• Yahweh, Make Me Know My End

  • 1 I said, “I will keep watch over my ways That I may not sin with my tongue; I will keep watch over my mouth as with a muzzle While the wicked are in my presence.”
  • 2 I was mute with silence, I even kept silent from speaking good, And my anguish grew worse.
  • 3 My heart was hot within me, While I meditated the fire was burning; Then I spoke with my tongue:
  • 4 “Yahweh, cause me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
  • 5 “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing before You; Surely every man, even standing firm, is altogether vanity. Selah.
  • 6 “Surely every man walks about as a shadow; Surely they make an uproar in vain; He piles up riches and does not know who will gather them.
  • 7 “And now, Lord, what do I hope in? My expectation is in You.
  • 8 “Deliver me from all my transgressions; Make me not the reproach of the wicked fool.
  • 9 “I have become mute, I do not open my mouth, Because it is You who have done it.
  • 10 “Remove Your plague from me; Because of the opposition of Your hand I am wasting away.
  • 11 “With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is vanity. Selah.
  • 12 “Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and give ear to my cry for help; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a sojourner with You, A foreign resident like all my fathers.
  • 13 “Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again Before I go and am no more.”