Psalm 39—What is the line of my life beside the light's long walk between stars?

Rendition of Psalm 39

I promised myself: I will watch all my ways
And my words will not go wrong.
I will muzzle my mouth
When the wicked wag their tongues
And tuck lies between their smiles.
So I was mute. I held my silence.
Pain doubled within me.
My heart grew coal-hot.
I barely whispered, but it was fire,
Not words my tongue made.

How does this end? What is the span? 
What is the reach? What bounds 
Have you put on my fleeting days?
What is the line of my life
Beside the light's long walk between stars? 
You gave me time no wider than a hand's breadth.
Where I go, a long shadow follows;
A breath, and the shadow passes.
Surely it is for nothing, for wind, for vanity
That I have spent so much time
Heaping up what I can barely carry, 
What, in the end, I will set down in a pile
And leave behind.

You are the one I'm waiting for,
Betting on, hoping in.
I would rather suffer along your hard way
Than lead the parade of my folly.
If I lay all this down now,
What will you do with my empty hands?
When you discipline us,
You fall on our dear things like locusts.
You eat holes in the tapestry 
Of our days like so many moths.
You make salt pillars of our loves looking back.

But enough. 
Turn aside this plague.
We are only breath.
Hear me.
I raise this cry to you with tears.
I have wandered with you through 
These years, as have all my fathers.
Now look away that I can smile again
Before I depart.

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Psalms: 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 40, 43, 47, 54, 61, 63, 66, 70.

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Photo by Gregoire Jeanneau on Unsplash