Psalm 141:1-5 - The Temptation to Compromise Under Pressure

This morning at 10am at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church in Troutville, VA, I will have the honor and privilege of speaking at the Home Going Celebration of Shelby Leonard. I met Shelby through her son, Alan Leonard around 28 years ago. I preached her husband’s, Fred Leonard, Home Going Service in 2013. Edith and I had many wonderful visits with her in her home over the years. She indeed was one of the sweetest and most humble ladies I have ever met. She was a saint in any way you could describe her. No matter what she was going through she always had the most beautiful smile and she always spoke kind and encouraging words to everyone. I just wanted to take a minute to honor her memory and celebrate her wonderful life with you in this chat! We are looking at Psalm 141 and thinking about how David, a man after God’s own heart, who throughout the psalms is crying out to God for help as he faces trials and tribulations time and time again in his life, from the beginning to the very end. But despite all his problems and challenges and failures, David was a man who continuously sought the LORD and desired to live for His glory. It appears that as David writes this psalm from wherever he was, he did not have access to the tabernacle at Shiloh where the priest led the worship and preformed the sacrifices, burned the incense and pray the prayers for the people. But David knew that no matter where he was or he might find himself, he could still make a holy sanctuary and a place of worship. We should follow his example and know that we can make even our times of pain, trial, disappointment, discouragement, a time we can seek the LORD for the grace we need. We can determine in our hearts that God will hear our prayer as we call out to Him in our desperation. This is basically what we read about in verses 1-2, as the first thing David does in his desperation is to seek the LORD. Now, in verses 3-4, the second thing David is determined and chooses to do is to keep himself from sin! As we already have said, this psalm is closely linked with the preceding one. Some expositors suggest that some of the courtiers in Saul's attendance were planning to get rid of Saul. There can be no doubt that Saul was anything but an ideal king. Under him the nation was going to ruin. The countryside was beset by outlaws: those in debt, those in distress, those filled with discontent. Many of these drifters later joined up with David, under whose wholesome influence they were transformed into an efficient body of fighting men. Saul himself was lashed periodically by fits of demonic, ungovernable rage. Worst of all, the nation was a constant prey to its enemies, particularly the warlike Philistines against whom King Saul had no success at all. Jonathan, twice the man his father was, vacillated between loyalty to Saul and love for David. In any case, he made no effort to conceal his conviction that he would never be king, that the throne belonged to David. Those who desired to get rid of Saul were possibly trying to use David to further their own ambitions. They would befriend him, play on his fears and ambitions, and use him to assassinate Saul. Then they would make short work of him and place their own man on the throne. The evidence for such a scenario is not historical but circumstantial but it fits with what we see in this psalm. David was under tremendous pressure and he faced a great temptation to compromise with the enemy, and he knew this was wrong. But, they were slandering him so why should he not slander them? But the problem was with his heart, not his mouth, and he prayed for a heart that would not be inclined to approve of their sins and imitate them (Prov. 4:23). David pictured his temptation as "eating their delicacies" (see Prov. 4:14-17). Times of testing become times of temptation when we stop believing and start scheming, and when we ask, "How can I get out of this?" instead of "What can I get out of this?"  God bless!