Minister: Lift up your hearts!
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!
I said to myself, take note of your ways,
Don’t sin with your mouth.
Bit and bridle go on the tongue,
Whenever the wicked are standing here.
So I said nothing,
Dumbstruck in silence.
I held my peace til grief flared up.
My heart was hot,
The more I thought.
In meditation, the fire burned,
And so I spoke.
My Lord and God, show me my end,
And measure out for me the days.
Show me what this business is,
So I can feel my frailty.
My life is here, four fingers wide,
My years are nothing, wisps of smoke.
Every man, at the top of his glory,
Is only smoke and vanity. Consider
All the pomp that man can show,
And all his heaped up worries.
He stacks up gold and emptiness,
He does not know who gets it all.
My Lord, my hope,
Deliver me from foolish steps,
Do not let me be taunted by fools.
I shut my mouth; this was Your hand.
Remove Your strokes from me,
Your blows are overwhelming.
When man in sin must be corrected,
His beauty fades and is consumed.
Surely every man is vanity. Consider
My prayer, oh Lord and God,
Listen to my cry.
Pay attention to my tears,
I am a stranger here, and lost,
Like all my fathers were.
Let me recover now my strength,
Before I leave,
And am no more.
Psalm 39
And so, gracious Father, we worship You now through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, amen.