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Psalms 141

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Invocation and Prayer as Sacrifice 1–2

1
A Psalm of David. LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. ​
2
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. ​

Guarding the Mouth and Heart 3–4

3
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. ​
4
Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.

The Value of Righteous Rebuke 5–7

5
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. ​
6
When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.
7
Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. ​

A Plea for Final Deliverance 8–10

8
But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. ​
9
Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
10
Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalm 141

Verse 1

make haste unto me — Chush, to hurry, is David’s word in urgent prayer: ‘Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation’ (Ps 38:22); ‘O LORD, make haste to help me’ (Ps 40:13). ‘Cry’ is qara, to call out to someone, and ‘give ear’ (azan) is drawn from the word for the ear.

Verse 2

incense… the evening sacrifice — Incense was burned on the golden altar ‘every morning’ and ‘at even’ (Ex 30:7–8). The ‘evening sacrifice’ is minchah, the grain offering; Elijah prayed at its hour (1 Kgs 18:36). Incense is later the figure of ‘the prayers of the saints’ (Rev 8:3–4).

Verse 3

Set a watch — Shomrah, a guard or watch, is found only here in Scripture; ‘keep’ is natsar, the verb of Ps 140:1. The mouth has a ‘door’ (deleth), a swinging gate that is to be guarded. Ps 39:1 is the same resolve: ‘I will keep my mouth with a bridle’.

Verse 5

an excellent oil — ‘Excellent’ is rosh, ‘head’, the same word as in ‘break my head’: the rebuke of the righteous is oil for the head and does not wound it. ‘Kindness’ is chesed, loving-kindness. ‘Faithful are the wounds of a friend’ (Prov 27:6) states the same judgment.

Verse 7

at the grave’s mouth — Literally at the mouth of sheol, the place of the dead. ‘Our’ is plural, the words of a company, as in Ps 44:22, ‘for thy sake are we killed all the day long’, which Paul applies to believers (Rom 8:36). The bones lie scattered like split wood.

Verse 8

mine eyes are unto thee — The same look is in Ps 25:15, ‘Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD’. ‘Trust’ is chasah, to flee for refuge, and ‘destitute’ is arah, to make bare or empty out. The double title joins the divine name with Adonai, ‘Lord’.

Verse 10

fall into their own nets — Makmar, a hunter’s net, is found elsewhere only in Isa 51:20. The wicked fall into what they set, as in Ps 35:8, ‘let his net that he hath hid catch himself’. Haman’s end is the plain case: ‘they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai’ (Esth 7:10).