to stretch or spread out · verb, hiphil jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
heart
לִבִּ֨יli.Bi
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
evil
רָ֡עra'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
thing
לְדָבָ֪רle.da.Var
H1697
a word · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
practise
לְהִתְע֘וֹלֵ֤לle.hit.'o.Lel
H5953
to effect thoroughly · preposition + verb, hithpael infinitive construct
wicked
בְּרֶ֗שַׁעbe.Re.sha'
H7562
a wrong (especially moral) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
works
עֲלִל֨וֹתa.li.Lot
H5949
an exploit (of God) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
men
אִישִׁ֥ים'i.Shim
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine plural absolute
work
פֹּֽעֲלֵיpo.'a.lei-
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
iniquity
אָ֑וֶן'A.ven
H205
strictly nothingness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
eat
אֶ֝לְחַ֗ם'el.Cham
H3898
to feed on · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
dainties
בְּמַנְעַמֵּיהֶֽםbe.man.'a.mei.Hem
H4516
a delicacy · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 119:36 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine…
1 Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
1 Kings 8:58 That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which h…
1 Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 141:1-4
Mercy to accept what we do well, and grace to keep us from doing ill, are the two things which we are here taught by David's example to pray to God for.
I. David loved prayer, and he begs of God that his prayers might be heard and answered, Psa 141:1, Psa 141:2. David cried unto God. His crying denotes fervency in prayer; he prayed as one in earnest. His crying to God denotes faith and fixedness in prayer. And what did he desire as the success of his prayer? 1. That God would take cognizance of it: "Give ear to my voice; let me have a gracious audience." Those that cry in prayer may hope to be heard in prayer, not for their loudness, but their liveliness. 2. That he would visit him upon it:…
Incline not my heart to any evil thing,.... Or "evil word" (z), as the Targum; since out of the abundance of that the mouth speaketh, Matthew 12:34; or to any sinful thing, to the commission of any evil action: not that God ever inclines men's hearts to sin by any physical influence, it being what is repugnant to his nature and will, and what he hates and abhors; for though he hardens the hearts of wicked men, and gives them up to the lusts of them; yet he does not move, incline, or tempt any man to sin, James 1:13; but he may be said to do this when he suffers them to follow their own sinful inclinations, and leaves them to be inclined by the power and prevalency of their own corruptions, a…
Psalm 141:1-4
1. O Jehovah! I have cried unto thee, make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice when I cry unto thee. 2. Let my prayer be directed as incense before thy face; the lifting up of my hands, as [234] the evening sacrifice. 3. Set a watch, O Jehovah! upon my mouth, keep a guard upon the door of my lips. 4. Incline not my heart to an evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, and that I may not eat of their dainties.
1. O Jehovah! I have cried unto thee. From such an exordium and manner of praying, it is evident that David was laboring under no small trial, as he repeats his requests, and insists upon receiving help. Without venturing to say anything definit…
The Church Fathers
Incline not my heart to words of malice, to make excuses for excuses in sins. O most wretched human race, who excuse our sins, saying, I was overcome by nature: when it is in our power both to sin and not to sin. We always excuse ourselves, and say: I did not want to sin, my flesh overcame me. That woman came to me, she sent for me, she touched me, she said that to me, she called me; and instead of doing penance and saying, Lord, I have sinned, we make excuses and join sins to sins. We all have an equal body, but different labors. 'God is no respecter of persons.' Do you wish to know that we and the saints have an equal body? Paul the Apostle says: 'But I see another law fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin.' And again after this: 'Therefore I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest, preaching to others, I myself should be found reprobate.' And again: 'Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' We have, therefore, different labors; and as much as each one labors, so much reward also does he receive. With men that work iniquity. From the common sense it is understood: Incline not my heart with men that work iniquity. And I will not communicate with their chosen ones. Just as the Lord has his chosen saints, so the devil too has his own chosen ones. Understand for me the leaders of the heretics, and you do not doubt about their chosen ones. For if he had said the chosen ones, and not with the qualification 'their,' he would now be excluding the chosen of God. 'I will communicate' is understood in two ways: either I will consent, or I will become a second, that is, unclean. For you know that Scripture calls two things unclean. The Apostle says: 'That he might create both, that is, two men into one new man': two, the interior and the exterior; that is, making the unclean holy. And again Noah brought into the ark with him seven and seven of the clean, but two and two of the unclean.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Company · EVIL — EVIL
Gluttony · Pray against temptations to — Pray against temptations to
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The prayer now begins to be particularized, and that in the first instance as a petition fore the grace of silence, calling to mind old Davidic passages like Psa 39:2; Psa 34:14. The situation of David, the betrayed one, requires caution in speaking; and the consciousness of having sinned, not indeed against the rebels, but against God, who would not visit him thus without his deserving it, stood in the way of any outspoken self-vindication. In pone custodiam ori meo שׁמרה is ἅπ. λεγ., after the infinitive form דּבקה, עזבה, עצמה. In Psa 141:3 דּל is ἅπ. λεγ. for דּלת; cf. "doors of the mouth" in Mic 7:5, and πύλαι στόματος in Euripides. נצּרה might be imper. Kal: keep I pray, with Dag.…
Wisdom sometimes requires protection from oneself. One could say or think things that lead to the evil path (Prov 13:3; 21:23). • Wisdom opens itself to correction from godly people (see Prov 3:11; 9:8; 15:31; 19:25).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 141:3
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. That mouth had been used in prayer, it would be a pity it should ever be defiled with untruth, or pride, or wrath; yet so it will become unless carefully watched, for these intruders are ever lurking about the door. David feels that with all his own watchfulness he may be surprised into sin, and so he begs the Lord himself to keep him. When Jehovah sets the watch the city is well guarded: when the Lord becomes the guard of our mouth the whole man is well garrisoned. Keep the door of my lips. God has made our lips the door of the mouth, but we cannot keep that door of ourselves, therefore do…
