King James Version
Psalms 141
10 verses with commentary
Set a Guard Over My Mouth
A Psalm of David. LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.</strong> This evening prayer opens with urgent petition, the psalmist crying to God for swift intervention. <strong>"LORD, I cry unto thee"</strong> (יְהוָה קְרָאתִיךָ/<em>Yahweh qeratikha</em>) addresses Yahweh by covenant name, appealing to relationship rather than general deity. <em>Qara</em> means ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.
**made--**though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.
**calf--**called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their ...
Read full commentary →Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. set: Heb. directed
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KJV Study Commentary
"Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." The metaphor: <em>tikon tefillati ketoret lefanekha</em> (may be established my prayer as incense before You). <em>Kun</em> (be established/set forth) suggests placement; <em>tefillah</em> (prayer); <em>ketoret</em> (incense) was burned on the golden altar twice daily (Exodus 30:7-8, 34-38...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Set forth . . .**—See margin; but more literally, *be erected, *suggesting the pillar of smoke (comp. Tennyson’s “Azure pillars of the hearth”) continually rising to heaven. Some think the *incense *refers to the morning sacrifice, so that the verse will mean, “let my prayer rise regularly as morning and evening sacrifice.” But this is hardly necessary.
**Sacrifice**—*i.e., *the offering of ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.
**made--**though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.
**calf--**called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their ...
Read full commentary →Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
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KJV Study Commentary
"Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." The petition <em>shitah YHWH shomerah l'phi</em> (set, O LORD, a guard for my mouth) asks for divine help controlling speech. <em>Shomerah</em> (guard/watchman) indicates sentinel protecting against invasion. <em>Peh</em> (mouth) encompasses all speech. <em>Nitzrah al dal sefatai</em> (keep watch over the door of my lips). <em>Natsa...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Watch.**—The image drawn from the guard set at city gates at night seems to indicate the evening as the time of composition of the psalm.
**Door of my lips.**—Comp. “doors of thy mouth” (Micah 7:5), and so in Euripides, πύλαι στόματος*. *For the probable motive of the prayer, see Introduction. The poet’s feeling is that of Xenocrates: “I have often repented of having spoken, but never of hav...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
19-23. From indirect setting God at naught, they pass to direct.
**made--**though prohibited in Ex 20:4, 5 to make a likeness, even of the true God.
**calf--**called so in contempt. They would have made an ox or bull, but their idol turned out but a calf; an imitation of the divine symbols, the cherubim; or of the sacred bull of Egyptian idolatry. The idolatry was more sinful in view of their ...
Read full commentary →Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.
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KJV Study Commentary
"Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties." The prayer <em>al tat libbi l'davar ra</em> (do not incline my heart to any evil thing) asks God to prevent inner disposition toward evil. <em>Natah</em> (incline/stretch/bend) means to direct, turn toward; <em>lev</em> (heart) represents will, affections, mind. <em...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **To practise wicked works **. . .—The Vulg., *ad excusandas excusationes, *following the LXX., not only preserves the expressive assonance of the original, but probably conveys its meaning better than the somewhat tame English version. Evidently the danger to be guarded against was not so much a sinful act as a sinful utterance, and the expression “to make pretexts or excuses” may possibly re...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jr 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
**despised--**(Nu 14:31).
**believed not his word--*...
Read full commentary →Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. me; it shall be a: or, let the rigteous smite mee kindly, and reprove me; let not their precious oil break my head, etc
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.</strong> This verse expresses remarkable openness to correction from godly people. <strong>"Let the righteous smite me"</strong> (יֶהֶלְמֵנִי־צַדִּיק חֶסֶד/<em>yehelemeni-tsaddiq chesed</em>) welcomes r...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) The difficulties of the psalm thicken here. Render, *Let a righteous man smite me, it is a kindness; and let him reprove me, it is oil for the head: my head shall not refuse it though it continue; yet my prayer is against their wickedness.*
The word rendered “smite” is that used of Jael’s “hammer strokes “(Judges 5:26). (Comp. Isaiah 41:7.) The Hebrew for “reprove” is probably used in a judici...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jr 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
**despised--**(Nu 14:31).
**believed not his word--*...
Read full commentary →When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse contains striking imagery of judgment and vindication. The Hebrew verb <strong>"overthrown"</strong> (<em>shamat</em>) means to be cast down or dashed to pieces, suggesting violent divine judgment upon corrupt judges. The phrase <strong>"in stony places"</strong> (<em>yede-sela</em>, literally "hands of rock") evokes imagery of judges being hurled from cliffs, a known form of execution ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) This verse again is full of obscurities. The first clause probably should be rendered, *Let their judges be broken to pieces by the force *(literally, *hands*)* of the rock; *or, *let their judges be cast down by the sides of the cliff—i.e., *hurled down the precipitous face of the ravine (See 2Chronicles 25:12, and notice that the word here is “Sela‘,” the name of the capital of Edom; comp. H...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jr 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
**despised--**(Nu 14:31).
**believed not his word--*...
Read full commentary →Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood</strong>. Describes battlefield aftermath or near-death metaphor. Life chopped up, scattered at death's door. Yet verse 8 turns to God with confidence. This characterizes lament—brutal honesty followed by faith-filled petition.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **Our bones.—**The literal rendering of this verse is *As when one cutteth and cleaveth in the earth our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheôl.*
The reading “our bones” necessarily makes this an abrupt transition from the fate of the unjust judges in the last verse to that of the afflicted people, but in a correction by a second hand in the Codex Alex. of the LXX. we find the much easier a...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
24-27. The sin of refusing to invade Canaan, "the pleasant land" (Jr 3:19; Eze 20:6; Da 8:9), "the land of beauty," was punished by the destruction of that generation (Nu 14:28), and the threat of dispersion (De 4:25; 28:32) afterwards made to their posterity, and fulfilled in the great calamities now bewailed, may have also been then added.
**despised--**(Nu 14:31).
**believed not his word--*...
Read full commentary →But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. leave: Heb. make not my soul bare
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust</strong>. After describing scattered bones, David redirects gaze upward. Eyes fixed on God amid danger demonstrates faith. <em>Chasah</em> (take refuge) is the response to threat.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8, 9) Comp. Psalm 25:15.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28-30. sacrifices of the dead--**that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jr 10:3-10; compare Psa 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words,
**joined themselves to Baal-peor--**see Nu 25:2, 3, 5.
**Baal-peor--**that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The n...
Read full commentary →Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity</strong>. Snare/trap imagery depicts premeditated schemes. Prayer acknowledges vulnerability while trusting God's protection.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **From the snare.**—The original idiom is far more forcible: “from the hands (or, ‘clutches’) of the snare.” (See above, Psalm 141:6, “in the hands of the cliff.”)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28-30. sacrifices of the dead--**that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jr 10:3-10; compare Psa 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words,
**joined themselves to Baal-peor--**see Nu 25:2, 3, 5.
**Baal-peor--**that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The n...
Read full commentary →Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape. escape: Heb. pass over
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape</strong>. Prays for poetic justice—enemies falling into own traps. Not vindictiveness but requesting evil recoil on evildoers. Scripture shows this: Haman hanged on his gallows.
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) Comp. Psalm 7:15.
**Withal.**—Probably, *altogether *(“whilst I altogether escape”), which some join with the previous clause, “Let the wicked fall into their own nets together, whilst I escape.”
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28-30. sacrifices of the dead--**that is, of lifeless idols, contrasted with "the living God" (Jr 10:3-10; compare Psa 115:4-7; 1Co 12:2). On the words,
**joined themselves to Baal-peor--**see Nu 25:2, 3, 5.
**Baal-peor--**that is, the possessor of Peor, the mountain on which Chemosh, the idol of Moab, was worshipped, and at the foot of which Israel at the time lay encamped (Nu 23:28). The n...
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