DUNCAN/Save me from evil me

If you have your Bible, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 141. Jesus taught us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” or “the evil one,” and David’s prayer in this psalm anticipates and maybe even prefigures obedience to that command of Jesus. David realizes that the pressure that he is under from evil men tempts him to some things that evil. Perhaps you can resonate with the situation that David is in. You are under some kind of unjust attack — Someone is slandering you. What they are doing is clearly wrong, but in your heart and perhaps even in your words and actions, you feel yourself tempted to respond to the wrong in a sinful way. All sorts of emotions in your heart that you know are not pure, are welling up in your just anger against their wrongs. You suddenly find yourself indulging in things that are not just and responding in ways that you know are not pleasing to the Lord. There is a certain challenge to living in a fallen world. Even when you’re being done wrong, you can respond poorly. The psalmist recognizes that in his own heart. 

A Prayer That God Would Hear Him 

First, in verses 1 and 2, we encounter an urgent prayer to be heard. “O LORD, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You!” It’s a spiritual 9-1-1 call. And you pick up that urgency, not only from the language, “Hasten to me,” but from the repeated cry or call to the Lord. But notice, immediately in verse 2, that David understands the significance of prayer. Even in his time of need, he’s not treating God like a divine butler. No, David understands that the Lord has even put him in this circumstance so that a transaction of great significance can happen between David’s soul and the living God. And David spells that out for you in verse 2. “Let my prayer be counted as incense before You.” Now David shows that he understands precisely the imagery of incense in the tabernacle and temple worship here. 

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13. When he’s speaking about God-pleasing sacrifices, the preacher says, “Through Him, then, let us continually offer up the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” So again, it’s a recognition that prayer is a sacrifice of praise. It’s pleasing to God for David to come to Him in time of need. Why? Because it shows that David’s ultimate source of help and hope is not in this world, but in God. 

But he also understands something about the evening offering. Look at what is said in the second half of verse 2. “And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” He compares this evening prayer of his to the evening sacrifice. Now again, take your Bible and turn back with me to Exodus chapter 29:38. Here, the evening sacrifice is described. We’re told that two, one year old lambs are offered each day. One in the morning, and one in the evening or at twilight. And David says, “This prayer that I’m lifting up to You is kind of like the evening sacrifice of the lamb.” And when you’re lifting up your evening prayers to Him — Isn’t it just a little faint picture of the greatest twilight sacrifice ever offered — The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha, which surely is the ultimate fulfillment of Exodus 29:38 and following? 

A Plea For God to Keep Him 

Secondly, look at verses 3 to 6. David realizes that his enemies’ threat is not the only danger that he faces in this trial. No, his concern is that he would be spared from sin, from compromise, and hypocrisy. Look at what David says in verse 3. “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!” And then in verse 4, he moves to the heart. In this time of evil men attacking him and even slandering him, his temptation was of course to turn around and just slander them right back. So, the battle was not only to endure their slander and their plots, but to keep his integrity while doing it. Secondly, he asks the Lord to watch over his heart. “Lord, do not let my heart incline to evil.” You know, sometimes we find ourselves in company where we know we don’t belong, and we try and pretend that we’re one of them. And the psalmist is praying right here, “Lord, don’t let me go down that track. I don’t want to end up there. I want to be with You.”

And then he says, “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.” Now he’s asking for the Lord to guard his heart in this way. If we are not able to be reproved, rebuked, and corrected, that’s a sign that there is no grace in us. As wicked as David’s sin toward Uriah and Bathsheba was, I think one of the signs that grace was real in him was that when Nathan rebuked him, by God’s grace, he received it. And David’s praying right here, “Lord, keep my heart rebukeable.” 

A Petition for Preservation

And then third and finally, if you look in verses 7 to 10, he offers up a prayer — A petition for preservation. “God, preserve me.” David asks God to watch over and spare him despite his enemies’ plans. Now he urgently depicts their designs and then he indicates the location of this hope, and he prays that his enemies will trap themselves. But he depicts their designs in verse 7. “As when one plows and breaks up the earth, so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.” In the Old Testament and in the cultures that surrounded it, sometimes kings, as an act of domination and aggression against their enemies, would literally plow up the bones of their former enemies or their predecessors and scatter them as a defilement. His enemies want to dig up his bones and scatter them at the gate of Sheol. So, what does he pray? Look at verse 8. “My eyes are toward You, O GOD, my Lord; in You I seek refuge; leave me not defenseless!” Just like he started in verse 1, he goes right to God. 

Then he prays, “Keep me from the trap they have laid for me” — Verse 10. “Let the wicked fall into their own nets.” “Lord, let it bounce right back on them while I pass through safely.” So here, David indicates the location of his only hope — In the Lord. His prayer is that the sin of the wicked would rebound on them, and that by God’s grace, he would be preserved, and he would pass through safely. If you’ve ever been where David’s been before, this is your prayer.

Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III is Chancellor & CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson.