Salmi 141:2 Commento

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 (Psa 141:1, Psa 141:2). II. For his powerful assistance (Psa 141:3, Psa 141:4). III. That others might be instrumental of good to his soul, as he hoped to be to the souls of others (Psa 141:5, Psa 141:6). IV. That he and his friends being now brought to the last extremity God would graciously appear for their relief and rescue (Psa 141:7-10). The mercy and grace of God are as necessary to us as they were to him, and therefore we should be humbly earnest for them in singing this psalm. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 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.

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, Exo 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 sacrifice is acceptable unto God; and through whose blood and righteousness, and the sweet incense of his mediation and intercession, it becomes fragrant and a sweet odour to the Lord; and being directed to him, it goes upwards, is regarded by him, and continues before him as sweet incense; which is what the psalmist prays for; see Mal 1:11; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice; the burnt sacrifice of the evening, according to Ben Melech, the lamb slain every evening; or else the minchah, as the word is; the meat, or rather the bread offering made of fine flour, with oil and frankincense on it, which went along with the former, Exo 29:38; and so the Targum, "as the sweet gift offered in the evening.'' This only is mentioned, as being put for both the morning and the evening sacrifice; or because the incense was offered in the morning, from which it is distinguished: or it may be, as Kimchi thinks, this psalm was composed in the evening; and so the inscription in the Syriac version is, "a psalm of David, when he meditated the evening service.'' Or because this was the last sacrifice of the day; there was no other after it, as Aben Ezra observes; and the most acceptable; to which may be added, that this was the hour for prayer, Act 3:1. Wherefore "lifting up of the hands" was a prayer gesture, and a very ancient one both among Jews and Gentiles (x); Aristotle (y) says, all men, when we pray, lift up our hands to heaven; and it is put for that itself, Ti1 2:8; and is desired to be, like that, acceptable unto God; as it is when the heart is lifted up with the hands, and prayer is made in the name and faith of Christ. (x) Vid. Barthii Animadv. in Claudian. ad Rufin. l. 2. v. 205. (y) De Mundo, c. 6. Vid. Plutarch. in Vita Camilli. "Sustulit ad sidera palmas", Virgil. Aeneid. 2. so Ovid. Fasti, l. 3.

And he prays “constantly” (deeds of virtue or fulfilling the commandments are included as part of prayer) who unites prayer with the deeds required and right deeds with prayer. For the only way we can accept the command to “pray constantly” as referring to a real possibility is by saying that the entire life of the saint taken as a whole is a single great prayer. What is customarily called prayer is, then, a part of this prayer. Now prayer in the ordinary sense ought to be made no less than three times each day. This is evident from the story of Daniel, who prayed three times a day when such great peril had been devised for him. And Peter went up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray; that is when he saw the sheet descending from heaven let down by four corners. He was offering the middle prayer of the three, the one referred to before him by David, “In the morning may you hear my prayer, in the morning I will offer to you and I will watch.” And the last time of prayer is indicated by “the lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.” Indeed, we do not even complete the nighttime properly without that prayer of which David speaks when he says, “At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous ordinances.” And Paul, as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, prayed “about midnight” with Silas in Philippi and sang a hymn to God so that even the prisoners heard them.

Does any one perchance flatter himself with this notion, that although in the morning, water alone is seen to be offered, yet when we come to supper we offer the mingled cup? But when we sup, we cannot call the people together to our banquet, so as to celebrate the truth of the sacrament in the presence of all the brotherhood. But still it was not in the morning, but after supper, that the Lord offered the mingled cup. Ought we then to celebrate the Lord's cup after supper, that so by continual repetition of the Lord's supper we may offer the mingled cup? It behoved Christ to offer about the evening of the day, that the very hour of sacrifice might show the setting and the evening of the world; as it is written in Exodus, "And all the people of the synagogue of the children of Israel shall kill it in the evening." And again in the Psalms, "Let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice." But we celebrate the resurrection of the Lord in the morning.

"Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as incense, and the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice" [Psalm 141:2]. That this is wont to be understood of the Head Himself, every Christian acknowledges. For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross "laid down His life to take it again," [John 10:17] did not lose it against His will. Still we too are figured there. For what of Him hung upon the tree, save what He took of us? And how can it be that the Father should leave and abandon His only begotten Son, especially when He is one God with Him? Yet, fixing our weakness upon the Cross, where, as the Apostle says, "our old man is crucified with Him," [Romans 6:6] He cried out in the voice of that our "old man," "Why have You forsaken Me?" That then is the "evening sacrifice," the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt offering acceptable to God. That "evening sacrifice" produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, rises like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe.

A sermon has to be preached about the evening sacrifice. We prayed after all as we sang, and we sang as we prayed, “May my prayer rise straight up like incense in your presence; the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice.” In the prayer we observe the person, in the extension of the hands we recognize the cross. So this is the sign that we carry on our foreheads, the sign by which we have been saved. A sign that was mocked, in order to be honored; despised in order to be glorified. God appears in visible form, so that as man he may intercede; he remains hidden so that as man he may die. “For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.” So this sacrifice, in which the priest is also the victim, has redeemed us by the shedding of the Creator’s blood.

But what should be said concerning the evening sacrifices, since even in the Old Testament, by the law of Moses, these are ordered to be offered continually? We can show that the morning whole-burnt offerings and evening sacrifices were offered every day continually in the temple, although with figurative offerings. This is seen from what is sung by David: “Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as the incense, and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice.” We can understand in a still more spiritual sense that the true evening sacrifice is what was given by the Lord our Savior in the evening to the apostles at the Supper, when he instituted the holy mysteries of the church, and what he himself, on the following day at the end of the ages, offered up to the Father by the lifting up of his hands for the salvation of the whole world. The spreading forth of his hands on the Cross is quite correctly called a “lifting up.” For when we were all lying in Hades, he raised us to heaven, according to the word of his own promise, when he says: “When I have been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.”

This and the remaining Psalms have been represented as specially designed to celebrate the rebuilding of Jerusalem (compare Neh 6:16; Neh 12:27). They all open and close with the stirring call for praise. This one specially declares God's providential care towards all creatures, and particularly His people. (Psa. 147:1-20) (Compare Psa 92:1; Psa 135:3).