22 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 141 A Psalm of David. This psalm was written about the same time, and upon the same occasion, as that going before and what follows after; even when David was persecuted by Saul, and when he was in great danger of his enemies, and snares were laid for his life.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Lord, I cry unto thee,.... With great earnestness, importunity, and fervency, being in distress; and knowing vain was the help of man, and that none could deliver him but the Lord, and therefore continued crying unto him for help (w); make haste unto me; which shows he was in a desperate condition; that he could not help himself, nor could any...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
David was in distress when he penned this psalm, pursued, it is most likely, by Saul, that violent man. Is any distressed? Let him pray; David did so, and had the comfort of it. I. He prays for God's favourable acceptance, ver. 1, 2. II. For his powerful assistance, ver. 3, 4. III. That others might be instrumental of good to his soul, as he hoped...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. You see how a child of God prays when he is in trouble. David says, “I cry unto thee,” and then the second time, “I cry unto thee.” And he cried for God as well as to him: “Make haste unto me.” The very best thing you can do, when you cannot help yourself, is...
Spurgeon - Treasury of David - Charles H. Spurgeon
Ver. 1. Lord, I cry unto thee. This is my last resort: prayer never fails me. My prayer is painful and feeble, and worthy only to be called a cry; but it is a cry unto Jehovah, and this ennobles it. I have cried unto thee, I still cry to thee, and I always mean to cry to thee. To whom else could I go? What else can I do? Others trust to...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense,.... Which was offered every morning on the altar of incense, at which time the people were praying, Exodus 30:1; and was an emblem of it, even of pure, holy, and fervent prayer; which being offered on the altar Christ, which sanctifies every gift, and by him the High Priest; through whom every...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. David was probably far away from the tabernacle, and he could not join in presenting the morning or the evening sacrifice there; but he prayed God to let his prayer be such a sacrifice: “Let it be sweet as the perfume of the smoking spices...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth,.... While praying, as Jarchi and Kimchi; that he might not utter any rash, unguarded, and unbecoming word; but take and use the words which God gives, even the taught words of the Holy Ghost; or lest, being under affliction and oppression, he should speak unadvisedly with his lips, and utter any impatient...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Our mouth is a door, and it needs a watchman, and there is no watchman who can keep it except God himself: “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Incline not my heart to [any] evil thing,.... Or "evil word" (z), as the Targum; since out of the abundance of that the mouth speaketh, Matthew 12:34; or to any sinful thing, to the commission of any evil action: not that God ever inclines men's hearts to sin by any physical influence, it being what is repugnant to his nature and will, and what he...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity : and let me not eat of their dainties. That last petition is a very proper one; we are neither to think the thoughts of the wicked, nor to practice their ways, nor to enjoy their pleasures: “Let me not eat of their dainties.” There are certain amusements...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let the righteous smite me, [it shall be] a kindness,.... Or, "smite me in kindness" (a). In love; in a loving and friendly manner, which makes reproofs the more agreeable and effectual. Not the righteous God, as Arama; though he does sometimes smite his people for their sins, Isaiah 57:17; that is, reproves, corrects, and chastises them, and that...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness :- You see, dear friends, David cries out against slander, he cannot bear that wicked men should lie against his character; but he says, “I do not want to be let alone where I am in the wrong; I do not wish to be flattered: ‘ Let the righteous smite me.’ He is the man who ought to do it. When I...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
When their judges are overthrown in stony places,.... The judges of David's adversaries, the workers of iniquity; meaning Saul, Abner, c. Arama refers this to Saul and his sons being slain on the mountains of Gilboa, 1 Samuel 31:1 which might be here prophetically spoken of. Or, as it is by some rendered, "when their judges are let down by the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet. Wicked men often will not hear the gospel; but when they get into trouble, then they will. When their judges are overthrown in stony places, then they begin to be willing to hear what good men have to say. A bitter world makes a sweet Word; and when...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth,.... Into which they were not suffered to be put, but lay unburied; or from whence they were dug up, and lay scattered about; which is to be understood of such of David's friends as fell into the hands of Saul and his men, and were slain: perhaps it may refer to the fourscore and five priests, and the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, — “We are like men ready to be put into their graves; or the cause that we advocate seems so totally dead that we seem to be like dry bones that are flung out of a grave.” Psa_141:7. As when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth. “We feel as if we were like chips out of a tree that has been cut...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord,.... Not only the eyes of his body, lifted up to God in prayer, this being a prayer gesture, John 11:41; but the eyes of his mind, or understanding, especially the eyes of faith and love; for it is expressive of his affection to God, his holy confidence in him, and humble hope and expectation of good...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust; “I may be cut to pieces, I may be chopped up, I may seem to be made into a bundle of firewood; but, Lord, my eyes are unto thee: ‘ O God the Lord: in thee is my trust.’” Psa_141:8. Leave not my soul destitute. “If I have thee, I am still rich. Even if I lie at the grave’s mouth, I...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Keep me from the snare [which] they have laid for me,.... Either Saul, who gave him a wife to be a snare to him, and set men to watch his house and take him; or the Ziphites, who proposed to Saul to deliver him into his hands; see 1 Samuel 18:21. and the gins of the workers of iniquity; the transgressions of wicked men are snares to others, by way...