Following the suggestion of Murai
A. 1 I said, I will take heed to my ways,
that I sin not with my tongue:
I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
while the wicked is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good;
and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me,
while I was musing the fire burned:
B. then spake I with my tongue,
4 LORD, make me to know mine end,
and the measure of my days, what it is;
that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;
and mine age is as nothing before thee:
verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew:
surely they are disquieted in vain:
he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
C. 7 And now, LORD, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
A’. 9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
B’. 10 Remove thy stroke away from me:
I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,
thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:
surely every man is vanity. Selah.
C’. 12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry;
hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.