Let
my prayer be set before you like incense; the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
Psalm 141:2
Psalm 140 [10.] Let burning coals fall on them.
Let them be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, from where they never rise.
An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth.
Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and justice for the needy.
Surely the righteous will give thanks to your name.
The upright will dwell in your presence.
Psalm 141 [1.] Yahweh, I have called on you.
Come to me quickly!
Listen to my voice when I call to you.
Let my prayer be set before you like incense;
the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth.
Keep the door of my lips.
Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing,
to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity.
Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.
Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness;
let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head;
don’t let my head refuse it;
Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.
Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock.
They will hear my words, for they are well spoken.
“As when one plows and breaks up the earth,
our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.”
For my eyes are on you, Yahweh, the Lord.
In you, I take refuge.
Don’t leave my soul destitute.
Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me,
from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
Psalm 141 [10.] Let the wicked fall together into their own nets,
while I pass by.
Meaning:
Psalm 141 is David’s prayer for protection from evil, around him and within him. Here he asks that his prayer be accepted like the offerings of the sanctuary.
- “Let my prayer be set before you like incense”
In the tabernacle, and later in the temple, sweet incense was burned on a golden altar before the veil, every morning and at evening (Exodus 30:7-8). David asks that his words rise to God in the same way.
The link between prayer and incense runs through Scripture. When Zacharias went into the temple to burn incense, “the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense” (Luke 1:10). In Revelation the elders hold “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Revelation 5:8).
- “The lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice”
Lifting up the hands was a common posture of prayer, a gesture of need and trust. The evening sacrifice was offered daily in the late afternoon, around the ninth hour, which became one of the regular times of prayer. Long after David, “Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour” (Acts 3:1).
David does not say that prayer replaces the sacrifices God commanded. He asks that his prayer be received with the same favour. Elsewhere he writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). God looks at the heart behind the offering.
- A prayer for a guarded life
The verses that follow show what David prays for: “Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips.” He welcomes correction: “Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness” (Psalm 141:5). The prayer that rises like incense comes from a life that wants to be kept pure.
- Prayer as an offering in the New Testament
The New Testament takes up this picture. Believers are “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). In Acts, an angel told the Roman centurion Cornelius, who prayed at the ninth hour, “Your prayers and your gifts to the needy have gone up for a memorial before God” (Acts 10:4).
The Significance of Psalm 141:2
- Every place can be a place of prayer
Prayer is not limited to a building. Jesus said, “the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). Wherever believers lift their hearts to God, their prayer can rise like incense.
- Regular rhythms of prayer
The evening sacrifice was offered every day. Setting regular times for prayer, morning and evening, helps believers offer their lives to God steadily, as David did: “In the morning I will lay my requests before you” (Psalm 5:3).
Cross-References:
Psalm 51:17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The offering God desires.
Luke 1:10: “The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.” Prayer at the hour of incense.
1 Peter 2:5: “to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Spiritual sacrifices.
Conclusion: David asked that his prayer rise before God like the incense of the sanctuary and that his lifted hands be accepted like the evening sacrifice. God values prayer from a sincere and contrite heart as a true offering. The same picture appears in the New Testament, where the prayers of believers, even a Gentile like Cornelius, rise before God as a memorial.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible