Episode Details

Psalm 141: The Prayer That Guards the Mouth

Most prayers ask God to change our circumstances. This one asks God to change us. "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." It is the prayer of a man who knows that his worst enemy may not be the one laying snares outside but the one living behind his own teeth. And then comes the truly extraordinary request: let the righteous smite me, and let it be a kindness. David is asking for correction the way most of us ask for comfort — as something necessary and even welcome. There is a maturity here that most of us only admire from a distance. The whole psalm moves between two dangers: the snares of the wicked without and the inclinations of the heart within. And in both cases the remedy is the same — not self-discipline, but surrender. "Mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust." The door of the lips, it turns out, can only be kept by Someone standing on the other side of it.

00:00 A Cry for God's Swift Attention
01:00 Bones Scattered, Eyes Lifted