For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psa 141

1 I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me;
    hear me when I call to you.
2 May my prayer be set before you like incense;
    may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;
    keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil
    so that I take part in wicked deeds
along with those who are evildoers;
    do not let me eat their delicacies.

5 Let a righteous man strike me – that is a kindness;
    let him rebuke me – that is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it,
    for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.

6 Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,
    and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.
7 They will say, ‘As one ploughs and breaks up the earth,
    so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.’

8 But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign Lord;
    in you I take refuge – do not give me over to death.
9 Keep me safe from the traps set by evildoers,
    from the snares they have laid for me.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
    while I pass by in safety.

A. Find Out

1. Of what does he ask and to what does he liken it? v.1,2
2. What are the various things he asks the Lord to keep him from? v.3,4
3. What is he willing to receive? v.5
4. Yet who does he pray against? v.5c-7
5. In what does he find in the Lord? v.8
6. And so what does he finally ask? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. What is the core of his plea to the Lord?
2. How does this correspond to the previous psalm?
3. How does he envisage deliverance coming?

C. Comment:

                Essentially this seems simply a further prayer requesting deliverance from ungodly enemies but there is much more to it. David does start with a call for the Lord to come quickly (v.1) and to heed his prayer in an ongoing way like the incense flows at evening sacrifice (v.2) so it will be heeded.

                But as with Psa 139:23,24 he is aware of his own vulnerability and so asks the Lord to watch over him to keep him  from speaking wrong things (v.3), thinking wrong things (v.4a) and doing wrong with other wrong doers (v.4b).

                He is willing to be disciplined by others (v.5) but that doesn’t put him off praying (v.5c) specifically against those who do wrong, that they will be brought down and he will be vindicated (v.6) and they will recognise the devastation that has been brought on them (implied) in the form of a judgment of God (v.7).

                Yet he will not overcome by that anguish or anger against the unrighteous; he will focus on the Lord (v.8) for in Him will be his security and his prayer to the Lord is for deliverance from death. He is aware that others plot his downfall (v.8) and his prayer is that the Lord will turn their scheming back on themselves to being their own destruction (v.10) and in this way he will be delivered.

D. Application:

1. Be alert to those who seek you downfall and seek God as your refuge.
2. Be open to His searching eye and any needed discipline.