Prayer – Lord, I am looking for wisdom and understanding—I want to escape putting my foot in my mouth so to speak. Let me escape. Take control of what I say, O LORD, and guard my lips (Psalm 141:3).
A psalm of David. O LORD, I am calling to you. Please
hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept my prayer as incense offered
to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering. Take control of what I
say, O LORD, and guard my lips. Don't let me drift toward evil or take part in
acts of wickedness. Don't let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.
Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is
soothing medicine. Don't let me refuse it. But I pray constantly against the
wicked and their deeds. When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the
wicked will listen to my words and find them true. Like rocks brought up by a
plow, the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial. I look to you
for help, O Sovereign LORD. You are my refuge; don't let them kill me. Keep me
from the traps they have set for me, from the snares of those who do wrong. Let
the wicked fall into their own nets, but let me escape. Psalm 141:1-10
Meditate. Think about
what you say.
David was continually praying to God for help, crying out for
rescue from wicked people and their actions. He had real fear of being killed
by dreadful individuals who set traps for him. That is pretty bad and David
asked God to let those people fall into their own nets. Not exactly Christ like
thoughts or actions. Consider what you would ask of God if you were in a similar
situation. David suggested that his prayers were like incense, which was useful
in the Old and New Testaments.
Only Aaron and his
descendants served as priests. They presented the offerings on the altar of
burnt offering and the altar of incense, and they performed all the other
duties related to the Most Holy Place. They made atonement for Israel by doing
everything that Moses, the servant of God, had commanded them. 1 Chronicles
6:49
Then another angel
with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of
incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God's people as an offering
on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers
of God's holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had
poured them out. Revelation 8:3-4
 |
| A pleasing aroma-- like lilac in the spring. Think about them covered with snow. Spring isn't far off. |
So, offer your prayers with a pleasant aroma like that of Christ, as Paul advised in his letter to the Ephesians. Solomon also wrote about godly escaping trouble with words. Good advice.
Imitate God,
therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life
filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered
himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
The wicked are
trapped by their own words, but the godly escape such trouble. Proverbs
12:13
May God show us the way of escape.
Verse of Salvation ~ God, for whom and through whom
everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only
right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit
to bring them into their salvation. Hebrews 2:10
Memory Verse of the Week ~ "But forget
all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do
something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a
pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
© 2022 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All
rights reserved.
All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless
otherwise noted.
New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale
House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.
Books by Mickey M.
Hunacek
Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com
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