Psalms 141

Psalms 141:1-10

Humility Psalms 141:1-10 This is an evening psalm. Acceptable prayer is as the smoke of incense rising in the still air, Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4. Each day we should ask to be delivered from lip sins, life sins, and like sins-especially the last, the dainties of appetite and desire, Psalms 141:4. We owe a great deal to the care of fellow-believers. It may take more love to smite than to soothe. The breaking of the box of precious ointment over our heads may cause a momentary shock; but we must not refuse it, since the contents are so salutary; and we can return their well-meant kindness by praying for the righteous when their calamities are multiplied, Psalms 141:5. It was a rough time for David, but he kept looking up and committing his soul to God’ s faithful care. Under similar circumstances Paul struck an even higher note, Romans 8:36-37. Go on patiently living up to your ideal. God will surely vindicate you!

Let my prayer be as incense! Another of David’s Psalms. De Wette is led by the language to class it with Psalms 10:1-18 as one of the oldest.

Psalms 141:1. I cry! … Make haste! … Give ear! The word Kara, to call, or to cry, continually occurs in the Scriptures (Psalms 17:6; Psalms 22:2). Psalms 3:4 shows the answer. Make haste! (Psalms 38:22; Psalms 40:13; Psalms 70:1). Give ear! (Psalms 17:1; Psalms 60:1; Psalms 86:6). Psalms 141:2. Let my prayer be as incense! The smoke of the sweet-smelling incense is often used in Scripture as a symbol of the prayer of believers, which is precious to God (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4). The offering of incense morning and evening under the Levitical dispensation symbolized prayer (Exodus 30:7-8).

Psalms 141:3-4. Set a watch before my mouth The Psalmist prays for preservation from the danger of lip sins, heart sins and life sins. God’s sentry is God’s peace (Philippians 4:7). How wise to make God the doorkeeper of our mouth! (Proverbs 4:24).

Psalms 141:4. Let me not eat of their dainties The child of God does not eat of the “dainties” of the wicked. Yet amid tribulation he seems to sit at a banqueting table, anointed as a guest with oil (Psalms 23:5).

Psalms 141:5. Let the righteous smite me “The righteous” is referred by some commentators to God, who alone, in its full sense, deserves the appellation (2 Samuel 7:14-15). But it may also refer to that loving care which one believer may exercise over another, in rebuke and admonition. For, “Which shall not break my head,” the R.V. more correctly translates, “let not my head refuse it.” The last clause should be rendered, as in the R.V., Even in their wickedness shall my prayer continue. That prayer rises like a geyser in winter’s frost as under summer skies.

Psalms 141:6. When their judges When the enemies of the Lord are overthrown, they will be the more prepared to listen to words which they had rejected before, but the intrinsic sweetness of which will then commend them to their hearts.

Psalms 141:8. Mine eyes are unto Thee “Looking off unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) is a good motto. And it is marvelous how the feet are kept from snares and pitfalls, when the eyes, instead of being fixed upon the ground, are lifted upwards to the Throne (Psalms 119:110).

Psalms 141:9-10. That I withal escape Another petition that the Psalmist may be kept. Proverbs 3:26 gives an encouraging promise–“The Lord shall keep.”