Psalms 39-41

Psalm 39

¹To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked is before me.

²I was dumb with silence, I held my peace from good; and my sorrow was stirred.

³My heart burned within me; the fire was kindled in my musing: I spoke with my tongue,

⁴Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as hand-breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before thee; verily, every man, even the high placed, is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶Verily, man walketh in a vain show; verily they are disquieted in vain; he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

⁷And now, what wait I for, Lord? my hope is in thee.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions; make me not the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; for *thou* hast done it.

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thy hand.

¹¹When thou with rebukes dost correct a man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely, every man is vanity. Selah.

¹²Hear my prayer, Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry; be not silent at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, a sojourner, like all my fathers.

¹³Look away from me, and let me recover strength, before I go hence and be no more.

Psalm 40

¹To the chief Musician. Of David. A Psalm. I waited patiently for Jehovah; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

²And he brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock; he hath established my goings:

³And he hath put a new song in my mouth, praise unto our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall confide in Jehovah.

⁴Blessed is the man that hath made Jehovah his confidence, and turneth not to the proud, and to such as turn aside to lies.

⁵Thou, O Jehovah my God, hast multiplied thy marvellous works, and thy thoughts toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; would I declare and speak them, they are more than can be numbered.

⁶Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire: ears hast thou prepared me. Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not demanded;

⁷Then said I, Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me --

⁸To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart.

⁹I have published righteousness in the great congregation: behold, I have not withheld my lips, Jehovah, *thou* knowest.

¹⁰I have not hidden thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

¹¹Withhold not thou, Jehovah, thy tender mercies from me; let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

¹²For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head: and my heart hath failed me.

¹³Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me; Jehovah, make haste to my help.

¹⁴Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be turned backward and confounded that take pleasure in mine adversity;

¹⁵Let them be desolate, because of their shame, that say unto me, Aha! Aha!

¹⁶Let all those that seek thee be glad and rejoice in thee; let such as love thy salvation say continually, Jehovah be magnified!

¹⁷But I am afflicted and needy: the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer: my God, make no delay.

Psalm 41

¹To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Blessed is he that understandeth the poor: Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.

²Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; he shall be made happy in the land; and thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies.

³Jehovah will sustain him upon the bed of languishing: thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.

⁴As for me, I said, Jehovah, be gracious unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.

⁵Mine enemies wish me evil: When will he die, and his name perish?

⁶And if one come to see me, he speaketh falsehood; his heart gathereth wickedness to itself: he goeth abroad, he telleth it.

⁷All that hate me whisper together against me; against me do they devise my hurt.

⁸A thing of Belial cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he is laid down, he will rise up no more.

⁹Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I confided, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

¹⁰But thou, Jehovah, be gracious unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

¹¹By this I know that thou delightest in me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

¹²But as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

¹³Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity! Amen, and Amen.