- Read Psalm 141 from the ESV.
- Read my Psalm 141 poem from A New Song.
Psalm 140 is a cry from David to the Lord, asking for respite from evildoers seeking to harm him. Psalm 141 is also a cry from David to the Lord, and he again asks to be protected from wicked men. But David also has another request which is, I believe, the heart of this psalm.
I’ve heard many versions of the “bad apple” speech. It goes something like this: “If you put one bad apple in with good apples, it will make them all bad. And if you put one good apple in with bad apples, the good apple will become bad too. The moral of the story is that we should always stay away from bad apples.” Of course, they weren’t talking about apples, they were talking about bad people. And for the moment, let’s set aside the fact that Christ spent time with sinners because they actually needed his help. The point of the “bad apple” speech was that if we spend a lot of time around bad people, more often than not we will become like them, bad apples. This is what I believe is at the heart of Psalm 141.
David’s request in verses 3 and 4 is that God would keep his lips, his heart, his ways, and his appetite from evil. David asks to be kept from becoming a bad apple, and the order of David’s request should not be overlooked.
The first barrier to fall when surrounded by wicked people is most frequently our language. It often begins when we find ourselves in an awkward situation when someone tells a dirty joke or we hear something foul, yet funny, on t.v. and we don’t know what to do. Do we sound like a prude and rebuke them? Do we sit silently, disapproving? Do we laugh? Do we add to the conversation? Do we tell it to another friend, but preface it with the caveat “I heard something funny the other day, and I know it’s not very clean, but it sure was funny?” If you are anything like me, you’ve probably responded in all of those ways at one time or the other.
I don’t mean to sound like a pious prude, but I think David knew that the first step on the way to being overtaken by evil is through the tongue. It’s easy to say things we don’t really mean or believe, just to feel like we fit in. But that step is never an only step. Eventually, we begin to think that sort of thing is funny. We begin to think the words and scenarios through in our mind; we meditate on them in our hearts; we repeat it or something like it to others; that leads us to David’s next request.
Familiarity might breed contempt, but it often breeds love. The more familiar something becomes, the more we become like old friends. We miss it, we think about it, and we long for the next time we will see it. What was once an awkward moment at the water fountain, is now a time to which we look forward. We might even have thought of our own anecdotes to add to the crass banter.
But crass conversation is only one example of David’s prayer. This desensitization also happens through sight as well. At first, we are revulsed, then we think it’s not actually that bad, then we accept it, then it becomes desirable. Eventually, we find ourselves not only speaking it, loving it, and doing it, we find ourselves satisfied with it. Our appetite has changed and we no longer like the good apples, we like rotten, soft, brown, wormy apples. And we don’t even know it because the changes have happened so subtly over the months and years.
David’s final prayer in verse 4 is that he would not be allowed to eat of their delicacies, meaning he doesn’t want to find satisfaction in the things the wicked have to offer. And this is not the only time David addresses satisfaction with evil. In Psalm 103:1-5 David counts the fact that God forgives our sins, heals us, lifts us out of the pit, and covers us with his steadfast love and mercy as benefits of following God, but he also counts the fact that God satisfies us with good as the supreme benefit. David knew there are two paths in life: one path leading to eternal satisfaction with God’s goodness, and one path which leads to eternal dissatisfaction in the ways of the wicked.
But Psalm 141 doesn’t stop there. While David knows God will help us keep our lips from speaking evil, our hearts from meditating on evil, our feet from walking towards evil, and our appetites from savoring evil, he also knows that we need the help of righteous people surrounding us. David requests for righteous friends would strike him and rebuke him if he began to walk down the evil path. He knew he was not meant to live in isolation. We, like him, need others to help show us when we have begun to stray from God’s goodness. We need others to have the strength to speak up when even the slightest hint of evil appears in our speech. We need others to be bold and loving. And we need to find such friends and crave their rebuke.
We can pray about the bad apples surrounding us all we want, and many of us do. In fact, David prays for God’s judgment upon the bad apples quite a bit in the Psalms. But unless we pray about the rot and worms growing within us and unless we crave the loving rebuke of a righteous friend, our prayers about the bad apples are fights in a losing battle. Building moats, walls, and gates to keep the bad apples out do nothing if we open the back door and side window to let the bad apples in.
