PERFUMED PRAYERS
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Opening Prayer
Father in Heaven, as I come to engage with you today, I come with thanksgiving and praise. I come with an open heart ready to receive from your Word and do what it leads me to do.
Read PSALM 141
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
A psalm of David.
1 I call to you, Lord, come quickly to me;
hear me when I call to you.
2 May my prayer be set before you like incense;
may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;
keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil
so that I take part in wicked deeds
along with those who are evildoers;
do not let me eat their delicacies.
5 Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head.
My head will not refuse it,
for my prayer will still be against the deeds of evildoers.
6 Their rulers will be thrown down from the cliffs,
and the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken.
7 They will say, “As one plows and breaks up the earth,
so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of the grave.”
8 But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign Lord;
in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.
9 Keep me safe from the traps set by evildoers,
from the snares they have laid for me.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Engage one of your senses as you pray today. Perhaps you like to listen to music, look at a picture, or hold something in your hand.This psalm describes an experience common to us all. David is surrounded by ungodly men who are inviting him to join them in evil, and David is struggling with temptation. We know from the Old Testament histories that David does not always find temptation easy to resist. He prays that God will protect his mouth and his heart, and even that a righteous man might strike him in order to teach him wisdom. David seems torn between the ‘delicacies’ that the wicked offer him (v. 4) and their ultimate destruction, vividly described in verses 6 and 7.
The beauty of the psalm lies particularly in the first two verses. David pictures the evening sacrifice when the priest would burn costly incense, making holy the offering. As the smoke ascended and the smell pervaded the sanctuary, so worshippers would imagine their prayers rising toward God. David is imaginatively joining his prayers to the sacrifice, asking God to hear him and save him.
We might protest that David is putting the responsibility for making the right choice in God’s hands, rather than his own, but Jesus also taught us to pray, ‘lead us not into temptation’ (see v. 4). This psalm is a good one to pray when we doubt that our resolution will hold.
Apply
Pray the Lord’s Prayer, focusing particularly on any area of temptation from which you would like to be delivered.
Closing prayer
I am amazed, Lord, that your love is constant, even though I am prone to waver as I follow you, tempted to choose what is wrong over right. Thank you that I can look to you for strength when I need it and for forgiveness when I fail you. Thank you for the abundant grace and mercy you offer me in Christ.
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