I will of my ways be heedful

Verse 1

I will of my ways be heedful, that I sin not with my tongue; for my mouth a curb is needful, while the wicked round me throng.

Verse 2

Thus I said, and dumb remained; from my lips no sound was heard; from good words I even refrained, but my inmost soul was stirred.

Verse 3

Long my heart was in me burning, ere the smothered flame out-brake, and, the enkindled words returning, thus impatiently I spake:

Verse 4

Teach me, Lord, the number meting of my days, how brief it is; make me see and know how fleeting, vain and sad a life is this.

Verse 5

Life a span is at the longest; mine is nothing, Lord, to thee; in his best estate and strongest man is only vanity.

Verse 6

Yea, he fleeting past us goeth in a shadow brief and vain, heaping riches; but none knoweth who shall gather them again.

Verse 7

And where, Lord, is my reliance? All my hope is fixed on thee. From my sin, and the defiance of the foolish, save thou me!

Verse 8

I, because it was thy pleasure, murmured not, nor silence broke; yet remove thy plague: o'er measure grievous is thy heavy stroke.

Verse 9

When for sin or slighted duty man corrected is by thee, but a moth-worn robe his beauty, and but vanity is he.

Verse 10

See my tears, regard my danger; be not deaf unto my prayer; for a sojourner and stranger am I, as my fathers were.

Verse 11

Spare me, yet a little spare me, to recover strength, before thy dread summons hence shall bear me to be seen on earth no more!