A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXLI.
_David prayeth that his suit may be acceptable, his conscience sincere, and his life safe from snares._ A Psalm of David. LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee _as_ incense; _and_ the lifting up of my hands _as_ the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to _any_ evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties. Let 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. When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth _wood_ upon the earth. But mine eyes _are_ unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares _which_ they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
This Psalm also is a fervent prayer, wherein the Psalmist prays to be delivered from wicked teachers, who pretend to speak of peace, and craftily use soft and flattering words, after they have found that they can prevail nothing by terrors and threats. “Let the righteous,” saith he, “smite me:” that is, I had rather that true and faithful teachers should rebuke and condemn me, and reprove my ways, than that hypocrites should flatter me and applaud me as a saint. And farther, (saith the Psalmist) although I suffer affliction for the sake of that true and sound doctrine to which I cleave, and though, by afflictions returning again and again, my bones be broken in pieces and scattered like clods of earth before the penetrating and dividing plough; yet I had rather be reproved and smitten by godly and true teachers, and so acknowledge my sin, and rest upon the promise of God, than hear all the flattering words of those hypocrites who deceive themselves and others; and who pretend to have peace with God, when there is no such peace unto them. For all such teachers and their hypocrisies shall be hurled, as it were, from a mighty precipice, and they shall suddenly be dashed to pieces and shall perish together; their glory shall be hurried into confusion, and their end shall be utter destruction; and then it shall appear how bitter their pleasing doctrine is.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.