PSALM 141 – O Lord, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice! Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity, and let me not eat of their delicacies! Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head; let my head not refuse it. Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds. When their judges are thrown over the cliff, then they shall hear my words, for they are pleasant. As when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol. But my eyes are toward you, O God, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless! Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me and from the snares of evildoers! Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by safely.”
THEME OF THE DAY: LIVING DESPERATELY AND DEPENDENTLY. Today’s scripture is Psalm 141 in its entirety. There is much gold in that mine! Take time and read it over, slowly and prayerfully. Get into the heart of the Psalmist. Sense David’s attitude as he approaches the Lord. Look for repeated words or themes.
As I was doing what I asked of you, a repeated reading of the entire Psalm, what stood out to me as powerful lessons for the whole of the Christian life were two things. First, get the sense of desperation in David’s prayer pleas – “hasten to me, give ear to my voice”. This is a child of God sensing immediate danger and he needs help from the Lord. Apply that to our daily lives as Christians. We are living in hostile land, a battlefield with relentless foes seeking our destruction. There is nothing safe in our world, and especially the spiritual world, for the believer. Like David, we are in desperate need of the Lord’s constant help, and praise His Name, He has promised such. So, be David-like and make those passionate pleas to the Lord revealing our desperation before Him. He delights in hearing His needy children!
Another lesson easily discerned in a repeated reading of the Psalm is David’s keen awareness of how weak and easily defeated he was before his enemies. He cries to the Lord, “Keep watch over the door of my lips! Do not let my heart incline to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with men who work iniquity and let me not eat of their delicacies!” He also readily confesses “Leave me not defenseless!.” Friends, we are in serious spiritual trouble if we think more highly of ourselves than we should, believe we have “arrived” in anything spiritual, or believe we can fight spiritual warfare and defend ourselves on our own. Any and all those attitudes and actions lead to sure defeat and the revelation we really don’t know how weak we truly are. David knew if the Lord didn’t keep and protect Him, he was done. And we are to know that as well . . . constantly.
The Christian life is a life constantly lived desperately and dependently on the Lord. In doing so, we will experience His sufficiency and He will be glorified.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You that in my defenseless state, You promise to be my sure defense.”
QUOTE: “Living the Christian life constantly dependent on the Lord is to live the Christian life.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim