1 I said, I will take heed to my ways,
that I sin not with my tongue:
I will keep my mouth with a bridle,
while the wicked is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, 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 Lord, make me to know mine end,
and the measure of my days, what it is;
that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;
and mine age is as nothing before thee:
verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew:
surely they are disquieted 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 blow of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity,
thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth:
surely every man is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, O Lord,
and give ear unto my cry;
hold not thy peace at my tears:
for I am a stranger with Thee,
and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
(A stranger on this earth ...)
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength,
before I go hence, and be no more.
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Comments by Joan Boney
Certainly the Psalms are very helpful to us and much of each of the Psalms are prayers that I have often prayed to God from my heart, as I go through trials of this present life.
I go through many problems on this earth. Most of the troubles come through people who say they are the church or are the church but have slipped into ways of this world and fail to call on God.
Certainly some problems are from relatives who do not know the way of God.
But with each problem, God is my answer and God brings to my mind through HIS Spirit the way to go in the problem.
My faith must be with God and I must turn to HIM and depend on HIM and focus on that which HE has shown me concerning the people involved in the current issue.
This is something I can do because I have HIS Spirit. But also I must remember to do that in the trouble.
And with each problem, my great desire is for resolution so I can go forward in peace of God for only through peace can I make proper decisions and understand the Word of God.
James 3 ... 13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
Peace does not come through compromise as this world tries to do. Peace can never come through compromise. Compromise usually just allows you to continue with evil doers and makes the flesh happy temporarily.
Peace comes only through that word God gives concerning the problem at hand. When we have that specific word from the Spirit of God we know exactly what to do in the situation.
For example:
I have a relative who very much wants me to communicate with her but not in a spiritual way. She just wants to be able to tell me her troubles the same way she tells other people her troubles. She wants to "cast her burden" on me rather than going to God with her problems. All this will do is eat me up and keep me from going forward in the faith and peace of God. I will find I am focusing on her troubles if I allow this to happen. So I do not allow this to happen. It will not help her and it will destroy me.
God has given me two dreams about this cousin. In one dream, God showed me I could not go out through her house. In a second dream, God showed me this cousin will accuse me of wrong doing even when I was not in the area where the damage occurred.
I want to read Bible. I want to hear from the Spirit of God. I want to exhort the church by the Spirit of God with the spiritual gift of exhortation given me by God for the church.
To do these things, I must keep myself in peace. I cannot afford to be eaten up to no avail by the problems other people fail to take to God.
Psalm 14:4 ... 4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.
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Once I told my mother the following as she was walloping about in self pity ... "You can go down but I'm not going down with you."
When I said that to her, she awoke and straightened up and stopped the self-pity.
If I have to leave a person, I will do so. If I have to avoid speaking to that person by phone I will do so. If that person cannot straighten up his/her life by going to God, I cannot take the place of God, hearing their faithless words for such would pull me down and destroy me.
I'm able to avoid such by focusing on that which is specifically shown me about the person by the Spirit of God.
Thus like Paul, I can do all things through Christ (the Word) that strengthens me. Phil. 4:13
When I have "that" word, I have an anchor for my soul in the trouble and I have something to cling to which keeps me going in the way of God in the issue at hand.