Psalm XXXIX

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;

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

Lord, wilt thou gracious hear my cry,
Pity my tears, and heal my woe?
As were my fathers, so am I,
A wretched stranger here below.

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.