Psalm 141:1

A Psalm of David. LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

141:1-4 Make haste unto me. Those that know how to value God's gracious presence, will be the more fervent in their prayers. When presented through the sacrifice and intercession of the Saviour, they will be as acceptable to God as the daily sacrifices and burnings of incense were of old. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice, it is the offering up the soul and its best affections. Good men know the evil of tongue sins. When enemies are provoking, we are in danger of speaking unadvisedly. While we live in an evil world, and have such evil hearts, we have need to pray that we may neither be drawn nor driven to do any thing sinful. Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin; but those that consider how soon sin will turn into bitterness, will dread such dainties, and pray to God to take them out of their sight, and by his grace to turn their hearts against them. Good men pray against the sweets of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lord, I cry unto thee - In view of my perils; in view of the suggestions of my friends; in view of my temptation to do a wrong thing at their advice, and with the prospect of the advantage which it might seem to be to me.

Make haste unto me - To save me from all this danger: the danger from my enemies; the danger from the counsels of my friends. See the notes at Psalm 22:19; compare Psalm 40:13; Psalm 70:1, Psalm 70:5; Psalm 71:12. The meaning is, that there is need of immediate interposition. There is danger that I shall be overcome; that I may be tempted to do a wrong thing; that I may be ruined if there is any delay.

Give ear unto my voice ... - See the notes at Psalm 5:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 141

Ps 141:1-10. This Psalm evinces its authorship as the preceding, by its structure and the character of its contents. It is a prayer for deliverance from sins to which affliction tempted him, and from the enemies who caused it.

The Treasury of David

1 Lord, I cry unto thee, make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:1

"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 themselves, but I cry unto thee. The weapon of all prayer is one which the believer may always carry with him, and use in every time of need. "Make haste unto me." His case was urgent, and he pleaded that urgency. God's time is the best time, but when we are sorely pressed we may with holy importunity quicken the movements of mercy. In many cases, if help should come late, it would come too late; and we are permitted to pray against such a calamity. "Give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee." See how a second time he talks of crying: prayer had become his frequent, yea, his constant exercise: twice in a few words he says, "I cry; I cry." How he longs to be heard, and to be heard at once! There is a voice to the great Father in every cry, and groan, and tear of his children: he can understand what they mean when they are quite unable to express it. It troubles the spirit of the saints when they fear that no favourable ear is turned to their doleful cries' they cannot rest unless their "unto thee" is answered by an "unto me." When prayer is a man's only refuge, he is deeply distressed at the bare idea of his failing therein.

"That were a grief I could not bear,

Didst thou not hear and answer prayer;

But a prayer-hearing, answering God

Supports me under every load."

Psalm 141:2

"Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense." As Incense is carefully prepared, kindled with holy fire, and devoutly presented unto God, so let my prayer be. We are not to look upon prayer as easy work requiring no thought, it needs to be "set forth"; what is more, it must be set forth "before the Lord," by a sense of his presence and a holy reverence for his name: neither may we regard all supplication as certain of divine acceptance, it needs to be set forth before the Lord "as incense," concerning the offering of which there were rules to be observed, otherwise it would be rejected of God. "And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Whatever form his prayer might take his one desire was that it might be accepted of God. Prayer is sometimes presented without words by the very motions of our bodies' bended knees and lifted hands are the tokens of earnest, expectant prayer. Certainly work, or the lifting up of the hands in labour, is prayer if it be done in dependence upon God and for his glory: there is a hand-prayer as well as a heart-prayer, and our desire is that this may be sweet unto the Lord as the sacrifice of eventide. Holy hope, the lifting up of hands that hang down, is also a kind of worship: may it ever be acceptable with God. The Psalmist makes a bold request: he would have his humble cries and prayers to be as much regarded of the Lord as the appointed morning and evening sacrifices of the holy place. Yet the prayer is by no means too bold, for, after all, the spiritual is in the Lord's esteem higher than the ceremonial, and the calves of the lips are a truer sacrifice than the calves of the stall.

So far we have a prayer about prayer; we have a distinct supplication in Psalm 141:3-4. THE ARGUMENT.

This Psalm also must he referred to the time of David’s persecution by Saul. It is a humble prayer that God would deliver him from the rage and malice of his enemies, and from those sins to which he might be inclined or provoked upon that occasion.

David prayeth that he might be heard and comforted, Psalm 141:1,2; that his service might be sincere, Psalm 141:3-6, and his life safe from the snares of his adversaries, Psalm 141:7-10.

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 creature, only the Lord; and he was at a distance from him, as it seemed to him, and he delayed assistance; and therefore desires he would immediately draw nigh and be a present help in his time of need, and work speedy deliverance for him, his case requiring haste;

give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee; a request the psalmist frequently makes, not contenting himself with prayer, without desiring and looking for an answer to it.

(w) "Auxilium vocat, et duros conclamat agrestes", Virgil.

Geneva Study Bible

<> LORD, I {a} cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.

(a) He shows that there is no other refuge in our necessity but only to flee to God for comfort of soul.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. I cry unto thee] Or, I have called upon thee (R.V.): he has already been praying, and now pleads for a speedy answer, make haste unto me (Psalm 70:5), i.e. make haste to help me (Psalm 22:19; Psalm 38:22; Psalm 40:13).

1, 2. Introductory appeal for a favourable hearing.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - Lord, I cry unto thee; make haste unto me. The need is pressing and urgent. God is therefore entreated to "hasten" (comp. Psalm 22:19; Psalm 31:2; Psalm 38:22; Psalm 40:17, etc.). Give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee (comp. Psalm 102:2). Psalm 141:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The very beginning of Psalm 141:1-10 is more after the manner of David than really Davidic; for instead of haste thee to me, David always says, haste thee for my help, Psalm 22:20; Psalm 38:23; Psalm 40:14. The לך that is added to בּקראי (as in Psalm 4:2) is to be explained, as in Psalm 57:3 : when I call to Thee, i.e., when I call Thee, who art now far from me, to me. The general cry for help is followed in Psalm 141:2 by a petition for the answering of his prayer. Luther has given an excellent rendering: Let my prayer avail to Thee as an offering of incense; the lifting up of my hands, as an evening sacrifice (Mein Gebet msse fur dir tgen wie ein Reuchopffer, Meine Hende auffheben, wie ein Abendopffer). תּכּון is the fut. Niph. of כּוּן, and signifies properly to be set up, and to be established, or reflexive: to place and arrange or prepare one's self, Amos 4:12; then to continue, e.g., Psalm 101:7; therefore, either let it place itself, let it appear, sistat se, or better: let it stand, continue, i.e., let my prayer find acceptance, recognition with Thee קטרת, and the lifting up of my hands מנחת־ערב. Expositors say that this in both instances is the comparatio decurtata, as in Psalm 11:1 and elsewhere: as an incense-offering, as an evening mincha. But the poet purposely omits the כּ of the comparison. He wishes that God may be pleased to regard his prayer as sweet-smelling smoke or as incense, just as this was added to the azcara of the meal-offering, and gave it, in its ascending perfume, the direction upward to God,

(Note: It is not the priestly קטרת תּמיד, i.e., the daily morning and evening incense-offering upon the golden altar of the holy place, Exodus 30:8, that is meant (since it is a non-priest who is speaking, according to Hitzig, of course John Hyrcanus), but rather, as also in Isaiah 1:13, the incense of the azcara of the meal-offering which the priest burnt (הקטיר) upon the altar; the incense (Isaiah 66:3) was entirely consumed, and not merely a handful taken from it.)

and that He may be pleased to regard the lifting up of his hands (משׂאת, the construct with the reduplication given up, from משּׂאת, or even, after the form מתּנת, from משּׂאה, here not oblatio, but according to the phrase נשׂא כפּים ידים, elevatio, Judges 20:38, Judges 20:40, cf. Psalm 28:2, and frequently) as an evening mincha, just as it was added to the evening tamı̂d according to Exodus 29:38-42, and concluded the work of the service of the day.

(Note: The reason of it is this, that the evening mincha is oftener mentioned than the morning mincha (see, however, 2 Kings 3:20). The whole burnt-offering of the morning and the meat-offering of the evening (2 Kings 16:15; 1 Kings 18:29, 1 Kings 18:36) are the beginning and close of the daily principal service; whence, according to the example of the usus loquendi in Daniel 9:21; Ezra 9:4., later on mincha directly signifies the afternoon or evening.)