Psalms 141:1-10·~1 min

Come Quickly to Me

David opens with urgency, asking the LORD to come quickly, hear his voice, and receive his prayer like incense and his lifted hands like the evening offering. The prayer is presented not as an afterthought but as an act of worship rising before God.

A¹ Psalm of David. ²May my prayer be set before You like incense;

David asks for a guard over his mouth and a watch over the door of his lips, and then reaches deeper by asking that his heart not be drawn toward evil or toward sharing in the wicked's pleasures. In contrast to their delicacies, he receives the righteous man's strike and rebuke as an act of kindness that his head should not refuse.

³Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; ⁴Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing ⁵Let the righteous man strike me;

The psalm then imagines a collapse of wicked rule, with rulers thrown down and the bones of the speaker's company scattered as when earth is broken open. The images are abrupt and stark, showing how close this prayer stands to violence, judgment, and mortal vulnerability.

⁶When their rulers are thrown down from the cliffs, ⁷As when one plows and breaks up the soil,

Against that landscape David fixes his eyes on the Lord GOD and takes refuge in him, asking not to be left defenseless and to be kept from the snares laid by evildoers. The psalm ends with a reversal already familiar in these prayers: the wicked fall into their own nets while David passes safely by.

⁸But my eyes are fixed on You, ⁹Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, ¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

Section summaryDavid calls on the LORD to come quickly and to receive his prayer like incense and the lifting of evening sacrifice. He asks for a guard over his mouth and heart, welcomes the striking rebuke of the righteous over the delicacies of the wicked, speaks of judgment falling on ungodly rulers, and finally fixes his eyes on the Lord for refuge, asking to be kept from snares until the wicked fall into their own nets.

Role in the chapterThis section functions as a prayer of disciplined dependence. Its work is to show that true rescue includes both deliverance from hostile plots and protection from the speaker's own moral drift, so that trust in God shapes speech, desire, companionship, and hope for justice.