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英文原文
David was in distress when he penned this psalm, pursued, it is most likely, by Saul, that violent man. Is any distressed? Let him pray; David did so, and had the comfort of it. I. He prays for God's favourable acceptance, Ps 141:1,2. II. For his powerful assistance, Ps 141:3,4. III. That others might be instrumental of good to his soul, as he hoped to be to the souls of others, Ps 141:5,6. IV. That he and his friends being now brought to the last extremity God would graciously appear for their relief and rescue, Ps 141:7-10. The mercy and grace of God are as necessary to us as they were to him, and therefore we should be humbly earnest for them in singing this psalm.
1-4
Fervent Supplications
恳切的祈求
大卫的诗篇。
¹ 耶和华啊，我呼求你；求你速速应允我；我向你呼求的时候，求你侧耳听我的声音。
² 愿我的祷告如香陈列在你面前；愿我举手祈求，如献晚祭。
³ 耶和华啊，求你在我口上设立守卫；把守我嘴唇的门。
⁴ 求你不叫我的心偏向邪恶，以致与作孽的人同行恶事；也不叫我吃他们的美味。
我们在此借大卫的榜样，学习向神祈求两件事——怜悯以悦纳我们所行的善，恩典以保守我们不犯罪。
一、大卫喜爱祷告，他求神垂听并应允他的祷告（诗141:1、2）。「大卫呼求神。」他的「呼求」表明祷告的恳切；他如一个真心切求之人那样祷告。他向神呼求表明祷告中的信心与坚定。那么他作为祷告的果效所渴求的是什么呢？1. 求神留意垂听：「求你侧耳听我的声音；让我得蒙恩眷的垂听。」那些在祷告中呼求的人，可以盼望在祷告中被听见——不是因为声音大，而是因为情辞迫切。2. 求神因此眷临：「求你速速到我这里来。」那些懂得珍视神恩同在的人，必为此迫切祈求，并谦卑地不愿迟延。「信的人不急躁」，但祷告的人可以恳切地求神快快应允。3. 求神因此悦纳他——悦纳他的「祷告」和他「举手祷告」，这举手既表明他渴慕的升高与扩展，也表明他盼望与期待的发动；举手表明举心，并用以代替在耶和华面前举祭摇祭的祭物。祷告是属灵的祭；它是将灵魂及其最深的情操献与神。如今他求这祷告能如香——每日在金坛上焚烧的香——陈列并献在神面前；又如「晚祭」——他在此不提晨祭而提晚祭，或许因这是晚祷，或是因预见基督——在世界末时和一日之晚，他将献上自己为挽回祭，并确立感恩的属灵祭物，因他已废去律法上一切属肉体的条例。凭信祷告的人可以期待这比公牛或牛犊更蒙神悦纳。大卫此时被逐离神的院宇，不能参与献祭与焚香，因此求他的祷告可以代替这些。请注意，祷告对神而言如香的馨香之气；然而香无火则无气味；祷告若无圣洁的爱与火热，也是如此。
二、大卫敬畏罪，他求神保守他不犯罪，因为他知道若不谨防罪恶，他的祷告必不被悦纳。我们求神在我们里面施恩，当与求神向我们施恩同样恳切。1. 他求不致在言语上陷入罪中（诗141:3）：「耶和华啊，求你在我口上设立守卫；」既因本性使我的口成为言语之门，愿恩典把守这门，不容任何有损神尊荣或伤害他人的话语出去。敬虔之人深知舌头之罪的恶，又知自己何等容易犯这罪（当敌人激怒时，我们易于将怨恨过分表达，并如最温柔的摩西那样口不择言），因此他们恳切求神拦阻他们失言，因为知道若无神特别的恩典，他们自己的任何警醒或决心都不足以管辖舌头，更不用说管辖心了。我们当「用嚼环勒住我们的口」；但那还不够：我们当求神来把守。尼希米在设立守卫时求告耶和华，我们也当如此，因为若没有他，守望的人实在是徒然儆醒。2. 求不致在行为上倾向罪恶（诗141:4）：「求你不叫我的心偏向邪恶；」我里面无论有何犯罪的倾向，愿它不单被约束，更被恩典治死。周围之人的榜样、敌对之人的激惹，都易于挑动并引出我们里面败坏的倾向。我们容易效法他人所行，又以为既受了伤害就可以报复；因此我们需要祷告，求神不容我们被撇下，去行任何恶事——无论是与「作孽的人」同谋，还是与他们相争。我们既活在这样邪恶的世代，又带着这样邪恶的心，就需要祷告，求神使我们既不被任何诱惑所牵引，也不被任何激惹所驱使去犯罪。3. 求不致被罪的享乐所网罗：「也不叫我吃他们的美味。求你不叫我与他们同赴宴乐嬉戏，免得因此被诱入他们的罪中。」「远离试探的素菜淡饭，胜过其中的肥牛犊。」罪人在罪中佯装寻得美味。「偷来的水是甜的」；禁果悦人眼目。但那思想罪中之乐将何等快地变为苦艾和茵陈，将何等确实地「咬人如蛇、刺人如毒蛇」的人，必畏惧那些美味，并求神借他的护理将之从眼前挪去，借他的恩典使之转为可憎。敬虔之人甚至要针对罪的甘甜祷告。
英文原文
Fervent Supplications
A psalm of David.
¹ LORD, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.
² Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
³ Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.
⁴ 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.
Mercy to accept what we do well, and grace to keep us from doing ill, are the two things which we are here taught by David's example to pray to God for.
I. David loved prayer, and he begs of God that his prayers might be heard and answered, Ps 141:1,2. David cried unto God. His crying denotes fervency in prayer; he prayed as one in earnest. His crying to God denotes faith and fixedness in prayer. And what did he desire as the success of his prayer? 1. That God would take cognizance of it: "Give ear to my voice; let me have a gracious audience." Those that cry in prayer may hope to be heard in prayer, not for their loudness, but their liveliness. 2. That he would visit him upon it: Make haste unto me. Those that know how to value God's gracious presence will be importunate for it and humbly impatient of delays. He that believes does not make haste, but he that prays may be earnest with God to make haste. 3. That he would be well pleased with him in it, well pleased with his praying and the lifting up of his hands in prayer, which denotes both the elevation and enlargement of his desire and the out-goings of his hope and expectation, the lifting up of the hand signifying the lifting up of the heart, and being used instead of lifting up the sacrifices which were heaved and waved before the Lord. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice; it is the offering up of the soul, and its best affections, to God. Now he prays that this may be set forth and directed before God as the incense which was daily burnt upon the golden altar, and as the evening sacrifice, which he mentions rather than the morning sacrifice, perhaps because this was an evening prayer, or with an eye to Christ, who, in the evening of the world and in the evening of the day, was to offer up himself a sacrifice of atonement, and establish the spiritual sacrifices of acknowledgement, having abolished all the carnal ordinances of the law. Those that pray in faith may expect it will please God better than an ox or bullock. David was now banished from God's court, and could not attend the sacrifice and incense, and therefore begs that his prayer might be instead of them. Note, Prayer is of a sweet-smelling savour to God, as incense, which yet has no savour without fire; nor has prayer without the fire of holy love and fervour.
II. David was in fear of sin, and he begs of God that he might be kept from sin, knowing that his prayers would not be accepted unless he took care to watch against sin. We must be as earnest for God's grace in us as for his favour towards us. 1. He prays that he might not be surprised into any sinful words (Ps 141:3): "Set a watch, O Lord! before my mouth, and, nature having made my lips to be a door to my words, let grace keep that door, that no word may be suffered to go out which may in any way tend to the dishonour of God or the hurt of others." Good men know the evil of tongue-sins, and how prone they are to them (when enemies are provoking we are in danger of carrying our resentment too far, and of speaking unadvisedly, as Moses did, though the meekest of men), and therefore they are earnest with God to prevent their speaking amiss, as knowing that no watchfulness or resolution of their own is sufficient for the governing of their tongues, much less of their hearts, without the special grace of God. We must keep our mouths as with a bridle; but that will not serve: we must pray to God to keep them. Nehemiah prayed to the Lord when he set a watch, and so must we, for without him the watchman walketh but in vain. 2. That he might not be inclined to any sinful practices (Ps 141:4): "Incline not my heart to any evil thing; whatever inclination there is in me to sin, let it be not only restrained, but mortified, by divine grace." The example of those about us, and the provocations of those against us, are apt to stir up and draw out corrupt inclinations. We are ready to do as others do, and to think that if we have received injuries we may return them; and therefore we have need to pray that we may never be left to ourselves to practise any wicked work, either in confederacy with or in opposition to the men that work iniquity. While we live in such an evil world, and carry about with us such evil hearts, we have need to pray that we may neither be drawn in by any allurement nor driven on by any provocation to do any sinful thing. 3. That he might not be ensnared by any sinful pleasures: "Let me not eat of their dainties. Let me not join with them in their feasts and sports, lest thereby I be inveigled into their sins." Better is a dinner of herbs, out of the way of temptation, than a stalled ox in it. Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin. Stolen waters are sweet; forbidden fruit is pleasant to the eye. But those that consider how soon the dainties of sin will turn into wormwood and gall, how certainly it will, at last, bite like a serpent and sting like an adder, will dread those dainties, and pray to God by his providence to take them out of their sight, and by his grace to turn them against them. Good men will pray even against the sweets of sin.
5-10
Reproofs of the Righteous; Complaints and Petitions
义人的责备；抱怨与恳求
⁵ 任凭义人击打我，这算为恩慈；任凭他责备我，这算为上等的膏油，我的头必不拒绝；因为我仍要祈祷，在他们遭难之时。
⁶ 他们的审判官被扔在石坑之时，他们必听我的话；因为这话甘甜。
⁷ 我们的骨头散在墓口，如同人砍劈木头在地土之上。
⁸ 主耶和华啊，我的眼目仰望你；我投靠你，求你不要将我的灵魂撇下孤苦。
⁹ 求你保守我不陷入他们为我所设的网罗，和作孽之人的圈套。
¹⁰ 愿恶人落在自己的网里，我却得以逃脱。
在此，
一、大卫渴望有人指出他的过错。他的仇敌以虚假之事指责他，他不能不为此抱怨；然而同时，他渴望朋友们因他真正不对之处责备他，尤其是若有什么事给了那些指责丝毫的借口（诗141:5）：「任凭义人击打我，这算为恩慈。」「公义的 神」（有人如此解）；「我愿欢迎他护理之工的责打，并绝不与他相争，反要以此为爱的凭据来接受，并作为蒙恩的途径加以善用，且要为那作我患难工具之人祷告。」但通常这话被解为义人所说的责备；并且最适合责备别人不义的，正是那些自己为义的人，从他们而来的责备也最易被接受。但若责备是公义的，纵然责备者本身并非如此，我们也当善用之，并借此学习顺服。我们在此受教当如何接受义人和智慧人的责备。1. 我们当渴望因自己里面任何不对之处，或自己所行任何不对之事而被责备：「主啊，求你使义人心里有意击打我、责备我。若我的心不『责备我』——它本该如此——求你让我的朋友来作这事；求你永不容我落在被任凭在罪中的可怕审判之下。」2. 我们当视之为友情的一分。我们不仅当忍耐地忍受，更当作为恩慈接受；因为「诫命是灯，法则是光，训诲的责备是生命的道」（箴6:23），是对我们有益的途径，能使我们为所犯的罪悔改，并防止再陷入罪中。责备虽会割伤，那却是为要治愈；因此它们比仇敌的亲嘴（箴27:6）或愚昧人的歌声（传7:5）更为可慕。大卫为亚比该及时的劝戒称颂 神（撒上25:32）。3. 我们当以为自己借此得着帮助和医治：它「必如上等的膏油」之于伤口，使之软化并收口；「我的头必不拒绝」，有人以为责备正有此效，他们宁可头被打碎，也不愿有人指出自己的过错；但大卫说：「我却不这样想；是我的罪打破了我的头，打断了我的骨头（诗51:8）。责备是上等的膏油，为要医治罪在我身上所加的伤痕。它若能帮助打破我的心，就『必不打破我的头』。」4. 我们当报答那些如此忠信、如此友好待我们之人的厚意，至少当在他们遭难之时为他们「祷告」，借此表明我们是心存感谢地领受的。哈蒙德博士对这节经文另有译法：「『责备要击打我这不义的人，并要责备我；但那毒膏必不打破我的头』（必不毁灭我，必不能成就所意图的伤害），『因为我仍要祷告抵挡他们的恶谋』，求 神保守我脱离他们，而我的祷告必不徒然。」
二、大卫盼望他的逼迫者终有一日也能容忍别人指出他们的过错，正如他愿意被人指出一样（诗141:6）：「他们的审判官」（就是扫罗和他的臣仆，他们审问定罪大卫，又惟愿自己作惟一的审判官）「被扔在石坑之时」，就是在旷野的磐石之中，「他们必听我的话，因为这话甘甜」。有人以为这话是指扫罗胸中所发的软化，那时他流着泪说：「这是你声音吗，我儿大卫？」（撒上24:16，26:21）。或者我们可以更概括地理解：纵然是审判官，无论多么伟大，也终有被倾覆之时。那些在这世上最风光的人，并不总是能在其中行平坦通达之路。那些先前轻慢 神之道的人，在受苦之时必觉得它甘甜，并因它欢喜，因为苦难开通了人的耳朵，使人肯受教。世界苦之时，便是真道甘甜之时。受压的无辜者在那些活在奢华宴乐之中的人面前得不着听讼，但当那些人自己被倾覆之时，他们对受苦之人便会有更怜悯的想法。
三、大卫抱怨他自己和他的朋友所陷的极大窘境（诗141:7）：「我们的骨头散在墓口」，从其中被抛出来，可见我们早已死了；或者正要被抛入其中，可见我们离坑如此之近；并且它们如同砍柴人中间的木屑一样被轻看，被随意抛弃堆积：「如同人砍劈地土」（有人如此读），这是借用犁田人之喻，他用犁铧将地土撕裂（诗129:3）。「这些枯骨还能复活吗？」
四、大卫将自己交托给 神，并仰赖他来得拯救：「主耶和华啊，我的眼目仰望你」（诗141:8）；「因为无论景况何等可悲，你都能补足一切冤屈之事。无论事情何等糟糕，我从你那里期待解救，我投靠你。」那眼目向 神的人，可以在他里面存指望。
五、他求 神按他所需拯救扶持他。1. 求他安慰他：「不要将我的灵魂撇下孤独无助；仍让我看见我的帮助从何而来。」2. 求他阻挡仇敌对他所设的计谋（诗141:9）：「保守我不陷入他们为我所设的网罗」；使我得以发现并避开。无论圈套设得何等诡秘， 神都能、也必保守他的百姓不至被陷于其中。3. 求 神按公义将仇敌的计谋转回到他们自己身上，并按怜悯救他脱离其害（诗141:10）：「愿恶人落在自己的网里」——那网他们是有意为我而设的，但按其功过，却是为自己预备的。「再没有比灭亡的匠人因自己的巧计而灭亡更公义的律法了。」一切被交给 神公义的，都被自己罪孽的绳索所拘禁。但求你同时使我得以开释。恶人受缠累、被网罗，有时便成了义人得逃脱、得释放的良机。
英文原文
Reproofs of the Righteous; Complaints and Petitions
⁵ 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.
⁶ When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet.
⁷ Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
⁸ But mine eyes are unto thee, O GOD the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.
⁹ Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
¹⁰ Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
Here, I. David desires to be told of his faults. His enemies reproached him with that which was false, which he could not but complain of; yet, at the same time, he desired his friends would reprove him for that which was really amiss in him, particularly if there was any thing that gave the least colour to those reproaches (Ps 141:5): let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness. The righteous God (so some); "I will welcome the rebukes of his providence, and be so far from quarrelling with them that I will receive them as tokens of love and improve them as means of grace, and will pray for those that are the instruments of my trouble." But it is commonly taken for the reproofs given by righteous men; and it best becomes those that are themselves righteous to reprove the unrighteousness of others, and from them reproof will be best taken. But if the reproof be just, though the reprover be not so, we must make a good use of it and learn obedience by it. We are here taught how to receive the reproofs of the righteous and wise. 1. We must desire to be reproved for whatever is amiss in us, or is done amiss by us: "Lord, put it into the heart of the righteous to smite me and reprove me. If my own heart does not smite me, as it ought, let my friend do it; let me never fall under that dreadful judgment of being let alone in sin." 2. We must account it a piece of friendship. We must not only bear it patiently, but take it as a kindness; for reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Pr 6:23), are means of good to us, to bring us to repentance for the sins we have committed, and to prevent relapses into sin. Though reproofs cut, it is in order to a cure, and therefore they are much more desirable than the kisses of an enemy (Pr 27:6) or the song of fools, Ec 7:5. David blessed God for Abigail's seasonable admonition, 1Sa 25:32. 3. We must reckon ourselves helped and healed by it: It shall be as an excellent oil to a wound, to mollify it and close it up; it shall not break my head, as some reckon it to do, who could as well bear to have their heads broken as to be told of their faults; but, says David, "I am not of that mind; it is my sin that has broken my head, that has broken my bones, Ps 51:8. The reproof is an excellent oil, to cure the bruises sin has given me. It shall not break my head, if it may but help to break my heart." 4. We must requite the kindness of those that deal thus faithfully, thus friendly with us, at least by our prayers for them in their calamities, and hereby we must show that we take it kindly. Dr. Hammond gives quite another reading of this verse: "Reproach will bruise me that am righteous, and rebuke me; but that poisonous oil shall not break my head (shall not destroy me, shall not do me the mischief intended), for yet my prayer shall be in their mischiefs, that God would preserve me from them, and my prayer shall not be in vain."
II. David hopes his persecutors will, some time or other, bear to be told of their faults, as he was willing to be told of his (Ps 141:6): "When their judges" (Saul and his officers who judged and condemned David, and would themselves be sole judges) "are overthrown in stony places, among the rocks in the wilderness, then they shall hear my words, for they are sweet." Some think this refers to the relentings that were in Saul's breast when he said, with tears, Is this thy voice, my son David? 1Sa 24:16,26:21. Or we may take it more generally: even judges, great as they are, may come to be overthrown. Those that make the greatest figure in this world do not always meet with level smooth ways through it. And those that slighted the word of God before will relish it, and be glad of it, when they are in affliction, for that opens the ear to instruction. When the world is bitter the word is sweet. Oppressed innocency cannot gain a hearing with those that live in pomp and pleasure, but when they come to be overthrown themselves they will have more compassionate thoughts of the afflicted.
III. David complains of the great extremity to which he and his friends were reduced (Ps 141:7): Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, out of which they are thrown up, so long have we been dead, or into which they are ready to be thrown, so near are we to the pit; and they are as little regarded as chips among the hewers of wood, which are thrown in neglected heaps: As one that cuts and cleaves the earth (so some read it), alluding to the ploughman who tears the earth in pieces with his plough-share, Ps 129:3. Can these dry bones live?
IV. David casts himself upon God, and depends upon him for deliverance: "But my eyes are unto thee (Ps 141:8); for, when the case is ever so deplorable, thou canst redress all the grievances. From thee I expect relief, bad as things are, and in thee is my trust." Those that have their eye towards God may have their hopes in him.
V. He prays that God would succour and relieve him as his necessity required. 1. That he would comfort him: "Leave not my soul desolate and destitute; still let me see where my help is." 2. That he would prevent the designs of his enemies against him (Ps 141:9): "Keep me from being taken in the snare they have laid for me; give me to discover it and to evade it." Be the gin placed with ever so much subtlety, God can and will secure his people from being taken in it. 3. That God would, in justice, turn the designs of his enemies upon themselves, and, in mercy, deliver him from being ruined by them (Ps 141:10): let the wicked fall into their own net, the net which, intentionally, they procured for me, but which, meritoriously, they prepared for themselves. Nec lex est justioir ulla quam necis artifices arte perire sua—No law can be more just than that the architects of destruction should perish by their own contrivances. All that are bound over to God's justice are held in the cords of their own iniquity. But let me at the same time obtain a discharge. The entangling and ensnaring of the wicked sometimes prove the escape and enlargement of the righteous.
大卫写本篇时正在苦难之中,极可能是被扫罗——那强暴之人——所追逼。有人受苦吗?让他祷告;大卫如此行了,并得了其中的安慰。本篇结构如下:一、他求神恩惠的悦纳(诗141:1,2);二、他求神大能的扶助(诗141:3,4);三、他愿别人成为他灵魂的益助,正如他盼望作他人灵魂的益助(诗141:5,6);四、他求神,因他与他朋友现已到了绝境,愿神恩慈地为他们解救施援(诗141:7-10)。神的怜悯与恩典对我们与对他一样必要,因此我们唱这首诗时当谦卑恳切地祈求。