Psalm XXXIX

Verse 1

When I resolv'd to watch my thoughts, To watch my words and all my ways, Lest I should with unwary faults, Offend the God my life should praise;

Verse 2

In mournful silence long restrain'd, My thoughts were press'd with secret grief; My heart with sad reflection, pain'd, In silence sound no kind relief.

Verse 3

While thus the inward anguish burn'd, My straiten'd speech at length found way; My tongue in broken accents mourn'd Before my God, and try'd to pray.

Verse 4

Almighty Maker of my frame, Teach me the measure of my days, Teach me to know how frail I am, And spend the remnant to Thy praise.

Verse 5

My days are shorter than a span, A little point my life appears; How frail at best is dying man! How vain are all his hopes and fears!

Verse 6

Vain his ambition, noise, and show! Vain are the cares which rack his mind He heaps up treasures mix'd with woe, And dies, and leaves them all behind.

Verse 7

O He a nobler portion mine; My God, I bow before Thy throne, Earth's fleeting treasures I resign, And fix my hope on Thee alone.

Verse 8

Save me, by Thy almighty arm, From all my sins, and cleanse my faults Then guilt nor folly shall alarm My soul, or vex my peaceful thoughts.

Verse 9

Beneath the chastening of Thy hand, Let not my heart or tongue repine; But silent and submissive bend, And bear the stroke because tis Thine.

Verse 10

But O let mercy soon prevail, Thy awful anger to remove; The stroke is just, but I am frail, Thy sparing goodness let me prove.

Verse 11

Frail man, how soon his beauty flies! He sins, and God afflicts with pain; Crush'd like the feeble moth he dies; His strength, how impotent and vain!

Verse 12

LORD, will You gracious hear my cry, Pity my tears, and heal my woe? As were my fathers, so am I, A wretched stranger here below.

Verse 13

O spare me, and my strength restore, Ere my few hasty minutes flee; And when my days on earth are o'er, Let me for ever dwell with Thee.