And now, Lord, what do I wait for?My hope is in You.⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions;Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.⁹ I was mute, I did not open my mouth,Because it was You who did it.¹⁰ Remove Your plague from me;I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,You make his beauty melt away like a moth;Surely every man is vapor. Selah

¹² “Hear my prayer, O Lord,And give ear to my cry;Do not be silent at my tears;For I am a stranger with You,A sojourner, as all my fathers were.¹³ Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength,Before I go away and am no more.”