Psalm 39

David tries to keep quiet and can't, so the fire in him comes out as a prayer about how short life is: handbreadths, a breath, people bustling about like phantoms and heaping up riches. It's sober. It ends strangely and honestly, asking God to look away so he can smile again before he dies. Scripture lets that bleak line stand.

"And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You." (Psalm 39:7)

Versions/Hebrew: "but a breath" in 39:5 is hevel [1892], vapor, the key word of Ecclesiastes ("vanity").