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Psalm 141

Oh for a clear mind and steadfast heart in the midst of temptation!  That was the desperate need that moved David to write this song.  He had learned what many of us take an entire lifetime to learn – that we don't have the control over our minds and hearts that we think we have, and that we are much more prone to temptation and to falling into sin than we'd like to think.

The song was undoubtedly composed in remembrance of a time of terrible temptation.  And it was one in which David became aware that he could easily have fallen, and,  because he knew himself pretty well by that time, he was therefore very, very urgent in his request for the Lord's help.  Thinking about how weak he really was, he said, 'Lord I cry out to You; make haste to me!"  He feels that he needs the Lord's immediate help or else he'll fall before help comes!  A further problem is that he's not even sure about the purity and righteousness of his own prayers.  So he prays about them too.  He says, "Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.  Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."  Paraphrased, he might be saying, "Lord, even though my prayer may be foolish, yet I pray that You'll make it into something beautiful!  And then come!  And then Help!"

He knows where the attack is most likely to come – in his tongue!  His fear is that he'll say things he shouldn't say.  He pleads, "Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips.  Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men who work iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies."  It's very much like the prayer David's greater Son taught us when He said, "Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one."

He'd even prefer to have "the righteous strike me" if that's necessary to keep him from sin.  What he's praying is that he'll be thankful even to take the loving rebuke of his friends.  He says, "Let my head not refuse it."  In other words, he's asking his Lord to keep him from even thinking negatively about such rebukes.

He gives thanks that he himself hasn't yet fallen to the temptation.  He knows God has helped him.  But he prays about some others who haven't done as well.  He says, "For my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked."  He knows what will happen to them.  He says, "Their judges are overthrown by the sides of the cliff" Their "judges" are their advisers, and they're completely unsuccessful in advising them. Since they won't listen, they therefore fell into foolishness and sin.   They did it even though David himself advised them otherwise.  He says, "And they hear my words, for they are sweet."

In other words, he's warned them, but they wouldn't listen.  He told them how "our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, as when one plows and breaks up the earth."  He's telling them that the sinful course of action they contemplate has always in the past resulted in hurt and destruction.

But David himself will not go their way. He will do well only because he looks to the Lord's counsel.  He prays, "But my eyes are upon You, O God the Lord; in You I take refuge." And, knowing how weak he is without that Resource, he prays, "Do not leave me destitute.  Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, and from the traps of the workers of iniquity.   Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I escape safely!"

Oh that you and I might learn David's lesson!  We too are much more prone to temptation than we often think.  God help us to look to Him and to His Word, and not to the "counsel of the ungodly!"  And we must never, ever say to ourselves, "I would never do that kind of thing," for it is then - when we trust in ourselves – that we are MOST likely to fall.