Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 141:9
Keep me from the snares [which] they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
9. Cp. Psa 140:4-5.
grins ] Rather, baits or lures, the sensual temptations by which they are endeavouring to entice him ( Psa 141:4). For grins see on Psa 140:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Keep me from the snares … – See the notes at Psa 11:6. Compare Psa 38:12; Psa 69:22; Psa 91:3. The secret plans which they have laid against me.
And the gins of the workers of iniquity – Wicked men; men who seek my destruction. On the word gins, see the notes at Isa 8:14. The gin is a trap or snare to catch birds or wild animals. The word used here is the same which occurs in Psa 18:5, and which is there rendered snare. See the notes at that passage. Compare also Psa 64:5; Psa 69:22; Psa 106:36; Psa 140:5, where the same word occurs.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Keep me from the snare [which] they have laid for me,…. Either Saul, who gave him a wife to be a snare to him, and set men to watch his house and take him; or the Ziphites, who proposed to Saul to deliver him into his hands; see 1Sa 18:21.
and the gins of the workers of iniquity; the transgressions of wicked men are snares to others, by way of example; and so are the doctrines of false teachers, and the temptations of Satan, from all which good men desire to be kept, Pr 29:6; and it is the Lord alone that keeps and preserves from them, or breaks the snare and delivers them, Ps 124:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
9. Keep me, etc. He owns himself to be shut up in the snares of his enemies, unless set free by a higher hand. In praying to God under the straits to which he was reduced, he proves what a high estimate he formed of what his mercy could effect, as elsewhere he says, that the issues from death belong to him. (Psa 68:20.) God often delays interposing, that the deliverance may be the more signal; and afterwards he makes the devices of the wicked to recoil upon their own heads. It seems absurd to refer the pronoun his to Saul, as if the sense were that Doeg and others of that character would fall into the snares of Saul. It would seem to be God who is intended. First, he had spoken of being preserved by God from the toils of the wicked, and now to these snares which the wicked spread for the upright he opposes the snares with which God catches the crafty in their own devices. And as the number of his enemies was great, he uses the expression, let them fall together, for escape would have been impossible, had he not been persuaded that it was easy for God to overthrow any combined force and array of men. What follows admits of two meanings. Many read, I shall always pass. But we may suppose order of the words changed and read, until I pass. It prays that his enemies should be held in the snare till he got off safe,
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) From the snare.The original idiom is far more forcible: from the hands (or, clutches) of the snare. (See above, Psa. 141:6, in the hands of the cliff.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 141:9-10. Keep me from the snare, &c. If Saul and his evil counsellors be meant in the first clause of the 9th verse, there is no doubt but the heathen to whom David was now driven for refuge, must be understood in the latter. They are here characterised, as in Psa 141:4 by the appellation, workers of iniquity, or idolatry; and the idols of the heathen were always snares to the Israelites, as their history informs us, and as they are forewarned by God himself, Jdg 2:3. Their gods will be a snare unto you; the same word with that translated gins, in this verse. The last verse may be considered either as a petition, or rather as an expression of his hope and assurance: The wicked shall fall into their own nets together, and shall still escape; and this sense is to be preferred, because we find from the sequel of the history, that his prayer was answered to the full.
The prayers of a good man give us the most just and lively impression of his character. If ever he discloses his most secret thoughts, or the real frame and temper of his heart, it is in his devout retirements, where he opens and unbosoms himself before his Maker. And what an assemblage of the most substantial virtues discover themselves to us in this short prayer or soliloquy of David’s! His faith and trust in God; his duty to his prince; his abhorrence of idolatry; his strict adherence to what was right and just, against all the persuasions of his friends, and all the provocations of his enemies; a magnanimity, that shewed itself in the moment of danger and distress; attended with a hope, the offspring of religion, and not the less heroic for being inspired. Horace has given us a very celebrated description of “A resolutely good man, whom neither the clamours of the people demanding what was wrong; nor the frowns of a tyrant threatening death, could shake from his solid purpose.”
Justum, et tenacem propositi, virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni Mente quatit solida, neque Auster Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae, Nec fulminantis magna rnanus Jovis: Si fractus illabatur orbis, Impavidum ferient ruinae. Lib. 3: od. 3.
The man, in conscious virtue bold, Who dares his secret purpose hold,
Unshaken hears the crowd’s tumultuous cries, And the impetuous tyrant’s angry brow defies. Let the loud winds, that rule the seas, Their wild tempestuous horrors raise;
Let Jove’s dread arm with thunders rend the spheres, Beneath the crush of worlds undaunted he appears. FRANCIS.
The image, to be sure, is beautiful; but nevertheless it is an image without life, compared with that which rises to our view in this psalm; for in the description given us by the Latin poet, though we take the whole of it together, we see nothing of that vital principle which should animate a conduct so heroic, and which shines out so distinguishably in that of the Psalmist: I mean that sublime regard to him, whose will alone it is that gives the sanction to what is right and just; and under whose supreme direction all rational creatures ought to square their resolutions and behaviour. Peters.
REFLECTIONS.1st, David was a man of sorrows, and a man of prayer. We have him here very importunate with God,
1. For speedy help. Make haste unto me, as one ready to be overwhelmed, unless God appeared for his salvation. Note; They who have a lively sense of their wants and danger, will be importunate in their supplications.
2. For gracious acceptance. Give ear unto my voice, as willing to grant my petitions; let my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice, which being offered on God’s altar were accepted before him. The incense of prayer must thus be offered on Christ our altar; and when, with our hands lifted up, our heart ascends in a flame of holy love, then is it a sacrifice of a sweet smell, acceptable and well-pleasing to God.
3. For direction what and how to speak. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth in prayer, that I may not rashly, unadvisedly, or negligently, utter what my heart doth not feel: in trials, that I may not drop a word of murmuring, complaint, or impatience; among men, that I may neither speak falsely, foolishly, nor passionately. Keep the door of my lips, which need continually a divine restraint, and without it can never be effectually bridled.
4. For preservation from all evil. Incline not my heart to any evil thing: not that God ever tempts men to sin, or inclines them to evil; but only leaves obdurate sinners to their own corrupted hearts, naturally inclined to evil; therefore we have need of his preventing and restraining grace to keep us, that we practise not wicked works with men that work iniquity, who make it their business and delight to sin, and draw in others; and unless the Lord preserve us, we are in danger of falling into their snares.
5. For a restraint from their luxuries. Let me not eat of their dainties; feasting as an epicure at their tables, or partaking with them in their sins; which, however to the corrupt appetite pleasing and sweet in the mouth, in the belly are bitter as gall, and poisonous as the viper’s sting. Keep me, Lord, from these deadly dainties!
2nd, Though David heartily prays against the malignity of his enemies, yet,
1. He earnestly desires the rebukes of the faithful. Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; I shall esteem it the best proof of real friendship: and let him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head, but through grace and the atoning blood serve to heal the wounds of sin; and, far from resenting the correction, it would engage his affections and prayers in their behalf: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities: that God, in return for their kindness to him, may deliver them from their troubles. Note; (1.) Reproof is the most needful and kindest office of real friendship. (2.) To love reproof, and to be thankful for it, is among the surest symptoms of a gracious spirit. (3.) That reproof will be most effectual, which comes from those whose unsuspected piety gives weight to their words, and whose tender manner of applying it, soft as oil, makes it more penetrating. (4.) They who pray to be right, and yet are displeased to be rebuked for what is wrong, prove their hypocrisy.
2. He hopes, when his wicked enemies are destroyed, the people will receive him, and hear him with pleasure. When their judges are overthrown in stony places; as when Saul fell on the mountains of Gilboa, which he might foresee; or when all his other foes were destroyed, who would be punished, as men cast down by the sides of a rock, as was sometimes done with criminals; then they shall hear my words, for they are sweet; either the words of his pathetic song, 2Sa 1:17-27 or those divine compositions which would be published on his return from his exile, and which contained in them such a sweet savour of Christ.
3. He complains of his present wretched state. Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth: either literally so, such of David’s friends as fell into Saul’s hand might be slain and left unburied, or their bones dug up as the bones of traitors; or, figuratively they seemed as at the brink of the grave, and their condition hopeless as that of dry bones. As when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth, like chips that fly off from the blow of the axe, so were they driven to and fro, and persecuted by their enemies, and many of them put to death.
4. He in prayer commits his soul to God. But mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord, the mighty saviour and hope of my soul; in thee is my trust, in thee alone; leave not my soul destitute; forsaken of thee I must needs perish: but keep me from the snare which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity; though never so craftily concealed, preserve me from the danger. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, the righteous retaliation for their iniquity; whilst that I withal escape, unhurt by their mischievous designs. Note; (1.) Whilst our eye is to God, our feet shall not slip. (2.) The destruction of the wicked is determined, and their devices to hurt others shall only hasten their own destruction.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 141:9 Keep me from the snares [which] they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
Ver. 9. Keep me from the snare, &c. ] See Psa 145:5 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Keep. Same root as “watch”in Psa 141:3. (Hebrew. shamreni.)
snares. Authorized Version, 1611, read “snares” (singular) Since 1769, “snares” (plural) Hebrew text is singular.
gins = traps. Short for “engine” = an ingenious contrivance. “
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
from the snares: Psa 119:110, Psa 140:5, Psa 142:3, Pro 13:14, Jer 18:22, Luk 20:20
Reciprocal: Psa 35:8 – net Psa 38:12 – lay snares Psa 91:3 – snare
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 141:9-10. Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me Keep me from being taken in it: give me to discover and evade it. If Saul and his evil counsellors be intended in this clause, probably the heathen, to whom David was now driven for refuge, were meant in the next. They were workers of iniquity in the worst sense, being worshippers of idols, and their idols were always snares to the Israelites, as their history informs us, and as they were forewarned by God himself, Jdg 2:3. Their gods will be a snare unto you, Hebrew, , the same word with that translated, in the plural number, gins, in this verse. Let the wicked fall Hebrew, , they shall fall; into their own nets Into the snares, dangers, and mischiefs which they design for me. While that I withal escape Namely, together with my followers, or, in like manner, as I have formerly done. But many translators, both ancient and modern, join the word , here rendered withal, or together, to the preceding clause to which it is placed next in the Hebrew, and then the meaning is, the wicked shall fall into their own nets together, or alike, one as well as another, Saul himself not excepted, (whom, though I dare not destroy him, God will judge,) while that I escape, am preserved from that common calamity in which mine enemies perish. Which was verified by the event. For David escaped all the snares which were laid for him on every side; and was strangely kept out of harms way, when Saul and other of Davids enemies were cut off by the Philistines, 1 Samuel 31. So will the devices of the enemies of Gods people be in the end turned against themselves. They shall fall and perish, but the saved of the Lord shall triumph with their Redeemer to eternity. Reader, see that thou be one of these!