Psalm 141:4

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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) To practise wicked works . . .—The Vulg., ad excusandas excusationes, following the LXX., not only preserves the expressive assonance of the original, but probably conveys its meaning better than the somewhat tame English version. Evidently the danger to be guarded against was not so much a sinful act as a sinful utterance, and the expression “to make pretexts or excuses” may possibly refer to the casuistries by which some of the laxer Jews excused their participation in heathen rites or licentious banquets. Symmachus has, “to devise wicked devices.”

Dainties.—The word is peculiar to this passage, but derived from a root meaning “pleasant.” The LXX. and Vulg. refer it to persons instead of things. But the use of the same root in Psalm 141:6, “for they are sweet,” where the reference is to “words,” suggests a meaning here different both from the English and the ancient versions. “I will not taste of their sweets” may mean “I will not listen to their allurements: what finds favour with them shall not tempt me.” On the other hand, if we retain the English allusion to the dainties of a feast (so Symmachus), the word in Psalm 141:6 will be used metaphorically in contrast. The words of condemnation he utters, though bitter to these feasters, are in reality sweet with the sweetness of truth.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

141:1-4 Make haste unto me. Those that know how to value God's gracious presence, will be the more fervent in their prayers. When presented through the sacrifice and intercession of the Saviour, they will be as acceptable to God as the daily sacrifices and burnings of incense were of old. Prayer is a spiritual sacrifice, it is the offering up the soul and its best affections. Good men know the evil of tongue sins. When enemies are provoking, we are in danger of speaking unadvisedly. While we live in an evil world, and have such evil hearts, we have need to pray that we may neither be drawn nor driven to do any thing sinful. Sinners pretend to find dainties in sin; but those that consider how soon sin will turn into bitterness, will dread such dainties, and pray to God to take them out of their sight, and by his grace to turn their hearts against them. Good men pray against the sweets of sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Incline not my heart to any evil thing - Hebrew, to a word that is evil; that is, wrong. The connection seems to demand that the term should be thus explained. The expression "Incline not" is not designed to mean that God exerts any "positive" influence in leading the heart to that which is wrong; but it may mean "Do not place me in circumstances where I may be tempted; do not leave me to myself; do not allow any improper influence to come over me by which I shall be led astray." The expression is similar to that in the Lord's Prayer: "Lead us not into temptation." The psalmist's allusion here has been explained in the introduction to the psalm.

To practice wicked works with people that work iniquity - To be united or associated with people who do wrong; to do the things which wicked and unprincipled people do. Let me not be permitted to do anything that will be regarded as identifying me with them. Let me not, in the circumstances in which I am placed, be left to act so that the fair interpretation of my conduct shall be that I am one of their number, or act on the same principles on which they act. Literally, "To practice practices in wickedness with people."

And let me not eat of their dainties - Let me not be tempted by any prospect of participating in their mode of living - in the luxuries and comforts which they enjoy - to do a wicked or wrong thing. Let not a prospect or desire of this overcome my better judgment, or the dictates of my conscience, or my settled principles of what is right. People often do this. Good people are often tempted to do it. The prospect or the hope of being enabled to enjoy what the rich enjoy, to live in luxury and ease, to be "clothed in short linen and fare sumptuously every day," to move in circles of splendor and fashion, often leads them to a course of action which their consciences condemn; to practices inconsistent with a life of godliness; to sinful indulgences which utterly ruin their character. Satan has few temptations for man more attractive and powerful than the "dainties" which wealth can give; and there are few of his devices more effectual in ruining people than those which are derived from these allurements. The word here rendered dainties properly refers to things which are pleasant, lovely, attractive; which give delight or pleasure. It may embrace "all" that the world has to offer as suited to give pleasure or enjoyment. It refers here to what those in more elevated life have to offer; what they themselves live for.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 141

Ps 141:1-10. This Psalm evinces its authorship as the preceding, by its structure and the character of its contents. It is a prayer for deliverance from sins to which affliction tempted him, and from the enemies who caused it.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Incline not; suffer it not to be inclined or led aside, either by my own errors or lusts, or by the temptations of the world or of the devil. Thus God is frequently said to harden men’s hearts, not positively, for he can do no evil, nor tempt any man to it, Jam 1:3; but privatively, by denying softening grace.

My heart; keep me not only from wicked speeches, Psalm 141:3, but from all evil motions of my heart, which otherwise will draw me to many evil speeches and actions.

To practice wicked works with men that work iniquity; either,

1. To join with them in their sinful courses; or,

2. To do wickedly, as they do.

Let me not eat of their dainties; let me never enjoy or desire worldly comforts upon such terms as they do, to wit, with God’s wrath and curse, as instruments of wickedness, and of my own eternal destruction. My afflictions are more desirable than such prosperity. Let none of their sweet morsels, the pleasures or advantages which they gain by their wickedness, tempt me to approve of or imitate their ways.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Incline not my heart to any evil thing,.... Or "evil word" (z), as the Targum; since out of the abundance of that the mouth speaketh, Matthew 12:34; or to any sinful thing, to the commission of any evil action: not that God ever inclines men's hearts to sin by any physical influence, it being what is repugnant to his nature and will, and what he hates and abhors; for though he hardens the hearts of wicked men, and gives them up to the lusts of them; yet he does not move, incline, or tempt any man to sin, James 1:13; but he may be said to do this when he suffers them to follow their own sinful inclinations, and leaves them to be inclined by the power and prevalency of their own corruptions, and by the temptations of Satan, which is here deprecated; see Psalm 119:36. So as

to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity; to join with those that make a trade of sinning; the course of whose life is evil, in their unfruitful works of darkness; and do as they do, even commit crimes the most flagitious and enormous: he seems to have respect to great persons, whose examples are very forcible and ensnaring; and therefore it requires an exertion of the powerful and efficacious grace of God, to preserve such from the influence of them, whose business is much with them;

and let me not eat of their dainties; since their table was a snare to themselves, it might be so to him; and be a means of betraying him unawares into the commission of some sins, which would be dishonourable and grieving to him: the psalmist desires not to partake with them at their table; but chose rather a meatier table and coarser fare, where he might be more free from temptation; see Proverbs 23:1. Or this may be understood of the dainties and sweet morsels of sin; which are like stolen waters, and bread eaten in secret, to a carnal heart: though the pleasures of it are but imaginary, and last but for a season, and therefore are avoided by a gracious man; by whom even afflictions with the people of God are preferred unto them, Hebrews 11:25. The Targum interprets it of the song of the house of their feasts; which is ensnaring.

(z) "ad verbum malum", Montanus.

Geneva Study Bible

Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their {d} dainties.

(d) Let not their prosperity lure me to be wicked as they are.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. Incline not my heart &c.] Leave me not by the withdrawal of Thy grace, to turn aside from the path of right. Cp. Psalm 119:10; Psalm 119:133.

to practise &c.] To occupy myself in wicked practices with men who are workers of iniquity. The word for men implies that they are men of rank and position who set this bad example. Cp. Psalm 4:2, note.

let me not eat of their dainties] Let me not share their life of sensual luxury, the means for which are procured by violence and injustice. Cp. Proverbs 4:17, “For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence”: Psalm 24:1-2. There does not seem to be any allusion to participation in idolatrous sacrifices.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Incline not my heart to any evil thing; i.e. let not my heart be inclined to any form of evil. To practice wicked works (rather, wicked practices) with men that work iniquity; and let me not eat of their dainties. Let me not be drawn in to their life of sinful luxury. Psalm 141:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prayer now begins to be particularized, and that in the first instance as a petition fore the grace of silence, calling to mind old Davidic passages like Psalm 39:2; Psalm 34:14. The situation of David, the betrayed one, requires caution in speaking; and the consciousness of having sinned, not indeed against the rebels, but against God, who would not visit him thus without his deserving it, stood in the way of any outspoken self-vindication. In pone custodiam ori meo שׁמרה is ἅπ. λεγ., after the infinitive form דּבקה, עזבה, עצמה. In Psalm 141:3 דּל is ἅπ. λεγ. for דּלת; cf. "doors of the mouth" in Micah 7:5, and πύλαι στόματος in Euripides. נצּרה might be imper. Kal: keep I pray, with Dag. dirimens as in Proverbs 4:13. But נצר על is not in use; and also as the parallel word to שׁמרה, which likewise has the appearance of being imperative, נצּרה is explicable as regards its pointing by a comparison of יקּהה in Genesis 49:10, דּבּרה in Deuteronomy 33:3, and קרבה in Psalm 73:28. The prayer for the grace of silence is followed in Psalm 141:4 by a prayer for the breaking off of all fellowship with the existing rulers. By a flight of irony they are called אישׁים, lords, in the sense of בּני אישׁ, Psalm 4:3 (cf. the Spanish hidalgos equals hijos d'algo, sons of somebody). The evil thing (רע דּבר, with Pasek between the two ר, as in Numbers 7:13; Deuteronomy 7:1 between the two מ, and in 1 Chronicles 22:3 between the two )ל, to which Jahve may be pleased never to incline his heart (תּט, fut. apoc. Hiph. as in Psalm 27:9), is forthwith more particularly designated: perpetrare facinora maligne cum dominis, etc. עללות of great achievements in the sense of infamous deeds, also occurs in Psalm 14:1; Psalm 99:8. Here, however, we have the Hithpo. התעלל, which, with the accusative of the object עללות, signifies: wilfully to make such actions the object of one's acting (cf. Arab. ta‛allala b-'l-š', to meddle with any matter, to amuse, entertain one's self with a thing). The expression is made to express disgust as strongly as possible; this poet is fond of glaring colouring in his language. In the dependent passage neve eorum vescar cupediis, לחם is used poetically for אכל, and בּ is the partitive Beth, as in Job 21:25. מנעמּים is another hapaxlegomenon, but as being a designation of dainties (from נעם, to be mild, tender, pleasant), it may not have been an unusual word. It is a well-known thing that usurpers revel in the cuisine and cellars of those whom they have driven away.