¹O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to You! ²May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.

David begins his lament to the Lord by asking to be heard. He does not presume upon the Lord or demand (like Job did, for example) but requests that his sovereign Lord be gracious to engage with him. Though his approach is deferential, he knows that God has an open-door policy for those who come to Him humbly. The writer to the Hebrews corroborates this:

“Let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16)

David asks the Lord to receive his earnest prayer like the incense that filled the Holy Place of God’s presence during the evening temple sacrifice (vs. 2). Anyone entering a room where this fragrant substance was burning immediately became aware of its pervasiveness and effect. David invites God to accept his earnest prayers and the sincere expression of his need as he reaches upward to the Lord. The connection between prayer and incense is also made elsewhere where we read of the “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8, also Rev. 8:3). Godly people carry with them an aroma of prayer (see Eph. 6:18, Col. 4:2, 1 Thess. 5:17). Someone has said, “Our prayers ascend to God as the smoke of the incense ascended in the sanctuary.”

As David makes his requests to the Lord, he understands that his personal needs must be dealt with first, the first of which is controlling his speech (vs. 3). He is strongly tempted to respond in ungodly ways. He does not want to respond in kind to those doing evil to him. In that case, he would be no better than they. It is not just the words that come out of his mouth that concern him; he knows that inner thoughts and desires drive outward action. He writes, “Do not incline my heart to any evil thing” (vs. 4). Is this not a universal prayer? Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13)?

David is not intimating that he thinks God might incline him to sin. The Lord will never lead a believer into temptation or cause him to sin (see James 1:13-14). David is using a Hebraism (a Jewish way of thought and expression) to state that he needs divine intervention to help him avoid falling into evil behavior. Who of us cannot relate to the overwhelming urge to lash out in ways that would satisfy our fleshly urges but dishonor God?

In addition to David’s concern about his response to evil doers, he invites rebuke from those who are godly (vs. 5a). God often answers our prayer for spiritual and character growth through the kind but assertive words of faithful friends (Prov. 27:6). David recognizes his need for God’s help to embrace righteous reproof. Indeed, to accept such reproof is to recognize that God is providing the answer to his needs through others.

David now turns his prayer against his enemies (vss. 5b-7). The reference to “their judges” seems to suggest that he has his enemies’ ringleaders in mind, and David desires that the rest of the horde will follow the leaders in their downward fall. The phrase, “for they are pleasant,” is difficult to understand but may suggest that in their fall, his enemies will recognize David’s rightness and come to their senses. One commentator puts it this way, “the wicked will learn that my words were well spoken” (see EBC). David adds what appears to be a well-known proverb concerning what their ultimate end will be (and what he prays for, provided they don’t repent): in their death may their bones be half buried in the dirt, like a field broken up by a farmer plowing the soil.

Such harshness is not unknown in the Psalms, though it is not the dominant theme of David’s emotional outpourings before the Lord. His primary concern is for God’s protection (vs. 8). Even though he is a mighty warrior, David cannot stop the onslaught against him. He seeks refuge in the all-powerful, sovereign God of the universe, the one called Yahweh (“the Lord” of Israel). He asks for God to show himself powerful by protecting him from ambushes and capture (vs. 9). Finally, David asks for protection as he goes on his way and that the devices his enemies use against him would fall back on them.

Today, believers experience physical threats and war in some parts of the world. Domestic violence happens in every country; human trafficking is rampant, and oppressive violence is an ongoing threat. But even when we don’t experience physical violence, we can still relate to and follow David’s example in our prayers. Our concern should not only be for safety and relief from opposition, but also that we respond to our circumstances in a God-honoring way, not retaliating or returning evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9). We would do well to meditate on the example of our Lord Jesus, of whom the apostle Peter wrote:

[W]hile being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. (1 Peter 2:23)

Lord, may my prayer for help not be like a mere whiff of a faint smell but the full fragrance of incense that fills Your throne room of grace.