Psalm 141
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
[CONTEXT] When wickedness attacks, we are tempted.
We may be tempted to join with wickedness.
We may be tempted to respond to wickedness with wickedness of our own.
It seems to me that as David asked God for sanctification and protection in Psalm 141, he was feeling tempted.
Even though David was the anointed king of Israel, Saul didn’t willingly relinquish the crown.
Saul and his wicked men hunted David and tried to kill him for years before Saul finally died in battle with the Philistines and David became king.
During his time on the run, was David ever tempted to fight fire with fire, to respond to Saul’s wickedness with wickedness of his own?
In 1 Samuel 24, David had the opportunity to meet Saul’s wickedness with wickedness of his own. He could have killed Saul as Saul relieved himself in a cave, and David’s men even encouraged it, but David didn’t give in to that temptation.
During his time on the run, was David ever tempted to just give up, let Saul be king, and (if Saul would allow it) rejoin Saul’s royal court?
In 1 Samuel 26, David and his men sneak up on Saul and his men in their sleep. Once again, David could’ve killed Saul and did not. But as David was sneaking through Saul’s camp, did he see food, wine, and other delicacies that David and his men could only dream about as they hid in caves? And if he saw those things, was David tempted to bow the knee to Saul as king once again and go back to those things? If so, David didn’t give in; he didn’t give in to that temptation.
I think David may have been tempted in these ways and in many other ways, but here in Psalm 141, he asked the Lord to keep him from temptation.
[CIT] In Psalm 141, David asked God to protect him from wickedness within and wickedness without.
[PROP] We must make David’s prayer our own, asking the Lord to keep us from every temptation just as David did.
[TS] Notice the first PART of this psalm…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
PART #1: O Lord, I Call Upon You (vv. 1-2)
PART #1: O Lord, I Call Upon You (vv. 1-2)
1 O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You! 2 May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.
[EXP] Running from Saul, David can’t worship in the tabernacle according to the letter of the law but he does worship in his caves according to the spirit of the law.
He calls on the Lord to hasten to him, to hurry to help him.
The Lord can help David hiding in a cave just as the same as if David were standing in the court of the tabernacle.
We call on the Lord wherever we are because he can hurry to help us wherever we are.
David asks God to give ear to his voice when he calls.
In other words, David wants God to hear his prayer.
David understands that God’s attentive hearing and favorable response to David’s prayer is an act of God’s grace.
That God hears our prayers and responds favorably to them is an act of God’s grace for us as well.
God is under no obligation to listen to us or respond in ways best for us, but He does so because He is gracious.
When Aaron, the High Priest, trimmed the lamps in the tabernacle in the evening, he burned incense that rose up to God (Ex. 30:8).
David, perhaps hiding in one of his caves, asks that his prayers rise up to God like the incense in the tabernacle.
With the lifting of his needy hands as a replacement for the lifting up of the evening offering in the tabernacle, David says to God, “I need you; I am nothing without you,” and he hopes that this prayer will rise up to God like a pleasing aroma.
[INTER] What questions do you have about vv. 3-6? What insights do you have regarding vv. 3-6? How do these verses challenge us or apply to us as followers of Jesus today?
[APP] There might be several applications for us…
One, let us call on the Lord wherever we are because He can hurry to us wherever we are.
Two, let us find the desire to pray in remembering that prayer is only available to us by God’s grace.
Three, let us use God’s commands concerning public worship to inform our private devotions.
Hebrews 13:5 calls us to bring to God a sacrifice of praise.
Sacrifice = praise.
Revelation 5:8 speaks of the bowl of incense as the prayers of the saints.
Incense = prayers.
Four, let us bookend our day with morning and evening prayer.
Psalm 141 = evening prayer.
2 May my prayer be counted as incense before You; The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.
Psalm 5 = morning prayer.
3 In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
[TS]…
PART #2: Set A Guard, O Lord (vv. 3-6)
PART #2: Set A Guard, O Lord (vv. 3-6)
3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. 4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice deeds of wickedness With men who do iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies. 5 Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it, For still my prayer is against their wicked deeds. 6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock, And they hear my words, for they are pleasant.
[EXP] David wants the pure prayer of vv. 1-2 rising up to God from a protected heart.
His mouth must be guarded as the tabernacle entrance was, but it is not, as Jesus said, what comes into the mouth that makes one clean but what comes out. For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
The mouth, the heart, and the hands that may perform wicked deeds must be looked after by the Lord.
The hands may bring the delicacies of wickedness to the mouth thereby turning the heart toward rebellion.
Perhaps this is why Daniel and his friends refused to partake of Nebuchadnezzar’s table.
Rather than being tempted the by the delicacies of the wicked, David preferred the smiting of the righteous. (Later, David would receive just such a smiting from the prophet Nathan, which led to David to repent after his sin with Bathsheba.)
This righteous smiting is painful but kind and reproving. It marks for removal those things that keep us from closeness with God.
This righteous smiting is like an anointing with oil, another allusion to tabernacle worship informing David’s private devotion.
Anointing = reproof.
Aaron and the other priests weren’t fit for service until they had been anointed.
David understands that he is not fit to serve God if he refuses the kind but painful anointing of righteous rebuke that brings him closer to God.
If David did refuse this righteous smiting, he would reveal that he is not actually against wickedness, but he is actually against it, which we see in that he prays against the wicked deeds of the wicked.
David’s flesh may be weak and in need of the Lord’s watchful protection, but his heart (revealed in his prayers) is set against wickedness.
David prays for and expects wicked leaders to be cast down on the rocks of God’s judgment. Then he prays that those that followed the wicked would turn and realize the sweetness of his words.
This is exactly what happened when Saul died and all those that followed him then turned to David.
[INTER] What questions do you have about vv. 3-6? What insights do you have regarding vv. 3-6? How do these verses challenge us or apply to us as followers of Jesus today?
[APP] There might be several applications for us...
One, we need the Lord’s all-round protection just as David did. Let us ask him for it.
Two, we must embrace the righteous smite, the Christian friend who points out our sin so that we might repent and draw close to God.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
Martin Luther said, “I had rather that true and faithful teachers should rebuke and condemn me, and reprove my ways, than that hypocrites should flatter me and applaud me as a saint.”
W. S. Plumer said, “If we are not willing to be reproved by God or man in the kindness of love, we have not the temper of saints, and cannot expect to mend our faults, or prepare for a better world, v. 5.”
Let us thank God who reproves us by His Word.
And let us thank God for faithful brothers and sisters who reprove us out of love.
Three, let us pray that those who follow wickedness will see their leaders fall and the hear the sweetness of what Jesus says.
[TS]…
PART #3: For My Eyes Are Toward You, O God (vv. 7-10)
PART #3: For My Eyes Are Toward You, O God (vv. 7-10)
7 As when one plows and breaks open the earth, Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol. 8 For my eyes are toward You, O God, the Lord; In You I take refuge; do not leave me defenseless. 9 Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me, And from the snares of those who do iniquity. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, While I pass by safely.
[EXP] Tempted by wickedness and looking at the following wickedness has, David and those with him are left feeling ran over, plowed up, and scattered on the edge of the grave (i.e., Sheol). But God saves from death, and David’s eyes are on Him.
When the temptations of wickedness are alluring…
When the following of wickedness increases…
When it seems like wickedness will run over, plow up, and scatter God’s people…
…David sets his eyes on the Lord.
It’s when wickedness is on the attack, that God is a refuge for and defender of His people.
In times of peace, there is no need for such things, but in times of peril a refuge and defense is precious.
David looks to God for these things, and we should too.
David asks God to keep him from the jaws of the trap, the snares of those who do iniquity.
Traps and snares are well-concealed. Someone might stumble upon them if they aren’t careful.
David asks God to be his careful, to keep him from those traps and snares.
He also asks that the wicked fall into their own into their own nets, their own traps and snare, even as he passes safely by.
This reminds me of Psalm 23:4…
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Because God was with David, he could have assurance of passing safely by the traps and snares set for him by the wicked.
[INTER] What questions do you have about vv. 3-6? What insights do you have regarding vv. 3-6? How do these verses challenge us or apply to us as followers of Jesus today?
[APP] We live in a world of wickedness, and it appeals to our flesh. We find ourselves tempted. We see wickedness gaining in popularity. We feel like it might chew us up and spit us out. And we would have no problem with it except that God has make us righteous in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus was never wicked but died to save us from our wickedness and rose from the dead so that we would no longer be wicked but righteous.
And He guaranteed that we would be righteous by filling us with His Holy Spirit when we first believed on Jesus for salvation.
Because we are now holy ones by God’s grace in Jesus Christ, we can’t be OK with wickedness.
When we encounter wicked within us or out in the world, we experience a holy aggravation, and that holy aggravation is a sign that we’ve been born again.
And if we’ve been born again, then God has and will see us safely through.
[TS]…
Conclusion
Conclusion
W. S. Plumer’s last words on this psalm are fitting, “Let not the hunted and afflicted child of God be cast down with much sorrow (over wickedness). Better times are coming.”
Indeed, because of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, they are.
[PRAYER]
