Psalm CXLI

1 LoKD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me! give ear unto my voice when

I cry unto thee.

2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

3 Set a watch, 0 Lord, before my mouth: keep the door of my lips.

4 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. 6 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.

428 PSAOr ex LI. — PliAYKR TO 15 IC KEPT FllOM ANY EViL WOlilv

6 When their judges are overthrown in stony places,
They shall hear my words; for they are sweet.

7 Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth,

As when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.

8 But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord!
In thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

9 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the

workers of iniquity. 10 Let the wicked full into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

riietoneof A PsALM of Diivid, foi’ the Church’s Head and the Church’.s members in every age. For may the members not cry, and might not the Head cry, with as much urgency as verses ], 2, asking for as speedy an answer as that given to Daniel at the hour of the evening sacrifice (ix. 19-21)? And should not prayer and alms-giving go together, now as of old as in the days of Cornelius (Acts x. 3)? Here, the “lifting up of hands” is, whatever our hands bring to God, by way of offering or service (see 2 Sam. xi. 8). The “incense” represented the sweet savour arising from the blood on the altar’s horns, and from the atoning sacrifice in general.

The plan. In all ages, heljp against temptation has been needed, as in

verses 3-5. Surely we need still to pray in this self-indulging age, as verse 4, Let me not be ensnared by their prosperity,

“Let me not eat oftlieir dainties.”
Nay, rather, instead of this self-indulgence,
“Let the righteous smite, it is mercy;
M>j head refuses not the oil for the head.” (Ilengst.)

This oil for the head is better to me than all that these guests find at their festive board. Yes, and if tempted to avenge myself (Matt. XXV. 51), I will pray instead. The force of the clause may be thus given — “For still while it continues, my prayer shall ascend in the midst of their evil,” (Hengst.). The Church has m every age needed the help of hope, when her persecutors were strong; and this we have in verses 6, 7 — “Iheir judges are overthrown in (precipitated on) the sides of the rock,” (2 Chron. xxv. 12; 2 Kings ix. 33, Jezebel rock). Selah. they who were leaders of the oppressing crew are fallen! crushed! dashed in pieces by the mighty hand of the Judge of all! And though now they refuse to listen to warning, yet it is their interest so to do; “Let them hear my words;” for there is no terror in them, no bitterness if listened to now (comp. Psa. ii. 12); “they are sweet,”

In verse 7, “Otir bones are scattered, like one ploughing and clearing (making furrows in) the earth,” has been supposed to contain an allusion to Resurrection, as if the Psalmist said. These persecutions are the precursors of a time when the seed shall spring up. The Church never doubts, and never in any age has doubted, that soon shall come her final escape from all snares, “from the hands of the snare” (ver. 9); and this we have in the closing verses, verses 8-10. They remind us much of Paul’s words in 2 Tim. iv. ] 8 — “And the Lord shall preserve me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom.” Like Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron. xix. 12, the Church fixes her eye on the Lord (ver. 8) whatever be her case, imitating her Lord in the days of his flesh, when he, too, used this Psalm, most emphatically praying, “Leave not my soul hare’’’ (“^V^ i), when about to pour out his soul (mn Isa. liii. 12. It is interesting to notice that the last words of the Psalm are literally,

“Until that I pass over” Go on overthrowing them till they are annihilated; go on de- Prophetic

reference.

stroying them till thy people are safely in the kingdom —

over” into Canaan, as when the ark stood keeping back Jordan’s waters for them; or as when Israel passed the Red Sea and entered on the conquest of the land, for the expression is the same as occurs in Exod. xv. 16. Augustine was wrong in thinking the reference was to the Passover; for that is expressed by a peculiar term, whereas this is the usual liyi;^- He has been followed by others, e.g., one who paraphrases the clause thus —

“And let my saints escape with me;
My blood their passover shall be.”

But the allusion is to the passing into Canaan, and so reminds us more directly of the glory. Christ and his host of ransomed ones march in triumph into possession of the kingdom, while his and their enemies are falling on every side, like snow falling on fire. The whole Psalm is A prayer of the Head and his Memhers to he kept from every evil work and preserved to the k’-ngdom.