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141 Quick, Lord, answer me—for I have prayed. Listen when I cry to you for help! Regard my prayer as my evening sacrifice and as incense wafting up to you.

Help me, Lord, to keep my mouth shut and my lips sealed. Take away my lust for evil things; don’t let me want to be with sinners, doing what they do, sharing their delicacies. Let the godly smite me! It will be a kindness! If they reprove me, it is medicine! Don’t let me refuse it. But I am in constant prayer against the wicked and their deeds. 6-7 When their leaders are condemned, and their bones are strewn across the ground,[a] then these men will finally listen to me and know that I am trying to help them.

I look to you for help, O Lord God. You are my refuge. Don’t let them slay me. Keep me out of their traps. 10 Let them fall into their own snares, while I escape.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 141:6 When their leaders are condemned and their bones are strewn across the ground, literally, “As when one plows and cleaves the earth, our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.”

Psalm 141

A psalm of David.

I call to you, Lord, come quickly(A) to me;
    hear me(B) when I call to you.
May my prayer be set before you like incense;(C)
    may the lifting up of my hands(D) be like the evening sacrifice.(E)

Set a guard over my mouth,(F) Lord;
    keep watch over the door of my lips.(G)
Do not let my heart(H) be drawn to what is evil
    so that I take part in wicked deeds(I)
along with those who are evildoers;
    do not let me eat their delicacies.(J)

Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness;
    let him rebuke me(K)—that is oil on my head.(L)
My head will not refuse it,
    for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.

Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,(M)
    and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.
They will say, “As one plows(N) and breaks up the earth,(O)
    so our bones have been scattered at the mouth(P) of the grave.”

But my eyes are fixed(Q) on you, Sovereign Lord;
    in you I take refuge(R)—do not give me over to death.
Keep me safe(S) from the traps set by evildoers,(T)
    from the snares(U) they have laid for me.
10 Let the wicked fall(V) into their own nets,
    while I pass by in safety.(W)