Psalm 141

David wrote this song.

A prayer for help

1 Lord, I am calling to you for help.

Come to me quickly!

Please listen to what I am saying.

2 I offer my prayer to you like incense.

Please accept it when I raise my hands to you.

Accept it like a gift that I offer to you in the evening.

3 Lord, keep my mouth safe,

so that I do not speak bad things.

4 Do not let my mind want evil things.

Do not let me join with wicked people,

to do the same bad things that they do.

I do not even want to eat their good food.

5 If a good man hits me because he loves me,

he is being kind to me.

If he shows me that I have done a wrong thing,

that is like olive oil on my head.

I would not refuse it.

I continue to pray against what wicked people do.

6 Wicked people will throw their rulers down

from high rocks.

Then people will agree that my words were true.

7 It will be like a farmer who ploughs his field,

and breaks the earth into pieces.

Just like that, they will break the bones of wicked people.

They will throw their bones on the ground

at the entrance to Sheol.

8 But I look to you for help, Almighty Lord.

I need you to keep me safe.

Do not let wicked people kill me.

9 They have prepared traps to catch me.

Do not let me fall into the traps of those evil people.

10 May those bad people fall into their own traps!

Then I will be free from their power.