January 22
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PSALM 141- PRAYER FOR PROTECTION FROM INSINCERITY & COMPROMISE
O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! 2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! 3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!
4 Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! 5 Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet, my prayer is continually against their evil deeds. 6 When their judges are thrown
over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant. 7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol. 8 But my eyes are toward you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! 9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely. – Psalm 141:1-10
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According to the ESV study bible notes, this is an individual lament, a prayer that God will protect the faithful person against all insincerity and compromise. David opens with a plea for God to hear him out when he calls on Him. There is a sense of urgency in this request as he asks God to hurry up to hear him out. If we don’t know David, we will probably pick up an irreverent tone in this first verse; but we know that David has a very intimate relationship with God and it just shows that when you are very close to someone, you can be comfortable to honestly ask anything from that person. He asks God to accept his prayer like he would an offering that is pleasing to Him.
This prayer shows how faithful and sincere David is in his relationship with his Master. How many of us would come to ask the Lord to guard our mouths and our hearts and ensure that we don’t participate in any form of evil? Often, we get so busy doing life that we don’t even take time to be quiet and still with the Lord and plead Him to guide and protect us constantly. We are not even accountable to our loved ones a lot of times. I love verse 5 because David actually requests God to bring righteous people in his life so that they can correct him. He considers it an anointing and blessing when God’s people rebuke him. When he says “let my head not refuse it,” we hear a man who knows how sinful his nature is and is humble enough to admit it. He ends this song with a plea for protection from the enemy.
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REFLECTION
• Give examples of insincere acts and compromised Christian lives.