Psalms 38-40

1O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.

2For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

3There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.

4For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.

5My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.

6I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.

7For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.

8I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.

9O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You.

10My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.

11My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.

12Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.

13But like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth.

14I am like a man who cannot hear, whose mouth offers no reply.

15I wait for You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God.

16For I said, “Let them not gloat over me— those who taunt me when my foot slips.”

17For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.

18Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.

19Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason.

20Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good.

21Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God.

22Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

1I said, “I will watch my ways so that I will not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle as long as the wicked are present.”

2I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

3My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

4“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.

5You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

7And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.

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

9I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

10Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

11You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

13Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”

1I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry.

2He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.

3He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

4Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

5Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

6Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.

7Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll:

8I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

9I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.

10I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation; I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulness from the great assembly.

11O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me; Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.

12For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.

13Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; hurry, O LORD, to help me.

14May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.

15May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled at their own shame.

16May all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; may those who love Your salvation always say, “The LORD be magnified!”

17But I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my helper and deliverer; O my God, do not delay.