Prayer for Wisdom and Forgiveness

¹I said, “I will guard my ways,

Lest I sin with my tongue;

I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle,

While the wicked are before me.”

²I was mute with silence,[#Ps. 38:13]

I held my peace even from good;

And my sorrow was stirred up.

³My heart was hot within me;

While I was musing, the fire burned.

Then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“Lord , make me to know my end,[#Ps. 90:12; 119:84]

And what is the measure of my days,

That I may know how frail I am.

⁵Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,

And my age is as nothing before You;

Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.

Selah

⁶Surely every man walks about like a shadow;

Surely they busy themselves in vain;

He heaps up riches,

And does not know who will gather them.

⁷“And now, Lord, what do I wait for?

My hope is in You.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions;

Do not make me the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was mute, I did not open my mouth,[#Ps. 39:2]

Because it was You who did it.

¹⁰Remove Your plague from me;[#Job 9:34; 13:21]

I am consumed by the blow of Your hand.

¹¹When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,

You make his beauty melt away like a moth;

Surely every man is vapor.

Selah

¹²“Hear my prayer, O Lord ,

And give ear to my cry;

Do not be silent at my tears;

For I am a stranger with You,

A sojourner, as all my fathers were.

¹³Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength,[#Job 7:19; 10:20, 21; 14:6; Ps. 102:24]

Before I go away and am no more.”