Psalm 141

A psalm of David.

¹O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry!

Listen when I cry to you for help!

²Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,

and my upraised hands as an evening offering.

³Take control of what I say, O Lord,

and guard my lips.

⁴Don’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.

⁵Let 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.

⁶When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff,

the wicked will listen to my words and find them true.

⁷Like rocks brought up by a plow,

the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial.^a

⁸I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord.

You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me.

⁹Keep me from the traps they have set for me,

from the snares of those who do wrong.

¹⁰Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

but let me escape.