Psalm 141
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Cry out to the Lord
Cry out to the Lord
VERSE 1
A direct approach to the LORD - “LORD, I cry out to You;”
A sense of urgency in his plea - “Make haste to me!”
A determined plea for an audience with God - “Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You!”
His mention of voice not words could indicate his prayer was being expressed with cries and not words and sentences
Lord, I cry unto thee. This is my last resort: prayer never fails me. My prayer is painful and feeble, and worthy only to be called a cry; but it is a cry unto Jehovah, and this ennobles it. I have cried unto thee, I still cry to thee, and I always mean to cry to thee. To whom else could I go? What else can I do? Others trust to themselves, but I cry unto thee. The weapon of all prayer is one which the believer may always carry with him, and use in every time of need. —Charles Spurgeon
VERSE 2
A prayer continually lifted up as incense - “Let my prayer be set before You as incense,”
As incense is carefully prepared, kindled with holy fire, and devoutly presented unto God, so let my prayer be. We are not to look upon prayer as easy work requiring no thought. It needs to be "set forth"; what is more, it must be set forth "before the Lord," by a sense of his presence and a holy reverence for his name: neither may we regard all supplication as certain of divine acceptance, it needs to be set forth before the Lord "as incense," concerning the offering of which there were rules to be observed, otherwise it would be rejected of God. —Charles Spurgeon
Raised hands as the raising of the smoke from a sacrifice -”The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Prayers that are acceptable
Prayers that are worshipful
Prayer to guard us from sin
Prayer to guard us from sin
VERSE 3 (James 3)
Ask the LORD to keep us from saying evil things - “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth;”
Ask the LORD to alert us to thoughts and words that would not be pleasing to Him - “Keep a watch over the door of my lips.”
VERSE 4
The source of our speech and actions is our heart
A prayer to keep our hearts from desiring evil things and yielding to the temptation - “Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,”
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
A prayer to keep us from wrong associations and enjoying the pleasures of sin - “To practice wicked works, With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.”
When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.”
Hanging with the wrong crowd will soon have us eating with them and giving us an appetite for the things they enjoy
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26:
A call for discipline and safety
A call for discipline and safety
VERSE 5 (Hebrews 12:3-11)
The discipline of action - “Let the righteous strike me;”
The source is the righteous assuring the discipline is given with the right intentions and the right mode
The acceptance of discipline as an act of love - “It shall be a kindness.”
The discipline of words - “And let him rebuke me;”
The acceptance of the rebuke gives a pleasant response and does not reject it - “It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.”
Leading into verses 6-10 - “For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked.”
His response to the wicked and their persecution was prayer
VERSE 6 - 7 (godly or wicked will determine interpretation)
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs III. Prayer for Vindication (141:5d–7)
The prayer (“my prayer,” v. 5d) is an imprecation against the godless aristocracy (“their rulers,” v. 6). The psalmist prays that they may die a cruel death, being thrown down the cliffs (cf. 2 Chronicles 25:12; Luke 4:29). The shock of God’s judgment on their despotic regime will affect their followers and may bring them to their senses. They remind one another of the saying of the godly psalmist (“the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken”) and the instruction of a popular proverb (v. 7). The language of v. 7 is difficult, but the sense seems to be thus: Even as a farmer breaks up the soil and brings up the rocks, so the bones of the wicked will be scattered without a decent burial.
Is it the godly or the wicked which will determine interpretation
VERSE 7
When their rulers are thrown down from the cliff, [the wicked] will hear that my words were fitting. As when one plows and breaks the ground into clods, our bones are strewn at the mouth of Sh’ol. CJB
David’s prayers at the end of verse 5 would be vindicated as right when the rulers are judged and those wicked who survive view this judgement
In verse 7 is the bones those of the righteous or the wicked?
VERSE 8
When tragedy strikes look to the LORD - “But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord;”
Sovereign LORD = Yahweh Adonai
Make God our refuge - “In You I take refuge;”
Plead for our soul to be rescued - “Do not leave my soul destitute.”
VERSE 9
Prayer again for God to protect him from the snares and traps of the enemy - “Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
VERSE 10
A prayer for reversal - “Let the wicked fall into their own nets,”
A prayer for escape - “While I escape safely.”