It was set by Baroque composers such as Heinrich Schütz, and single verses were used prominently in major works by Johannes Brahms in Ein deutsches Requiem and by Igor Stravinsky in his Symphony of Psalms.

³My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, ⁴LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, 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.

¹²Hear 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.

[4] Matthew Henry attributes it to David, stating that he must have been in emotional turmoil or beset by enemies when he wrote the psalm, and struggled to wait patiently for God's salvation.

[16][17] In the current Liturgy of the Hours, it is sung or recited in the Office of Readings on the Wednesday of the second week of the four-weekly cycle of liturgical prayers.

[18] William Brewster, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, used the motto Hebel est omnia Adam, a Hebrew–Latin phrase taken from verse 5, next to his signature to indicate the vanity of man.

[20] Heinrich Schütz set the psalm in German with the text from the Becker Psalter, "In meinem Herzen hab ich mir" (In my heart I [told] myself), for choir as his SWV 136.

Verses 4 to 7 in German, "Herr, lehre doch mich" (Lord, teach me) are used in the third movement of Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms, for baritone, choir and orchestra.