Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Let my prayer be set forth ('be directed,' the Septuagint, Chaldaic, Vulgate, Ethiopic. In Psalms 140:11 the same Hebrew means 'be established')
Before thee as incense. Incense, with its sweet perfume, is the symbol of prayer accepted before God (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-4: cf. Malachi 1:11). The time of offering the incense, morning and evening (Exodus 30:7-8), was the chosen time for prayer (Luke 1:10).
And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice - or rather, 'meat offering:' Hebrew, minchaah. The burnt offering was regarded as having the prominent place in the morning sacrifice, the meat offering being only an appendage, so that the whole was named from the burnt offering; while in the evening sacrifice the meat offering was regarded as having the chief place (cf. 2 Kings 16:15: cf. Exodus 29:39-41). As incense represents prayer, so the meat offering symbolizes good works, according to Hengstenberg. Rather, from the parallelism here, the evening offering symbolizes the lifting, of the heart with the hands (Lamentations 3:41; Psalms 63:4; Psalms 86:4; 1 Timothy 2:8) to God, the necessary condition of God's acceptance of prayer: the incense expresses the sweetness of such heartfelt prayer to Him (Genesis 8:21). Possibly this psalm was written in the evening, as the morning sacrifice is not mentioned (Kimchi). (Daniel 9:21; Acts 3:1.) The time of the evening sacrifice was most especially "the hour of prayer," doubtless with a prospective reference designed by the Spirit to time of Christ's sacrifice-namely, at the ninth hour. 1 Kings 18:36, "at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice Christ's sacrifice-namely, at the ninth hour. 1 Kings 18:36, "at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice (minchaah):" so Ezra 9:4-5.