Step Into Faith

Chapter Reflection

This prayer unfolds at the intersection of liturgical ascent and the gritty vulnerability of the human heart. The psalmist offers his very breath as incense, asking that his words and his physical posture become a continuous sacrifice that rises toward God. He acknowledges a profound interior struggle, begging for a sentinel at the door of his lips to guard against the soul’s subtle inclination toward darkness and the allure of deceptive comforts. There is an striking embrace of corrective suffering; the sting of a righteous rebuke is preferred as a healing oil over the hollow dainties of the wicked. Even as the community feels fractured and scattered like wood chips at the mouth of the grave, the eye remains fixed on God as the only refuge. The passage reveals the human person as a being whose ultimate freedom is found in vigilance over the inner life and a total reliance on Divine protection against the entanglements of evil.

Interior VigilanceSpiritual IncenseHealing RebukeLiturgical Offering
← Psalms

Psalms 141

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

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

3Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

4Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties.

5Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.

6When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.

7Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.

8But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.

9Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.

10Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.

Who God is

What does it mean for you that the Lord is not only a rescuer from outward snares, but the one who can guard the very doors of your heart?

The condition of man

How do you experience the tension between the fragility of 'scattered bones' and the dignity of a life offered up as an evening sacrifice?