What Does Psalms 141:2 Mean?

(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 flour and oil, which followed the burnt offering both at morning and evening (Leviticus 2:1-11; in Authorised Version,” meat offering “), and here probably associated specially with evening, because the prayer was uttered at the close of the day. (See Note, Psalm 141:3.) For the “lifted hands,” here, from the parallelism, evidently only a symbol of prayer, and not a term for oblation, see Psalm 28:2, Note. “For what are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the Drain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, Both for themselves, and those that call them friend.” TENNYSON: *Morte d’ Arthur,*