Psalm 141

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:3-7

2. A request to walk in God’s ways 141:3-7 read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:5-7

The psalmist expressed openness to the constructive criticisms of the righteous, but he prayed for God to judge the wicked. He believed their leaders would fail, as when an attacking army throws the judges of their enemy from cliffs to destroy them. The wicked would learn that David’s words had been true when God ultimately destroyed them. They would testify that God had overturned them into the grave, as one who plows a field turns the earth over. read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:8-10

3. A request to give protection 141:8-10David next petitioned the Lord for His defense. His enemies had set traps for him. He prayed that those who set the traps would themselves fall into them, and that God would deliver him.We who are God’s people should pray regularly for our own sanctification, and for protection from the evil individuals who oppose us, as we seek to walk with God. read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 141:1-10

An evening prayer in time of trouble. The Psalmist prays that he may be strengthened to resist temptation, and so escape the fate of evil men.2. Be set forth] lit. ’raise itself,’ like the smoke of incense. 5. Correction from friends is desirable. An excellent oil, which shall not break my head] RV ’as oil upon the head; let not my head refuse it.’ For yet, etc.] ’for still my prayer is against their wrong-doing.’6. An obscure verse. ’When their judges are flung headlong by the sides of the... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141

CXLI.This is one of the most obscure psalms in the whole psalter, hardly a clause of Psalms 141:5-7 offering anything more than a conjectural meaning. The author appears from Psalms 141:2 to be a priest or Levite, being so familiar with the rites of the sanctuary as to use them as metaphors. From Psalms 141:3-4 we gather that he (or as Psalms 141:7 indicates, the community for which he speaks) is under a temptation to betray the cause of Jehovah and true religion, either by pronouncing some... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:2

(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... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:3

(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 having been silent.” read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:4

(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 refer to the casuistries by which some of the laxer Jews excused their participation in heathen rites or... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:5

(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 judicial sense, as in Genesis 31:37; Isaiah 2:4; Proverbs 24:25, &c. The greatest obscurity attaches to... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:6

(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 2 Chronicles 25:12, and notice that the word here is “Sela‘,” the name of the capital of Edom; comp. Hosea 10:14; Psalms 137:9, where, however, the expression is “against the cliff.”)They shall . . .—Better,... read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:3-7

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:5-7

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 141:8-10

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 141:1-10

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:2

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:3

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:4

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:5

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 141:6

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