Year 5, Day 279: Psalm 141-142

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

We speak a lot about protection in the psalms, because many of the psalms are written from the perspective of a person who is in trouble and needs the Lord to watch over them.  Such is the case for Psalm 142.  In this psalm we hear a typical plea for the Lord to watch over the life of the psalmist.  People have laid a trap for the psalmist.  They are looking for his downfall.  The psalmist knows that he cannot navigate the evil of mankind on his own.  He needs the protection of the Lord.

However, in Psalm 141 we have a really neat twist on this idea of protection.  Do you hear what the psalmist says in Psalm 141:3-4 and then carries throughout the rest of this psalm?  The psalmist asks for protection against his own tongue!  He asks that his mouth not be his downfall.  He asks the Lord to protect his heart.  The truth is that harm does not only exist outside of us.  Harm also exists within us.  We need the Lord to protect us from that which is outside of us as well as the sin that dwells within.

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