Psalm 38-41

American Standard Version

38 O Jehovah, rebuke me not in thy wrath;
Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
² For thine arrows ^[b]stick fast in me,
And thy hand ^[c]presseth me sore.
³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation;
Neither is there any ^[d]health in my bones because of my sin.
⁴ For mine iniquities are gone over my head:
As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
⁵ My wounds are loathsome and corrupt,
Because of my foolishness.
⁶ I am ^[e]pained and bowed down greatly;
I go mourning all the day long.
⁷ For my loins are filled with burning;
And there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸ I am faint and sore bruised:
I have ^[f]groaned by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
⁹ Lord, all my desire is before thee;
And my groaning is not hid from thee.
¹⁰ My heart throbbeth, my strength faileth me:
As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
¹¹ My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague;
And my kinsmen stand afar off.
¹² They also that seek after my life lay snares for me;
And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things,
And meditate deceits all the day long.
¹³ But I, as a deaf man, hear not;
And I am as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
¹⁴ Yea, I am as a man that heareth not,
And in whose mouth are no ^[g]reproofs.
¹⁵ For in thee, O Jehovah, do I hope:
Thou wilt answer, O Lord my God.
¹⁶ For I said, Lest they rejoice over me:
When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
¹⁷ For I am ready to fall,
And my sorrow is continually before me.
¹⁸ For I will declare mine iniquity;
I will be sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ But mine enemies are lively, and are strong;
And they that hate me ^[h]wrongfully are multiplied.
²⁰ They also that render evil for good
Are adversaries unto me, because I follow the thing that is good.
²¹ Forsake me not, O Jehovah:
O my God, be not far from me.
²² Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation.

39 I said, I will take heed to my ways,
That I sin not with my tongue:
I will keep ^[j]my mouth with a bridle,
While the wicked is before me.
² I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, ^[k]even from good;
And my sorrow was stirred.
³ My heart was hot within me;
While I was musing the fire burned;
Then spake I with my tongue:
⁴ Jehovah, make me to know mine end,
And the measure of my days, what it is;
Let me know how frail I am.
⁵ Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;
And my life-time is as nothing before thee:
Surely every man ^[l]at his best estate is altogether ^[m]vanity. Selah
⁶ Surely every man walketh ^[n]in a vain show;
Surely they are disquieted ^[o]in vain:
He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
⁷ And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in thee.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions:
Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
⁹ I was dumb, I opened not my mouth;
Because thou didst it.
¹⁰ Remove thy stroke away from me:
I am consumed by the ^[p]blow of thy hand.
¹¹ When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,
Thou ^[q]makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:
Surely every man is ^[r]vanity. Selah
¹² Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, and give ear unto my cry;
Hold not thy peace at my tears:
For I am a stranger with thee,
A sojourner, as all my fathers were.
¹³ Oh ^[s]spare me, that I may ^[t]recover strength,
Before I go hence, and be no more.

40 I waited patiently for Jehovah;
And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
² He brought me up also out of ^[u]a horrible pit, out of the miry clay;
And he set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
³ And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God:
Many shall see it, and fear,
And shall trust in Jehovah.
⁴ Blessed is the man that maketh Jehovah his trust,
And respecteth not the proud, nor such as ^[v]turn aside to lies.
⁵ Many, O Jehovah my God, are the wonderful works which thou hast done,
And thy thoughts which are to us-ward:
^[w]They cannot be set in order unto thee;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.
⁶ Sacrifice and ^[x]offering thou hast no delight in;
^[y]Mine ears hast thou opened:
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required.
⁷ Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is ^[z]written of me:
⁸ I delight to do thy will, O my God;
Yea, thy law is within my heart.
⁹ I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great assembly;
Lo, I will not refrain my lips,
O Jehovah, thou knowest.
¹⁰ I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart;
I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation;
I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great assembly.
¹¹ Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Jehovah;
Let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
¹² For innumerable evils have compassed me about;
Mine iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
And my heart hath ^[aa]failed me.
¹³ Be pleased, O Jehovah, to deliver me:
Make haste to help me, O Jehovah.
¹⁴ Let them be put to shame and confounded together
That seek after my soul to destroy it:
Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor
That delight in my hurt.
¹⁵ Let them be ^[ab]desolate ^[ac]by reason of their shame
That say unto me, Aha, aha.
¹⁶ Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee:
Let such as love thy salvation say continually,
Jehovah be magnified.
¹⁷ But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinketh upon me:
Thou art my help and my deliverer;
Make no tarrying, O my God.

41 Blessed is he that considereth ^[ad]the poor:
Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.
² Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive,
And he shall be blessed ^[ae]upon the earth;
And deliver not thou him unto the will of his enemies.
³ Jehovah will support him upon the couch of languishing:
Thou ^[af]makest all his bed in his sickness.
⁴ I said, O Jehovah, have mercy upon me:
Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
⁵ Mine enemies speak evil against me, saying,
When will he die, and his name perish?
⁶ And if he come to see me, he speaketh falsehood;
His heart gathereth iniquity to itself:
When he goeth abroad, he telleth it.
⁷ All that hate me whisper together against me;
Against me do they devise my hurt.
^8 [ag]An evil disease, say they, ^[ah]cleaveth fast unto him;
And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more.
⁹ Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
Who did eat of my bread,
Hath lifted up his heel against me.
¹⁰ But thou, O Jehovah, have mercy upon me, and raise me up,
That I may requite them.
¹¹ By this I know that thou delightest in me,
Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.
¹² And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity,
And settest me before thy face for ever.