The Bible Commentaries and Others: Psalms 141 v 2

http://biblebitbybit.blogspot.com/2016/01/psalms-141-v-2.html
Posted by Psalms on Saturday, 23 January 2016

Psalms 141:2

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

141:2. Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense. As incense is carefully prepared, kindled with holy fire, and devoutly presented unto God, so let my prayer be. We are not to look upon prayer as easy work requiring no thought; it needs to be set forth; what is more, it must be set forth before the Lord, by a sense of his presence and a holy reverence for his name: neither may we regard all supplication as certain of divine acceptance; it needs to be set forth before the Lord as incense, concerning the offering of which there were rules to be observed, otherwise it would be rejected of God.

And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Prayer is sometimes presented without words by the very motions of our bodies: bended knees and lifted hands are the tokens of earnest, expectant prayer. Certainly work, or the lifting up of the hands in labor, is prayer if it be done in dependence upon God and for his glory; there may be a hand-prayer as well as a heart-prayer. Holy hope, the lifting up of hands that hang down, is also a kind of worship. The psalmist would have his humble cries and prayers to be as much regarded of the Lord as the appointed morning and evening sacrifices of the holy places. After all, the spiritual is in the Lord’s esteem higher than the ceremonial.

So far we have a prayer about prayer; we have a distinct supplication in the two following verses.

Excerpt from:

The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)