Psalms — Chapter 39
For the leader; for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
I resolved I would watch my steplest I offend by my speech;I would keep my mouth muzzledwhile the villain was in my presence.
I was dumb, silent;I was veryavery Cf. use of ṭwb in Hos. 10.1; Jonah 4.4. stillwhile my pain was intense.
My mind was in a rage,my thoughts were all aflame;I spoke out:
Tell me, O ETERNAL One, what my term is,what is the measure of my days;I would know how fleeting my life is.
You have made my life just handbreadths long;its span is as nothing in Your sight;no human endures any longer than a breath.bno human endures any longer than a breath Meaning of Heb. uncertain. Selah.
Everyone walks about as a mere shadow;mere futility is their hustle and bustle,amassing and not knowing who will gather in.
What, then, can I count on, O my Sovereign?In You my hope lies.
Deliver me from all my transgressions;make me not the butt of the benighted.
I am dumb, I do not speak up,for it is Your doing.
Take away Your plague from me;I perish from Your blows.
You chastise everyone in punishment for sin,consuming like a moth what they treasure.No human is more than a breath. Selah.
Hear my prayer, O ETERNAL One;give ear to my cry;do not disregard my tears;for like all my forebearsI am an alien, resident with You.
Look away from me, that I may recover,cthat I may recover Meaning of Heb. uncertain. before I pass away and am gone.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”