Psalm 141

What’s Happening?

The temple on Israel’s mountain was like a new Garden of Eden, where God’s life-giving presence met with humanity. As God’s people, Israel longs for God to make them suitable for dwelling in his presence and receiving his life. Therefore, they pray earnestly to be kept from any wickedness that would cast them off his mountain, away from life, and into death.

As God’s people return from exile far from God’s mountain, they ask him to make their lives acceptable offerings. Despite countless warnings from the prophets, Israel’s wickedness had once cast them off the mountain, into exile in lands of death. Now, they know the most important offering is a righteous life (1 Samuel 15:22; Isaiah 1:11-17).

God’s people want their lives to embody the worship in Jerusalem’s temple. Like priests, they ask God to receive their words and actions like the incense and burnt offerings that rise before him every morning and evening (Psalm 141:2; Numbers 28:3-8). When offered by righteous priests, these gifts pleased God. But when wicked priests offered sacrifices, God rejected them (1 Samuel 2:12-17; Malachi 2:1-9). Therefore, Israel wants their lives, what they say with their mouths and do with their hands, to lead them into life with God on the mountain.

To that end, Israel asks God to guard their mouths and hearts (Psalm 141:3). In God’s temple, priests would guard the doors to keep the temple from pollution (Numbers 18:3-4; 1 Chronicles 9:17-27). In the same way, Israel wants God to keep wickedness from entering their lives. Unlike their ancestors, who rejected the prophets’ warnings, Israel now begs for righteous correction and discipline (Psalm 141:5). Israel would rather suffer blows from their righteous brothers than eat a luxurious feast with wicked nations in exile (Psalm 141:4). They welcome correction like the anointing oil that consecrates righteous priests, setting them apart for service in God’s temple. Righteousness requires discipline, but it leads to life in God’s presence. So Israel prays that wickedness is driven out of them so that they will never again be driven off God’s mountain. 

Ultimately, Israel knows their pursuit of righteousness will prove worthwhile. While they remain alive in God’s mountain-temple, the wicked will stumble off the cliff’s edge (Psalm 141:6). At the foot of the mountain, far from God’s presence, the ground itself will swallow them like a grave (Psalm 141:7). The traps they set for others will catch their own feet instead (Psalm 141:9-10). But Israel’s people lift their eyes to God, pleading not to be abandoned to death—not left like an empty jar without his presence (Psalm 141:8). Instead, they long to be filled as God once filled the temple (Exodus 40:34-35; 1 Kings 8:10-11). When God makes his people righteous, they will escape the death of the wicked and enter into God’s life on the mountain forever (Psalm 141:10).

Where is the Gospel?

The temple was a picture of the Garden of Eden, the place God gave life to his people, where they lived free from wickedness and death. But Adam and Eve failed to guard the garden-temple and were exiled from the Garden. Seeking to remain near God’s life-giving presence, their children, Cain and Abel, offered sacrifices. Abel’s offering was accepted because of his righteous life, but Cain’s was rejected because of his wickedness (Genesis 4:7; 1 John 3:12). Instead of receiving God’s life-giving correction, Cain murdered his brother and was exiled far from Eden (Genesis 4:1-16). This is the story Israel prays not to repeat in this psalm. And this is the story that Jesus came to set right, so that humanity can share life with God once more.

Jesus came as the righteous prophet and God’s own presence that Israel prayed for. He came to drive out their wickedness and consecrate them as a righteous priesthood whose lives would become acceptable offerings. He brought correction to the temple—a place meant to bring life but now polluted by wickedness (Luke 19:45-48; 20:45-21:6). But the keepers of the mountain-temple refused his correction and plotted to murder him as Cain murdered Abel (Luke 20:9-19).

Jesus fulfilled Abel’s story—Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice accompanied by a righteous life, but Jesus offered a perfectly acceptable sacrifice accompanied by a perfectly righteous life. Even as Jesus suffered at the hands of his murderers, he prayed that he would not be abandoned to death. And God heard his prayer. Jesus rose from the grave, conquering all wickedness, restoring God’s presence with his people, and ascending to the heavenly temple (Ephesians 1:19-20; Hebrews 4:14). From there, God pours out his Spirit, filling his people as he once filled the temple. The Holy Spirit corrects us, empowering us to live righteous lives and making us acceptable offerings (Romans 12:1-2). We need not fear his correction—we can receive it as anointing oil that sets us apart for life with God (Hebrews 12:5-7).

Ultimately, Jesus will destroy all wickedness and death (Revelation 21:4-5). Then he will raise up his people and bring us to a new Mountain, a new Garden of Eden, where we will live with him in righteousness forever.

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who guards us from wickedness. And may you see Jesus as the one who has made the acceptable offering of his life so that we can join him in his righteousness and live with him forever.