Psalm 141: When You Need Help Holding Your Tongue

Core Theme: For when you’re caught in conflict with others, and need God to guard your words, your heart, and the company you keep
(Related Theme: This psalm also touches on Guilt, Sin & Repentance.)

Background

David wrote Psalm 141 as an evening prayer from the middle of danger and pressure. The psalm doesn’t name the occasion, but the setting is clear enough. Wicked men are laying snares for him, others are pressing him to join in their ways, and he cries out to the Lord for help before things go wrong. He asks that his prayer be received like the incense and the evening sacrifice, the daily offerings at the tabernacle (Exodus 30:7–8). What makes the psalm so practical is where David looks first. Before he says a word about the people troubling him, he asks God to deal with his own mouth and his own heart.

Psalm 141 (KJV)

1 A Psalm of David. LORD, 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, O 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.

5 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.

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 fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

The heart of it

Most of us, when we’re in conflict with someone, pray about the other person. We ask God to change them, quiet them, or set them straight. David takes a different road, and it is a wise one. He prays about his own mouth, his own heart, the company he keeps, and how he receives correction, and only then does he turn to those who are working against him. He doesn’t pretend the danger isn’t real, and he doesn’t ask God to ignore it. But he knows that in any conflict the first battle is the one inside, and that the Lord is the only one who can guard it.

That is the hope in this psalm for anyone caught between hard words, hard people, and hard temptations. You are not asked to be strong enough on your own. You are invited to do what David did, which is to cry out, hand God the watch over your mouth, and fix your eyes on Him.

Walking through it

Verses 1–2: “LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.”

David doesn’t open with a speech. He opens with a cry, and “make haste” tells us he needs help now. Then he asks that his prayer be received like the evening incense and the lifted hands of the evening sacrifice [an offering made at the close of the day]. In the tabernacle, incense rose as a sweet fragrance before the Lord, and David asks that his plain, urgent prayer rise the same way. God treats the prayers of His people as precious. In Revelation we see “…golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints” (Revelation 5:8). Whatever you are facing, a prayer that costs you nothing but honesty is still received.

Verse 3: “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

Of all the things David could ask for in the middle of a fight, it is striking that his first request is help with his own words. He doesn’t say, “Silence my enemies.” He asks God to post a guard at the door of his lips. Anyone who has been in a heated moment knows why. The sharp reply forms quickly, and once it is spoken it cannot be taken back. “Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles” (Proverbs 21:23). David knows he cannot always keep that door by willpower alone, so he asks the Lord to stand watch.

Verse 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.”

Words come from somewhere, and Jesus said where: “…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). So David moves from the door of his lips to the heart behind it. He asks God not to let his heart lean toward evil and not to let him share the dainties [delicacies, the rich food and pleasures] at the table of wrongdoers. Sin rarely shows up looking ugly. It comes with a seat at the table and a warm welcome. This is also where the psalm touches on guilt, sin and repentance, because David does not assume his own heart is safe. He asks God to hold it steady before it leans the wrong way. “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

Verse 5: “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.”

This may be the most surprising verse in the psalm. David says that if a righteous person strikes him with a word of correction, he will count it a kindness and an excellent oil, something soothing he will gladly receive rather than pull away from. The sense is that he will not turn defensive. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6). In a conflict, that is a hard thing to pray for, since our first instinct is to protect ourselves. But a person who welcomes honest correction from someone who loves the Lord will stay safer than the person surrounded by flattery.

Verses 6–7: “When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.”

These two verses are among the hardest in the psalm to translate, and we should hold them loosely. The picture seems to be this. Those who held power over David and refused to listen will one day be brought low, and then they will remember his words and find them true. Verse 7 shows how close to death David and his men have come, with bones scattered like split wood on the ground. It is a vivid picture of how desperate his situation was. Yet even here, he is speaking to God, not taking matters into his own hands.

Verse 8: “But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.”

Here is the turn of the whole psalm. After the danger, the traps, and the pressure, David lifts his eyes. When King Jehoshaphat faced an enemy he could not match, he prayed, “…neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee” (2 Chronicles 20:12). That is the same posture. David also asks that his soul not be left destitute [defenseless, left with nothing]. He is not asking for an easy path. He is asking not to be left alone in it. For the believer, that prayer is already answered, because the Lord does not leave those who trust in Him.

Verses 9–10: “Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.”

The gins [traps] are the hidden snares set to catch him, and notice what David asks for. He asks to be kept from them. He does not ask for the strength to strike back. Then in verse 10, he asks that the wicked fall into their own nets, “whilst that I withal escape” [while I go safely on my way]. That is a prayer for God to be the judge, and it echoes something Scripture says elsewhere: “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him” (Proverbs 26:27). David leaves the outcome with the Lord and asks only to walk away safe.

Carrying this forward

If the Lord has already carried you through a conflict, whether a harsh word you didn’t speak, a bad influence you stepped away from, or a rift that has since healed, stop and thank Him for it. It is easy to forget what He kept us from once the pressure lifts, and to slowly drift back into trusting our own self-control. Remember that the guard at the door of your lips was never yours alone to keep. Let that memory keep your eyes on Him, and make you patient with others who are still in the middle of it.

And if you are in the middle of it now, with words you are tempted to throw, people pulling you toward things you know are wrong, or someone whose correction stings, bring it to the Lord the way David did. Ask Him to set a watch before your mouth before you reply. Ask Him to guard your heart and to give you friends who will tell you the truth in love. You cannot control what others say or do, and God does not promise that every conflict will be mended on this side of heaven. But He does see, and He does hear. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Keep your eyes on Him, and leave the rest in His hands.