David prayeth that his suit may be acceptable, his conscience sincere, and his life safe from snares.
A Psalm of David.
Title. לדוד מזמור mizmor ledavid.— It is probable that David composed this psalm just before his flight to Achish, king of Gath, when he had a second time spared Saul's life (1 Samuel 26.), but could trust him no longer: upon which he takes the resolution mentioned 1 Samuel 26:1-2. As his determination was to fly speedily, there is no question but he did so, either the same night after his parting with Saul, or by the first morning's light: and it was in the evening of that day, when he was now upon the wing, as it were; his late dutiful behaviour towards Saul, and the other's implacable cruelty towards him and his followers, still fresh in his thoughts; and moreover reflecting upon the dangers and temptations to which his religion would expose him in a heathen country, that he pours out to God the following prayer, or soliloquy; for, that it was composed in the evening, appears from his desiring, Psalms 141:2 that it might be accepted as an evening oblation. Peters on Job, p. 336 from whom the following notes are principally taken.
Psalms 141:1. Lord, I cry unto thee, &c.— This verse is an invocation of the true God, by his incommunicable name Jehovah; as the one eternal, self-existent, and unchangeable being; creator and governor of all things: and the earnest and repeated call here used by the Psalmist, make haste unto me, sufficiently declares him to have been in a situation of the utmost distress.