[1] A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, through all the generations you have been our home! [2] Before the mountains were created, before the earth was formed, you are God without beginning or end. [3] You speak, and man turns back to dust. [4] A thousand years are but as yesterday to you! They are like a single hour! [5] We glide along the tides of time as swiftly as a racing river and vanish as quickly as a dream. We are like grass that is green in the morning but mowed down and withered before the evening shadows fall. [7] We die beneath your anger; we are overwhelmed by your wrath. [8] You spread out our sins before you-our secret sins-and see them all. [9] No wonder the years are long and heavy here beneath your wrath. All our days are filled with sighing. [10] Seventy years are given us! And some may even live to eighty. But even the best of these years are often empty and filled with pain; soon they disappear, and we are gone. [11] Who can realize the terrors of your anger? Which of us can fear you as he should? [12] Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should. [13] O Jehovah, come and bless us! How long will you delay? Turn away your anger from us. [14] Satisfy us in our earliest youth with your loving-kindness, giving us constant joy to the end of our lives. [15] Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery! Replace the evil years with good. [16] Let us see your miracles again; let our children see glorious things, the kind you used to do, [17] and let the Lord our God favor us and give us success. May he give permanence to all we do.
