Righteousness by Faith

Psalm 37:39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
For some reason this verse really stuck out to me tonight. Maybe it's because I am always trying to earn my way to favor with God. I think that if I'm perfect, God will love me more. Or if I'm perfect, I will be more acceptable. Thus, it sends me on this destructive path of striving, striving, and more striving and simply leaves me empty, broken, and really worn out.
But Ephesians 2:8-10 says that it is "by grace I have been saved, through faith--and this not from myself, it is a gift of God--not by works so that no one can boast. For I am God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do."
It is God who does the work in me.
I do not save myself.
I do not make myself righteous.
I cannot earn my way to Him.
So, why, oh why do I keep trying?