1 O Jehovah, you have been our refuge throughout every generation.

2 Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and its inhabitants, you are God from everlasting to everlasting.

3 You turn men back into dust and say: »Return, O sons of men!«

4 In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night.

5 You sweep mortals away in the sleep of death. They sprout again in the morning like grass.

6 In the morning they blossom and sprout. In the evening they fade and wither away.

7 Your anger consumes us. We are troubled by your rage.

8 You set our sins in front of you. You put our secret sins in the light of your presence.

9 Indeed, all our days slip away because of your fury. We live out our years like one long sigh.

10 The days of our lives are seventy or eighty years if we are in good health. But the best of them bring trouble and misery. Indeed, they are soon gone, and we fly away.

11 Who understands the power of your anger, and your fury according to the reverence that is due you?

12 Teach us to number each of our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

13 Return, O Jehovah! How long? Change your plans about us, your servants.

14 Satisfy us every morning with your loving kindness so that we may sing for joy and rejoice all our days.

15 Make us rejoice for as many days as you have made us suffer, for as many years as we have experienced evil.

16 Let your servants see what you can do. Let our children see your majesty.

17 Let the kindness of Jehovah our God be with us. Confirm for us the work of our hands. Yes, confirm the work of our hands.